Merle has been a private practice clinical social worker and psychotherapist for over 35 years. While she still maintains a small psychotherapy practice, she switched her focus to coaching so that she could assist as many people as possible in parenthood decision-making.
Merle is the author of the bestselling book The Baby Decision, which was first published in 1981. The revised 2016 second edition of The Baby Decision is based on 35 more years of her work guiding decision-makers in educational workshops; long-distance consulting for people around the world; and psychotherapy.
Currently, Merle is working on a second nonfiction book titled: Baby or Childfree? Deciding in the Face of Climate Change, Fear of Missing Out, Regret, Pregnancy, Fair Role Sharing, and other Concerns.
Although she enjoyed raising her daughters, Merle has also been an advocate for childfree people since 1979. She was the Clinical Director of Resolve, the national fertility organization, for two years. Merle also founded the support group Boston Single Mothers by Choice in the early 1980s.
Merle has been featured on many national radio programs, as well as television news shows and documentaries. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe; and she has been quoted in Time, Newsweek and Huffington Post. Her writing has also appeared in Brides, Glamour, Self, the Boston Globe Magazine, Boston Magazine, and Our Bodies, Ourselves.
In the academic world, Merle has lectured at Harvard Medical School, M.I.T., Wellesley College, and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. She has also written medical journal articles and a chapter in a medical textbook.
Merle is married, the mother of two grown daughters, and the grandmother of a ten-year-old boy. She enjoys creative writing, yoga, hiking, and travel; and she splits her time between St. Petersburg, FL and New England.
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Connect with Merle or Vanessa anytime via the Contact Page, or on any of TBD’s social media pages.
