You have no idea how excited I just got over @mujiusa toothbrushes at @jetblue #Terminal5 #IMayHaveAlsoRestockedOnAYearsWorthOfOfficeSupplies #ICame4HoursEarlyToShop
Happy Day ❤️❤️❤️ #gettingmayered
Happy Day ❤️❤️❤️ #gettingmayered
Hello Everyone,
I was hoping that I would be able to write a much happier email than this one, one filled with hope, and solutions focused based suggestions, and maybe some ideas for some restorative justice where the WNY Steering Committee and NYS NASW could somehow come together. However, I find that I am failing in that attempt, which saddens me greatly.
After Saturday’s meeting, and a fair amount of reflection, I am left more concerned than I was when I first started the online petition calling for the immediate reinstatement of our position on Catholic Charities, and I feel compelled – in order to stand on what I believe will be the right side of history – to share my thoughts, my feelings, and my beliefs.
I am, frankly – after having had the board’s reasoning behind their decision-making process explained to me – appalled, more so than I was when this first process began…but more than that, I am hurt, deeply, and left with a crisis of conscience, and of ethics.
Already, another Christian adoption agency (this one in South Carolina) seeks to ban Jewish people from adopting under the guise of religious freedom. They, like Catholic Charities are stating their reasoning and motives outright. Would the NASW NYS not call out that agency by name if this were to occur in NYS? The Trump Administration is seeking to erase transgender people – which, in the line up of the fascist playbook, by the way, is the proverbial canary in the coal mine: go after and see if you can take away the entire rights of a marginalized group; if you can get away with it, proceed forward from there.
When we fail to call out anyone who perpetrates oppression and persecution by name for who and what they are, we are only one thing: collaborators. Full stop. Civility politics only helps the oppressor. It does not build bridges, it does not create understanding, it does not ‘raise us up’ or allow us to be ‘more enlightened’ and it is certainly not ‘professional’. Civility politics builds walls behind which the oppressed continue to suffer while the oppressors behave with impunity, facing no consequences from the outside world, which become cogs in the wheels of the systemic oppression.
To hear that the board voted for fear of maybe being sued for libel despite the overwhelming volume of quotes, newspaper articles, radio interviews, etc. put out featuring Catholic Charities themselves is not only disturbing, but shows a profound misunderstanding of our duty to accept risk as part of our profession.
Every single day we have clients or patients in our offices that we have to accept risk for: whether they will hurt themselves, or others. We have to accept risk for whether someone will live or die, or whether an intervention will work, or whether our testimony on a client’s behalf will be enough for them to receive the services they need…when our most marginalized clients’ lives are on the line, we go to bat…and yet, here with no actual risk of being sued for libel (or, perhaps better put: no actual risk for having such a lawsuit ever succeed) here, here is where the board decides to abdicate their responsibility to their clients entirely (their clients, in this situation, being the WNY Steering Committee, the WNY Community, and the LGTBQ+ community).
During the meeting much was made about how good and nice the people on the board are, and on the importance of the relationships that exist, etc. However, it bears pointing out that there have been many good and nice people, in many good and nice countries throughout history. Sometimes those good and nice people are part of the problem…sometimes they are what allow oppression to continue.
As a disabled queer Jew, I will not be a party to my own oppression, nor will I be silent out of misplaced ideas of what constitutes professionalism in a field born out of the radicalism of the needs of the oppressed in the face of patriarchy, racism, and classism.
I will not be a tool so easily wielded into a weapon. In that light, I will continue to be a Social Worker, continue to treasure the NASW Code of Ethics, which I believe the NASW NYS Board has completely abandoned, and I am resigning my membership in the National Association of Social Workers, until such time as the entire NYS Board has resigned or been disbanded by NASW National, and the organization has returned to the ideals it once held.
It is my strongest belief that the NYS Chapter can no longer govern itself, nor can it adequately represent the needs of the most marginalized…rather now, through its own actions and inactions, its very own behavior it has shown us that, when given the choice to choose between what is hard and scary, but what is right, and just, and ethical, it has instead chosen what is easier…but what will allow oppression to continue, and therefore, has instead chosen to become a part of the oppressive system.
I will be in touch, privately, regarding a free Social Work co-working space and meet-up group that Ashley and I have been working on for the past year and a half. We were not planning on launching it this year (or even announcing it yet), but I see no reason that we should not be bringing our peers together in WNY now, more than ever, to work together as a community, for those who are interested. We are not looking at becoming the “new steering committee” – merely a place to come together twice a month for two hours on weekends for potlucks, conversation, peer support, peer supervision, and social work.
“Your silence will not protect you.” – Audre Lorde
In The Spirit of Stonewall,
Matthew L. Schwartz, MBA, LMSW
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Welcome to TheMattSchwartz(Cast)! where we dive into the world of Social Work in Mental Health & Counseling Settings, and hopefully provide you with some inspiration to start your week! I’m your host, Matt Schwartz, this week’s episode is Episode 1: What’s Better This Week?
I figured I would start the show off by asking listeners (and readers, if you’re reading the transcript, because if we attempt to be anything here, it’s inclusive and accessible) the same first question that I ask every patient who comes into my office each week: “What’s Better This Week?”
I learned to ask this question as part of my training in Solutions Focused Therapy, when I was an intern at the Family Solutions Center in the Cheektowaga-Sloan School District.
It’s an interesting question because usually, responses will fall into one of three categories:
(I say usually because patients or clients can always surprise you).
What’s important from a solutions-focused perspective, is that, no matter what response our patients are giving us to this question, we’re reframing it to show them their strengths, and their own capabilities.
So if a patient says that something’s better this week, like they had a behavioral change, or they got an A on an exam, or they got a raise, my follow up question is always “wow, how’d you make that happen?”
If a patient says “Man, everything’s just staying the same!” I usually say something to the affect of “that’s incredible – what did you do to make sure that nothing slid backwards? How did you make sure that nothing got worse? What’d you have to do to make that happen?”
And if a patient says “it’s all terrible, and here’s all of the horrible things that happened to me this past week” I’ll usually respond with “wow, that sounds really hard – how have you been coping?”
In each one of these scenarios, We’re showing the patient that they’ve been using their strengths and their coping skills. In the last scenario, sometimes patients will say “I haven’t been coping!” and that’s sometimes a very good entryway to review how they got to your office (which, counseling – in and of itself can be a coping skill), and then review with them that since they’re sitting in front of you they must have used some coping skills this week…and even if they weren’t the quote un quote best coping skills, they used them, and they’re still here.
Please feel free interact and respond to us online over on Twitter by tweeting @TheMattSchwartz. Let me know what’s better this week, and please let me know if there’s something specific you’d like to see on the show. I don’t really have a set agenda, except to cover the day-to-day/week-to-week world of Social Work in Mental Health and Counseling Settings. Since I believe that we are called upon (no matter what setting) to function at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels, this show will address how that plays out in the Mental Health and Counseling world, and I hope to bring in a little Social Work History as Well.
While I don’t like to “fan the flames” too much about the differences that exist within the different helping professions, sometimes I think that some of us (especially those of us who are doing psychotherapy daily) forget the importance in recognizing the differences in each of our professions, philosophies and histories, and the strengths that lie in recognizing those differences when we look at what each of the helping professions brings to the table. So expect some interesting (or what I think is interesting) historical-is-today think pieces on Mary Ellen Richmond, Jane Addams, and others as the program goes along.
Well, that’s all for today, as I go to practice self care with my cat, Akiva, who you might have heard in the background. Remember, you got into this profession for a reason, and this profession needs you – so please, take care of yourself, so you can continue helping others take care of themselves.
The music you’re listening to in the background today is Boston Landing on “Blue Dot Sessions” generously shared through a creative commons license. Please find more of their music at www.sessions.blue, that’s w-w-w- dot s-e-s-s-i-o-n-s- dot b-l-u-e. I’ll see you next Sunday; until then, make good choices.
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According to author Hal Borland, there are people who would rather summer never end, and who would be much happier if we never made the transition into autumn at all. These same people often hope, unsuccessfully, that the world will do exactly what they want in other areas as well. Unfortunately, you and I (and usually these summer loving folks) usually know that this isn’t how the universe works.
Sometimes things are just out of our control – and that can be a really hard realization at times. Sometimes when we realize that things are entirely out of our control, we can feel all different kinds of ways about it. Maybe it makes us anxious, or maybe it makes us feel scared, or maybe it makes us feel really angry. And guess what? The things that get us feeling all sorts of ways don’t have to be big and important either!
One example that I often like to give is that I get upset when my packages don’t arrive on time, or when Amazon says they’re supposed to. I know this about myself, and I know that about 95% of the time, my packages get to my front door either on time, or even ahead of schedule. But if I’m not keeping my thoughts and feelings in check, my ears can start turning the shade of those apples at the top of this blog post when I get to my front door after work and see that the book I was expecting didn’t arrive when I was told it would.
So what are the lovers of endless summers and on-time-book-deliveries supposed to do? No matter what we do, the summer is going to transition into autumn (at least it will here in Buffalo, NY), and no amount of foot stomping or any amount of huffing is going to make the truck that’s sitting in Nebraska with my book on it arrive to my front door any sooner than when it’s going to arrive.
Fortunately, we can find the answer in any number of ways in both counseling or therapy. However, one of the best ways I’ve found is through learning Dialectical Behavior Therapy’s Distress Tolerance Skills; or those skills that allow us to get through a crisis (however we define that for ourselves) without making it worse, and then learning how to live with whatever it is that’s out of our control, and that we just can’t change (whether it’s the seasons, not being in the career or occupation we wanted because of life circumstances or the economy, or having to come to terms with a physical limitation or newfound disability).
While I don’t practice Dialectical Behavior Therapy, there are many folks who do. If you’re local in Buffalo and would like to learn more, I highly recommend my colleague Ashley Maracle, LCSW. Until then, please watch the videos by Marsha Linehan (the creator of Dialectical Behavior Therapy herself) to learn a more on Distress Tolerance, and how it can help you.
…I’ll be here waiting for my book!
In Mussar we are taught to recognize the good. In Hebrew this is “הכרת הטוב” (which can be translated as gratitude, but literally means recognizing the good).
While taking my lunch break at work today I decided to reflect on my blessings. I have been so blessed in life. I am grateful for my Ohana. I am thankful for those who supported me when I couldn’t support myself. I am thankful that I have had the pleasure, privilege, and opportunity to work in each and every field that I’ve studied: as a Linguist in Foreign Relations in the IDF, as an MBA, in business, accounting, and freelance consulting for entrepreneurial development, and finally, as an LMSW, working as a Social Worker and Mental Health Counselor where I finally feel entirely self-actualized, yet with years of growth potential before me. I am so grateful. Life continues to have its challenges, but they are far outweighed by its blessings.
Life is getting a little more settled, which is lovely 🙂 it’s fall here in Buffalo, NY; work is finally falling into a nice hum, and my mother is almost done with divorcing 250lbs of douche, which is also nice (she’s now in the final paperwork stages/waiting for the documents to come in from the courts)
This means it’s time to get back to writing, especially as I prepare to participate in NaNoWriMo this year 🙂
Had a wonderful visit with my Rheumatologist yesterday (things are going well, meds are going well, symptoms are stabilized, etc.)…and today I was a horse’s ass because I went to the Neurologists and was all like “What do you mean my appointment was cancelled today…I’d like to talk to the office manager…this is another, in a very long list of things that have gone wrong…let me list all of the mistakes your staff has ever made…ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh that’s right you sent me a letter telling me it had to be cancelled, I called, and I had it rescheduled, but I was foggy, so it never got taken off of my calendar…okay, so first let me apologize…but let’s also talk about how just sending letters to folks with brainfog may not be your best option…and honestly, whenever I have to cancel my patients or they no show, I literally pick up the phone and call them, so let’s talk about best practices as well while I’m here…”
That said, I had a rough patient later in the afternoon, so I figure instant karma (and I was mostly stern, and didn’t raise my voice…so I was a horse’s ass, but not a terribly large horses ass…and I was an apologizing horse’s ass…and I figure they’ll mess up my medication, or my next appointment, or my next diagnosis, or my next whatever it is, given their track record.
So anyway, daily blogging here we go…I figure I have a good hours bus ride in the morning, and quite a commute in the evening, so I should be okay if I get comfortable tapping things out on my phone 🙂
Work in Progress #WIP #felting #gnome #gnomes #gnomesofinstagram
moocowinthecity