[7] However, her family was consciously Jewish and attended salons with Jews which included aspiring and well established personalities in science, arts, music and literature.
[10]: 34–35 In 1938 she wrote a letter to Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart Londonderry asking for his help in securing the release of her brother Max Wachstein, a physician, who was in the Dachau concentration camp.
[1][16] Her dissertation title was Changing Attitudes in Relatives' Responsibilities (Observations made in the Welfare Office of a Japanese Relocation Center).
[19][20] Following retirement, she worked as a psychotherapist for adults with behavioral problems and taught English to Russian students at Bryn Mawr College.
[25] These works were focused on offering tangible solutions to growing mental health concerns among adolescents in school after World War II.
[8] She published research about equity problems in youth mental health based on her direct observation in the New York City Public School system.
[27] As early as the 1960s, Sonia Wachstein observed the evident socioeconomic divide regarding access to privatized healthcare, especially therapy and other mental health services.
[27] In spite of this, she advocated for direct psychiatric and psychological screening in public schools, clear pathways from a social worker to a therapist, and confidentiality for youth in therapy sessions without parents present.