Dr. Marty Giddings has always had a deep interest in family relationships, and she has spent most of her career seeking ways of strengthening family bonds. A Cajun at heart, she came to Georgia after college and stayed here. She completed the Master of Social Work Degree at the University of Georgia (UGA) and then spent several years on the Child and Adolescent Unit of the Gainesville GA Community Mental Health Center. Returning to Athens and UGA, she enrolled in a doctoral program in Child & Family Development. While in Athens, she opened a private practice near campus in which she specialized in the treatment of children, teens, parents, and adults. She completed her doctoral degree in 1984 and accepted two post-doctoral fellowships at UGA. She had an opportunity to participate in a DSM-IV Field Trail which examined what has become known as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The second fellowship involved research on the adjustment of adolescent military dependents living on Air Force bases across the world. Following her post-doctoral work, she accepted a faculty position at UGA and taught in the School of Social Work for several years. In 1995, she and her family moved to Valdosta where she had accepted a faculty position in Valdosta State University’s (VSU) newly-created Division of Social Work.

Dr. Giddings retired as a Professor of Social Work on May 31, 2017, and the very next day, she began working at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Lowndes County (CAC), where she began the Parent Support Program for non-offending caregivers of sexually abused children. Through the CAC position, she was able to learn about the impact of trauma on individuals and families and therapeutic ways to treat trauma. She still loves working with children and adults of all ages, families, older adults, and group work.

Marty likes to stay busy, and when she isn’t doing therapy, she enjoys gardening, reading mysteries, drawing, going to the Red Owl, teaching Sunday School, and enjoying her own family and her dog, Lulu. She will always be a GA Bulldog, but she has grown to love VSU and Valdosta!