Profile
Margot Scherl
Birth:
1952
Training Location(s):
MAS, Vienna University of Economics and Business (2001)
Primary Affiliation(s):
Frauen beraten Frauen [Women Counsel Women]
Institute for Social Therapy City of Vienna
Institute for Supervision and Organizational Development
Psychology’s Feminist Voices Oral History Interview:
Career Focus:
Social therapy, feminist therapy, counseling, social management, organizational development, supervision
Biography
Margot Scherl is a social worker, psychotherapist, lecturer and supervisor based in Vienna, Austria. She focuses on women-specific social therapy, sexual violence against children and adolescents, trauma therapy, and social management.
Since the first years of her career she has been active in the field of women-specific social work and therapy and was one of the driving forces behind the foundation of the first Austrian women's counselling centre "Frauen beraten Frauen“(Women Counsel Women) in 1980, which has remained an indispensable institution for social and psychological counselling in Vienna to this day. In her later career she has focused particularly on supervision and social management and worked as a lecturer and teaching supervisor in relevant university programmes.
Born in Linz, Austria in 1952, Margot Scherl grew up in a family in which women always played dominant roles. There was never any doubt for her that women could master every task and situation in life. Observing, however, that stories of women were underrepresented in society, filled her with indignation and disbelief. At the same time, her interest and ambition to question existing hierarchical gender relations grew. She therefore regards her commitment to feminism as a necessary and political decision: "My affection and interest is for women - and being a woman in our society. In this consciousness I create places for myself and take my place in this world. This is my way to regain something as old-fashioned as dignity“ (Scherl, interview with V. Luckgei, 2019).
After completing her diploma in social work in 1973, Scherl worked in Munich for two years and then moved to Vienna to work at the Institute for Social Therapy of the City of Vienna for five years. In 1979 she began basic training in person-centered psychotherapy. During this time she was part of a group of women who developed the idea of a women's counselling service which would be a contact point for women of different ages and life crises and which would help women think about their individual and social living conditions in their entirety. This idea grew not least against the backdrop of the women's health movement of the 1960s and 1970s, which advocated, among other things, a stronger focus on social factors affecting illness, and drew attention to the increasing double burden on women through gainful employment, on the one hand, and reproductive work, on the other hand.
In order to implement their ideas, not only was a lot of unpaid work and private investment necessary, but also "daring, courage, commitment, enthusiasm“ and "a good portion of megalomania“ (Scherl, interview with V. Luckgei, 2019)
were demanded of the founders. These are attributes that Margot Scherl makes visible in her work: she describes a dynamic, practically oriented way of working and active implementation of ideas as essential for the development of "Frauen beraten Frauen“. Multi-professional teams, knowledge transfer, support for self-help, and networking were the cornerstones of the work of the counselling centre, which was finally founded in 1981. Their services, which included social counselling, individual and group therapy, quickly met with enormous demand. Together with her colleagues, Scherl also took part in women's therapy congresses in German-speaking countries between 1985 and 1989.
Characteristic of Margot Scherl's work is her desire to make knowledge accessible to a broader public in a low-threshold way and to expose blind spots. Together with Agnes Büchele, for example, she created a documentary for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF on the subject of divorce, gave numerous lectures, wrote articles and essays, conducted training courses for social workers and, together with Sylvia Löw, developed a training concept for police officers which was intended to sensitize them to violence against women in the family.
From 1980 to 1987 she worked at the Academy for Social Work of the City of Vienna in the field of project and group work. In 1987 she began training in women-specific social therapy and in 1990 undertook supervision at Triangel Berlin. However, this was always alongside her work in the women's counselling centre, which continued for more than 30 years.
In selected essays, Margot Scherl has dealt, among other things, with the women's health movement, gender relations and, in particular, with the tensions between community work and individual boundaries in organizations, and the interaction of autonomy and dependence as caused by state institutions and subsidy providers.
From 1993 to 2012 she was a lecturer in the university course Supervision/Coaching at the University of Salzburg. During this time she also completed a Master's degree in Social Management and focused on her work as a supervisor. Since 1995, she has also been working on projects to address sexual violence against children and process support for children. She was also a board member of the TAMAR counselling centre and of the Women's Rights Protection Association.
In 2020 she worked in the network of the Vienna Institute for Supervision and Organizational Development, as a lecturer and teaching supervisor in master programs and university courses for supervision and coaching.
By Nina Franke & Vera Luckgei (2020)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works
By Margot Scherl
Scherl, M. (1983). Warum eine Frauenberatungsstelle? In C. Peyton & M. Holewa (Eds.) Psychosoziale Versorgung von Frauen : Selbstzeugnisse - Strategien – Perspektiven (pp. 358-364). Hofgarten.
Scherl, M. (1991). Grenzen grenzenloser Gemeinsamkeit: Themenentwicklung in einem feministischen Projekt. In D. Voigt & H. Jawad-Estrak (Eds.), Von Frau zu Frau. Feministische Ansätze in Theorie und Praxis psychotherapeutischer Schulen (pp. 45-55). Wiener Frauenverlag.
Scherl, M., & Fritz, J. (2010). Vom Sand im Getriebe zum polierten Stein? Margot Scherl im Gespräch mit Christina Thürmer-Rohr und Sabine Scheffler. In Frauen beraten Frauen (Ed.), In Anerkennung der Differenz. Feministische Beratung und Psychotherapie (pp. 21-42). Psychosozial Verlag.
Scherl, M. (2020). Der Kampf ist die stolzeste Schwester der Freiheit. Gedanken zu Freiheit und Begrenzung in der Arbeit der Frauenberatung Wien. In Frauen* beraten Frauen* (Ed.) Freiheit und Feminismen (pp. 57-66). Psychosozial-Verlag.
By and about Margot Scherl
Scherl, M. (2019, July 24). Interviewed by V. Luckgei [Video Recording].
Margot Scherl
Birth:
1952
Training Location(s):
MAS, Vienna University of Economics and Business (2001)
Primary Affiliation(s):
Frauen beraten Frauen [Women Counsel Women]
Institute for Social Therapy City of Vienna
Institute for Supervision and Organizational Development
Psychology’s Feminist Voices Oral History Interview:
Career Focus:
Social therapy, feminist therapy, counseling, social management, organizational development, supervision
Biography
Margot Scherl is a social worker, psychotherapist, lecturer and supervisor based in Vienna, Austria. She focuses on women-specific social therapy, sexual violence against children and adolescents, trauma therapy, and social management.
Since the first years of her career she has been active in the field of women-specific social work and therapy and was one of the driving forces behind the foundation of the first Austrian women's counselling centre "Frauen beraten Frauen“(Women Counsel Women) in 1980, which has remained an indispensable institution for social and psychological counselling in Vienna to this day. In her later career she has focused particularly on supervision and social management and worked as a lecturer and teaching supervisor in relevant university programmes.
Born in Linz, Austria in 1952, Margot Scherl grew up in a family in which women always played dominant roles. There was never any doubt for her that women could master every task and situation in life. Observing, however, that stories of women were underrepresented in society, filled her with indignation and disbelief. At the same time, her interest and ambition to question existing hierarchical gender relations grew. She therefore regards her commitment to feminism as a necessary and political decision: "My affection and interest is for women - and being a woman in our society. In this consciousness I create places for myself and take my place in this world. This is my way to regain something as old-fashioned as dignity“ (Scherl, interview with V. Luckgei, 2019).
After completing her diploma in social work in 1973, Scherl worked in Munich for two years and then moved to Vienna to work at the Institute for Social Therapy of the City of Vienna for five years. In 1979 she began basic training in person-centered psychotherapy. During this time she was part of a group of women who developed the idea of a women's counselling service which would be a contact point for women of different ages and life crises and which would help women think about their individual and social living conditions in their entirety. This idea grew not least against the backdrop of the women's health movement of the 1960s and 1970s, which advocated, among other things, a stronger focus on social factors affecting illness, and drew attention to the increasing double burden on women through gainful employment, on the one hand, and reproductive work, on the other hand.
In order to implement their ideas, not only was a lot of unpaid work and private investment necessary, but also "daring, courage, commitment, enthusiasm“ and "a good portion of megalomania“ (Scherl, interview with V. Luckgei, 2019) were demanded of the founders. These are attributes that Margot Scherl makes visible in her work: she describes a dynamic, practically oriented way of working and active implementation of ideas as essential for the development of "Frauen beraten Frauen“. Multi-professional teams, knowledge transfer, support for self-help, and networking were the cornerstones of the work of the counselling centre, which was finally founded in 1981. Their services, which included social counselling, individual and group therapy, quickly met with enormous demand. Together with her colleagues, Scherl also took part in women's therapy congresses in German-speaking countries between 1985 and 1989.
Characteristic of Margot Scherl's work is her desire to make knowledge accessible to a broader public in a low-threshold way and to expose blind spots. Together with Agnes Büchele, for example, she created a documentary for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF on the subject of divorce, gave numerous lectures, wrote articles and essays, conducted training courses for social workers and, together with Sylvia Löw, developed a training concept for police officers which was intended to sensitize them to violence against women in the family.
From 1980 to 1987 she worked at the Academy for Social Work of the City of Vienna in the field of project and group work. In 1987 she began training in women-specific social therapy and in 1990 undertook supervision at Triangel Berlin. However, this was always alongside her work in the women's counselling centre, which continued for more than 30 years.
In selected essays, Margot Scherl has dealt, among other things, with the women's health movement, gender relations and, in particular, with the tensions between community work and individual boundaries in organizations, and the interaction of autonomy and dependence as caused by state institutions and subsidy providers.
From 1993 to 2012 she was a lecturer in the university course Supervision/Coaching at the University of Salzburg. During this time she also completed a Master's degree in Social Management and focused on her work as a supervisor. Since 1995, she has also been working on projects to address sexual violence against children and process support for children. She was also a board member of the TAMAR counselling centre and of the Women's Rights Protection Association.
In 2020 she worked in the network of the Vienna Institute for Supervision and Organizational Development, as a lecturer and teaching supervisor in master programs and university courses for supervision and coaching.
By Nina Franke & Vera Luckgei (2020)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works
By Margot Scherl
Scherl, M. (1983). Warum eine Frauenberatungsstelle? In C. Peyton & M. Holewa (Eds.) Psychosoziale Versorgung von Frauen : Selbstzeugnisse - Strategien – Perspektiven (pp. 358-364). Hofgarten.
Scherl, M. (1991). Grenzen grenzenloser Gemeinsamkeit: Themenentwicklung in einem feministischen Projekt. In D. Voigt & H. Jawad-Estrak (Eds.), Von Frau zu Frau. Feministische Ansätze in Theorie und Praxis psychotherapeutischer Schulen (pp. 45-55). Wiener Frauenverlag.
Scherl, M., & Fritz, J. (2010). Vom Sand im Getriebe zum polierten Stein? Margot Scherl im Gespräch mit Christina Thürmer-Rohr und Sabine Scheffler. In Frauen beraten Frauen (Ed.), In Anerkennung der Differenz. Feministische Beratung und Psychotherapie (pp. 21-42). Psychosozial Verlag.
Scherl, M. (2020). Der Kampf ist die stolzeste Schwester der Freiheit. Gedanken zu Freiheit und Begrenzung in der Arbeit der Frauenberatung Wien. In Frauen* beraten Frauen* (Ed.) Freiheit und Feminismen (pp. 57-66). Psychosozial-Verlag.
By and about Margot Scherl
Scherl, M. (2019, July 24). Interviewed by V. Luckgei [Video Recording].