Gail Dickert

Gail Dickert, MSW has four self-published works reflecting recovery from complex trauma, grief/personal growth, and children’s fiction. After twenty years in non-profit leadership, Gail took a career hiatus to embrace the life of an unschooling mama and fiction-writing social worker. Gail earned a Master of Social Work degree from University of Maryland, Baltimore, specializing in Community Action and Social Policy and currently resides in the Washington, DC area with her wife and two young children who engage in social change through fingerpaints and mud puddles.

And yes, this is the Gail Dickert who unwillingly appeared in the Pray Away documentary on Netflix, which she has not watched after being re-victimized as the content was re-used without her explicit consent from producers. Her conversion therapy recovery story originally appeared in Lisa Ling's Our America, with her consent.

And no, Enlightened-ish will not be brought back into print. It is the raw work of a traumatized person, as she sought community during a time of insurmountable loss. It wasn't a mistake, just an unfortunate mishap of complex grief.

Recovery in Real Time was a project produced under Publishing for a Change, LLC, in 2016. Gail served as its founder until 2025.