"Maureen Riley-Behringer is a Lecturer at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½. She has worked in the field of clinical social work with children, adolescents and families for more than thirty-one years and has taught across the undergraduate (2016-1019) and graduate (2004-2015; 2019-Present) social work curriculum.
In conjunction with her teaching, Maureen maintains a private practice in Beachwood, Ohio with specializations of family-building through foster care/adoptive placement following children’s early life trauma experiences (i.e., birth – age three years), coping with mental and physical illness, and learning challenges. Additionally, Maureen has been a community hospice and hospital burn intensive care unit (BICU) social worker. Across these clinical settings, Maureen has worked with diverse children, youth and adult populations; these client populations have coped with a host of compounding life challenges.
Her main areas of academic study relate to foster and adoptive family support, life after trauma, parent decision-making, and factors influencing interdisciplinary care team decision-making. She has peer-review publications in Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, the Journal of Public Child Welfare; Clinical Pediatrics; and Addictive Disorders & their Treatment as well as book chapters on clinical strategies for working with foster-adoptive children and families (e.g., Riley-Behringer, M. & Groza, V. [2018]. Interventions designed for children with histories of institutionalization and placed in foster or adoptive families. In Rus, Parris, & Stativa (Eds.), Child Abuse and Neglect in Orphanages - History, Research, and Implications; and Crampton, D. S. & Riley-Behringer, M. (2012). What works in family support services? In P. Curtis & G. Alexander (2012), What Works in Child Welfare? Maureen’s research examines the effects that prenatal risk and early life care had on behavioral problems, self-regulation, and physiological stress modulation in children of intercountry adoption.
She has served in different roles of social worker supervision: 1) a field supervisor for BSW and MSW students; 2) providing supervision for MSW-level LSW’s working towards independent licensure; and 3) a field liaison between the college/university social work program, student, and placement agency. Maureen teaches courses in social work practice and social policy.
Why I Teach
I love being a full-time professor and a clinical social worker in private practice. This affords me the opportunity to do what I love -- train the next generation of master’s-level field social workers – while my clinical skills remain timely and relevant as possible about the practice world to help prepare students with up-to-date case examples, policy issues, and timely ethics challenges. I believe that teaching is not just about passing on skills; it's about nurturing confidence, discipline, and a love for life-long learning.
Why I Chose this Profession
I chose the field of social work because it takes into account how complex both the inner and outer worlds are of human beings. We are more than the sum of our parts. This includes the lottery of and forces of who we are born to, oppression, and the strong need to be met with empathy, advocacy, respect, human rights, and social justice.
Research Information
Research Interests
- Resilience in children, youth and parents as they re-build families; empowering foster and adoptive parents to heal after trauma
- Social work education, especially training students in social work practice, policy and trauma-informed care