Gerd Naydock (PsyD â15)
In the span of five decades, Gerd Naydock (PsyD â15) has lived about five lifetimesâand none would be considered âeasy.â As a very young boy, Dr. Naydock was taken out of his motherâs care due to her battles with mental illness, and as a result, he largely grew up in orphanages in Germany (where he was born) and in Baltimore. After the facility in Baltimore closed when he was just nine years old, Naydock entered into that cityâs foster care system, where he remained until he âaged outâ at 18. He nearly didnât finish high school, and when he did, higher education was not in the cards.
âThe part of Baltimore I lived in was very industrialâone of the largest steel mills in the world used to be there,â he explains. âSo high school was geared toward teaching vocational arts, and there wasnât much encouragement to go onto higher education.â
Dr. Naydock followed that trend and worked at a paint factory as his first job. One winter morning, he was heading to work, when he had an epiphany. âIt was such a nasty job, you could smell chemicals all the time, and I wondered, âIs this all there is?ââ he says. âI was so depressed I said to myself, âI have to get out of here!â That drove me to find a Marine recruiter and enlist.â
He enlisted at the age of 19, and worked as a Russian translator during a time when the Cold War was in full swing. âIt was the best thing I ever did in my life,â Naydock says. âI realized I had a lot more spirit in me than I thought, and that maybe I could apply myself academically.â
After his discharge, Naydock came to Philadelphia for a sales job, and began taking classes at Villanova University, where he graduated magna cum laude with a bachelorâs in history and psychology. He went on to eventually get his masterâs degree in clinical social work from Bryn Mawr College.
âI think I've been doing therapy since I was a kid,â he says. âI was a precocious kid, I think, and adultsâeven my foster parentsâwould often tell me about their problems. And I finally realized that maybe thatâs what I was ultimately supposed to be doing.â
For the past 21 years heâs done exactly that as a clinical social worker. He has worked in prisons, hospitals, private practice, hospices and managed care. Most recently, he interned at șÚÁÏŽ«ËÍĂĆâs Center for Brief Therapy, but prior to that, he worked for the Veteranâs Administration. While there, he did outpatient therapy and also served as a suicide prevention coordinator. He says his experience working with veterans, as well as his own traumas growing up as an orphan, have fueled his interest in areas such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
âWhat is it about people that helps them overcome things?â he says. âI think everyone has that resilience in them. I did. I think itâs your belief about your past that can either make you or break youâit shouldnât really define you as a person.â
To that end, Dr. Naydock says that he has been able to overcome his own struggles largely by focusing on the present momentânot the future or the pastâand he brings that into his therapy sessions with his clients.
âI think I realized that as a child, and I think thatâs what ultimately saved me,â he says. âI didn't get stuck in regrets and resentments and disappointments of the past. And I canât solve problems that havenât happened yet, or may never happen. I donât get stuck in that cycle.â