Susan Barrett oral history interview, March 20, 2015

Susan Barrett was born in Western Massachusetts and grew up in New England and the Midwest. During her adolescence, she experienced prejudice as a member of one of the only three Catholic families in her small town in Ohio. Barrett describes herself as a rebellious teenager who skipped school, drank and smoked, and made friends with people her parents disapproved of. Barrett settled down after high school, attending college in La Crosse, Wis., and then at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She became a physical therapist and worked at a VA hospital in Milwaukee, then briefly lived in California before enrolling in graduate school for physical therapy at Boston University. While in Boston, Barrett became interested in psychology, and she came out as a lesbian. Barrett eventually moved to Atlanta with her partner, where she began teaching at Emory University. She and her partner eventually, with several other women, co-founded Karuna Counseling in 1974. She remained at Karuna for six years. When Barrett was in her 40s, she and her then-partner adopted two Peruvian-born children, and they became the first family in Georgia to be granted a second-parent adoption. Barrett has continued to practice as a therapist since leaving Karuna.