In 1987 he completed his doctorate at Yeshiva University writing his thesis on gay male sexual partnership styles. During training he studied sex therapy at SUNY Downstate taught by Drs. Marian Dunn and Steve Friedman. Opening an independent practice in NYC’s Greenwich Village, 1987, at the height of he AIDS Epidemic, Dr. Mayer quickly establish expertise working with sexuality among highly stigmatized populations, who were confronting death, alienation and grieving.