Dr. Dale Masi is  a pioneering social worker renowned for her work in Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs). Dr. Masi, who recently edited the Fifth International EAP Compendium, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland, where she taught and directed the Employee Assistance Specialization for 22 years. With 16 books and over 70 articles to her name, Dr. Masi's expertise spans EAPs, evaluation, and mental health issues. She holds a doctorate from the Catholic University of America and has received prestigious awards, including a post-doctoral research award from the American Association of University Women. A Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Masi has lectured in more than 45 countries and consults globally through her company, Masi Research Consultants, Inc., which serves a diverse range of clients from major corporations to government agencies. Click here for her insights on EAPs and the evolving landscape of workplace mental health.

In this NASW podcast episode of Social Work Talks we examine why it's Never Too Late to enter the field of therapy. Our host NASW member Elisabeth Joy LaMotte, LICSW chats with chef Karey Swartwout, and political organizer and journalist Dr. Brooke Stroud, now a clinical psychologist, and author Daniel Duane (who today is featured in an article in The New York Times). Today, each discusses why they left past careers to enter the profession of therapy. Listen as they discuss why they leapt, later in life, to a field inhabited by many social workers.

White Ribbon VA is a national call to action to eliminate sexual harassment, sexual assault, and domestic violence across the Department of Veterans Affairs by promoting a positive change in culture so that the actions outlined in the pledge become the organizational norm. NASW and other mental health organizations have partnered with White Ribbon. In this episode we talk about the importance of White Ribbon VA with  Dr. Bridget Truman, associate director of the Prevention and Management of Disruptive Behavior at the Veterans Central Office, Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention in Asheville, NC;  Doctor Angela Lamson is a professor at East Carolina University and a representative of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy; and Doctor Carole Warshaw, MD, director of the National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma and Mental Health and a representative of the American Psychiatric Association.

Guest Catherine P. Bradshaw, MEd, PhD, is a developmental psychologist and youth violence prevention researcher. She is editor of "Handbook on Bullying Prevention: A Life Course Perspective," which offers recommendations for prevention and intervention in bullying across the lifespan.

Thanks for listening! Remember, we'd love to hear your ideas for future shows.

Visit the show notes to learn more

Children with disabilities are highly diverse in terms of their health conditions, disability severity, and social environments, yet they share many of the same needs. Many programs and services have been developed to meet these needs.

Our guest, Paula Allen-Meares, MSW, PhD, discusses a recent report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, that identifies the characteristics of effective programs, as well as opportunities for their improvement.

Kristen Lee, Ed.D., LICSW, is a professor of Behavioral Science at Northeastern University, and is the author of "Mentalligence" and "Reset." With more than 20 years' experience as a clinician, educator, researcher and parent, she speaks about her area of expertise: preventing and treating burnout.

A new NASW social justice brief reports that Black youth make up about 14% of the total youth population, but comprise 47.3% of the youth who are transferred to adult court by juvenile court judges.

Guests Mel Wilson, NASW's social justice and human rights manager, and Jeree Thomas, policy director at the Campaign for Youth Justice, discuss this unjust practice.

They encourage social workers to get involved in action-oriented coalitions to make changes in their communities, and to hold their elected officials accountable.

Read the show notes to download the report and for more resources.

Carla Gonzalez is a clinical social worker and domestic violence survivor who leverages her professional skills and uses her platform as Miss U.S. World Elite (among other titles) as a vehicle for speaking out against domestic violence, bullying and sexual assault.

For Brenda Wade, MSW, LCSW-C, CSSW, writing is both a means of self-care both and as a way to explore the challenges that she sees in her work as a school social worker. 

Published under the pen name Hunter William, Wade's Charm Town fiction trilogy shines a spotlight on the lives of children and adults in a Baltimore school.

See the EP14 show notes for resources

Opioid addiction has become a public health crisis in the United States. Our guest, David Stoecker, LCSW, is founder and director of Better Life in Recovery. He recommends that we look at the opioid addiction pandemic through a harm-reduction lens, rather than a punitive one. He argues that abstinence is not the only path to recovery and that we need to create healthy communities and to provide recovery support to those who need it.

See Episode 13 show notes for resources

NASW President Kathryn Conley Wehrmann, PhD, MSW, LCSW, talks about her career path and her efforts to support social workers, especially those new to the profession.

NASW Senior Practice Associate Roxana Torrico Meruvia, MSW, talks about Social Work Speaks, NASW policy statements and how members can get involved in the process.

See Episode 11 show notes for resources

In this special episode, our guests weigh in on the crisis currently brewing around immigration in the United States, specifically related to children separated from their families at our southern border.

Our guests are Melvin H. Wilson, LCSW, NASW's Manager of Social Justice & Human Rights, and Guadalupe G. Lara, LMSW, NASW Board of Directors Member-at-Large.

See Episode 10 show notes for resources

Rachel Forbes, MSW, Associate Professor of the Practice of Social Work and Western Colorado MSW Program Director at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work, and Kelly Smith, DSW, founder and the director of the Institute of Social Work and Ecological Justice, and a social work instructor at Columbia University and the Adelphi University, discuss what social workers can help communities deal with environmental issues. They are editors of the newly released NASW Press Book, EcoSocialWork, Environmental Practice and Advocacy.

Our guests in this episode are Heidi McIntosh, Deputy Director of Programs at NASW; and Julie E. Shroyer, MSW, Senior Policy Advisor at Polsinelli, a top Washington, DC law firm.

We talk about the skills that social workers bring to the table, the importance of social workers participating in the 2018 mid-term elections; and the challenges of advocating for the disadvantage in the current political climate.

With the conference just days away, we speak again with the conference organizers to give you idea of what you can expect, whether you attend in person or virtually.

May is Foster Care Month, so we speak with Matt Anderson and Malissa Flores, two social workers from the Children's Home Society of North Carolina, who partner with public agencies to help kids move from foster care into permanent families.

See Episode 7 show notes for resources

Joan Levy Zlotnik, PhD, ACSW, discusses how public policy is an important part of social work.

See Episode 6 show notes for resources

We speak with Bob Arnold, Director of NASW Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization that supports NASW's educational, research, training and charitable initiatives through a wide range of projects that serve the profession, practitioners and the public.

Visit the Foundation website to learn more

Dawn Hobdy, NASW Director of Ethics & Professional Review, discusses how the Code of Ethics changed, examples of challenges that social workers face, and how NASW is helping social workers meet the challenges they face every day.

See EP4 show notes for resources

Thinking about attending the 2018 NASW National Conference? Raffaele Vitelli, NASW's Director of Professional & Workforce Development, and Richard Loomis, Manager of Conference and Event Planning talk about the planning that makes this event as useful as possible for our attendees.

What are NASW's social justice initiatives right now, and how were they chosen? Mel Wilson, our Social Justice & Human Rights Manager, speaks about the issues that concern us, and that are keeping us busy in the national office and at our local chapters.

See Episode 2 show notes for resources

March is Social Work Month, and we're talking to NASW CEO Angelo McClain about the importance of Social Work Month, NASW initiatives for 2018, and experiences that led Dr. McClain to become interested in the social work profession.

NASW Director of Membership Jennifer Watt welcomes you to NASW Social Work Talks, where we seek to inform, educate and inspire on topics that social workers care about. Launching March 2018, in honor of Social Work Month. Brought to you by the National Association of Social Workers.

JC Hall, MSW, LCSW, is a hip hop therapist and school social worker in the South Bronx, New York. He works at a high school there, where he is the Hip Hop Therapy Studio Program Director.

JC says that hip hop saved his life. He talks about his mentor, the late Dr. Edgar H. Tyson, and how he turned his love of hip hop and working with youth into a career that he loves.

The U.S. Census Bureau found that 38 percent of South Bronx residents live below the poverty line.

The students JC works with in the South Bronx use this genre of music as a form of self-expression. Hip hop helps them to share their stories and provides a sense of belonging and empowerment, helping them navigate through their daily challenges.

See the show notes for related resources

EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) is a form of psychotherapy designed to alleviate the distress associated with traumatic memories. What do social workers need to know about EMDR?

Deany Laliotis, LICSW, is an internationally recognized trainer, consultant, and psychotherapist who teaches EMDR therapy using a relational approach to treating complex trauma. She is the founder and director of The Center for Excellence in EMDR Therapy.

Visit the show notes for more info.

In Maui, more than 115 people have died after wildfires struck in early August. Some 1,000 people remain missing, and the death toll is expected to rise as recovery and identification efforts continue.

The fires are especially heartbreaking for Hawaiians; more than 2,000 acres have burned in Lahaina, the historic town and the onetime capital of the former kingdom.

We speak with NASW Hawaii chapter Executive Director Sonja Bigalke-Bannan, MSW, LCSW, about the devastation, loss of life, and how social workers in Hawai'i are coping while helping others.

We speak with David A. Wilkerson, PhD, MSW, and Liam O'Sullivan, MA, NQSW, co-editors of "Social Work in an Online World: A Guide to Digital Practice" (NASW Press, 2023).

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person social work service delivery was dramatically interrupted. The field continues to experience a shift toward modern technology-mediated forms of delivery. "Social Work in an Online World" addresses this shift and charts the changing landscape from analog to digital practice.

David A. Wilkerson, PhD, MSW, is an associate professor and director of the Office of e-Social Work Education and Practice at Indiana University School of Social Work in Indianapolis. 

Liam O'Sullivan is CEO of Care Alliance Ireland, an award-winning alliance of more than 95 nonprofit organizations supporting family caregivers in the Republic of Ireland. 

Purchase "Social Work in an Online World" from NASW Press at https://www.naswpress.org/product/53673/social-work-in-an-online-world

Our host for this episode is NASW member Elisabeth Joy LaMotte, LICSW, founder of the DC Counseling and Psychotherapy Center and author of "Overcoming Your Parents' Divorce." 

Visit the shownotes for resources: https://www.socialworkers.org/News/Social-Work-Talks-Podcast/EP104-Social-Work-in-an-Online-World

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/jJz8gMHiMnA

Christine Gilchrist, LCSW, is a specialist in suicide in prevention and in helping those who are survivors of suicide. She speaks about how she and other social workers help people who are grieving after losing a loved one to suicide.

Visit the show notes for related resources.

American children's mental health is worsening. Young people and their families are dealing with the emotional impact of inflation, social injustice, mass violence, and grief related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this episode, we talk about the problematic decline in children's mental health in the United States, and what social workers can do to help.

Our guests are Gary Pettengell, co-founder and CEO of ECINS (Empowering Communities with Integrated Network Systems) and Kimberly Matias, LCSW, a school social worker in the Providence (Rhode Island) public school district.

Visit the show notes page for related resources.

We speak with Mary Marden Velasquez, PhD, and Anna Mangum, MSW, MPH, about National Partnerships to Address Prenatal Alcohol and other Substance Use and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, the Centers for Disease Control grant that began October 2023 in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin.

Our host for this discussion is NASW member Lorrie R. Appleton, LCSW. 

Visit the show notes for related resources.

We speak with Dr. Charles Daniels Jr, PhD, MDiv, LICSW , co-founder and CEO of Fathers' Uplift in Dorchester, Massachusetts. 

Fathers' UpLift provides mental health counseling, coaching, advocacy, and resource support to assist fathers with overcoming barriers — including racism, emotional, traumatic, and addiction-based barriers — that prevent them from remaining engaged in their children's lives.

Dr. Daniels has spent the last decade providing therapy to Black men, helping them overcome the effects of toxic masculinity, racism, and oppression. He has taught at Harvard University and Simmons University and has appeared on numerous television and radio programs.

Visit the show notes for related resources.

Dr. Michael Kaufman, MSW, PhD., author of the new book, Doing Good & Doing Well: Inspiring Helping Professionals to Become Leaders in Their Organizations, has managed countless crises that have needed quick, level-headed thinking and tough decisions delivered with empathy and heart. Board chair of Premier Education Partners he has seen other helping professionals, including social workers, do the same thing. In his book, Dr. Kaufman shares the lessons he has learned throughout his 30-year career and uses anecdotes to illustrate the pointed discussions to inspire social workers by realizing that their specific characteristics, distinct aptitudes, and mindsets as servant leaders have already prepared them to work in the C-Suite.

We speak with Dr. Allison Werner-Lin about genetics and family life.

Dr. Werner-Lin is Associate Professor at the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research addresses the intersection of genomic discovery and family life. Her work is among the first to explore the psychosocial challenges unique to women and men of reproductive age who carry a genetic mutation that confers elevated risk of cancer.

Dr. Werner-Lin has held multiple training grants to build and evaluate interdisciplinary educational programs in oncology, genome-based health literacy, and health care social work practice.

Our host for this discussion is Elisabeth Joy LaMotte, LICSW.

See the show notes for related resources.

We speak with Christina Erickson, MSW, PhD, about environmental justice.

Dr. Erickson is professor and chair of the social work department at Augsburg University. She is author of "Environmental Justice as Social Work Practice," (Oxford University Press, 2018) and "Spanked: How Hitting Our Children Is Harming Ourselves" (Oxford University Press, 2022).

She co-developed the environmental studies program at Augsburg and teaches the course Environmental Justice and Social Change. She is the director of Augsburg's BSW program and has directed Environmental Studies. She was on the national working group to develop the Curricular Guide for Environmental Justice in 2020. 

Visit the show notes for resources: 

We speak with Shreya Bhandari, PhD, LISW, editor of the NASW Press book "South Asians in the United States: A Guide for Social Workers and Other Helping Professionals."

Dr. Bhandari is professor and director of social work, Purdue University Northwest. She is also alicensed clinical social worker with her own private practice. Her research focuses on violence against women, specifically domestic violence. She has worked in the area of domestic violence and mental health for about two decades as a researcher, educator, and practitioner.

You can buy a copy of "South Asians in America" on the NASW Press website.

You can watch this conversation on YouTube and leave a comment or question there.

Sleep is as essential to human well-being as food and air. Poor sleep habits and sleep deprivation can have negative effects on our physical and mental health. Further, racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to get insufficient sleep than their white counterparts.

Jessi Pettigrew, MSW, LCSW, is a PhD candidate at the Graduate School of Social Work at Colorado State University. Working with clients, Jessi became curious about the intersection of sleep and mental health. She explains why social workers should be concerned about sleep health, even if they aren't working in a clinical setting.

Visit the show notes for resources

Michael H. Eversman, PhD, MSW, is the author of "Identifying Moral Panic: The Discourse of Fear in Social Policy" from NASW Press. This book uses historic and contemporary moral panic episodes — periods of exaggerated public fear triggered by high-profile incidents linked to feared social groups — to show how political discourse and stereotyping lead to policies that maintain social inequalities.

Eversman emphasizes social work's social justice mission and the need to stay vigilant amid structural inequalities rooted in labeling and otherism, enabling readers to recognize the patterns of moral panic discourse in our culture. 

Dr. Eversman is associate professor in the Department of Social Work at Rutgers University–Newark.

You can purchase "Identifying Moral Panic" at https://naswpress.org/product/53667/identifying-moral-panic.

Deborah M. Figart, PhD, and Ellen Mutari, PhD, are the authors of "Economic Well-Being: An Introduction" from NASW Press. In this episode, we discuss this groundbreaking book, which makes the study of economic life accessible, applicable, and exciting.

NASW member Elisabeth Joy LaMotte, LICSW, hosts this episode.

Visit the show notes for related resources.

You can also watch this interview and leave your comments on YouTube.

Dr. Kyla Liggett-Creel talks with us about her work to support young people who squeegee car windshields at intersections in Baltimore. She outlines why squeegee workers have been a divisive topic in the city, and discusses her work to get their voices heard.

Dr. Liggett-Creel is an associate clinical professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. She leads The Collaborative: A Healing Centered Community, which partners with community groups, grassroots organizations, governmental organizations, universities, and non-profits to address equity and violence prevention in Baltimore City.

Read the show notes to learn more and find related resources.

Thanks for listening! Please subscribe to Social Work Talks podcast so you'll get new episodes delivered right to your podcatcher. And take a moment to leave us a lovely review in Apple Podcasts.

Ann Steiner, PhD, is a certified group psychotherapist, licensed marriage and family therapist and consultant in private practice for 30 years. She is creator of "Therapist's Professional Will™: Guidelines for Managing Planned and Unplanned Absence." She pioneered the creation of the therapist's professional will and has published over 20 articles on the subject.

Dr. Steiner talks about why you need a professional will, and how to create an emergency response team to manage your practice in case something happens to you.

Our host for this episode is NASW member Elisabeth Joy LaMotte, LICSW, founder of the DC Counseling and Psychotherapy Center and author of "Overcoming Your Parents' Divorce."

Visit the show notes for related resources.

In February 2021, the Myanmar military staged a coup that overthrew the democratically elected government. Since then, the killing of civilians in Myanmar has increased.

In response, Jue Jue Min Thu, a licensed social worker from Myanmar now based in Hawai'i, created Jue Jue's Safe Space, to support mental health for the Myanmar community.

Visit the show notes page for related resources.

Yvonne M. Chase, PhD, LCSW, ACSW, will begin her three-year term as NASW president on July 1, 2023.

Dr. Chase is an Associate Professor at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. She's also an NASW Social Work Pioneer, and a long-time champion of NASW.

We talk about some of her experiences as a social worker; why she's passionate about social work and about NASW; how the organization has changed over time; and what she envisions for her tenure as NASW's President.

Visit the show notes to learn more about Dr. Chase's work.

Mary Cosimano, LMSW, has been with the Department of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research since 2000 when they began research with psilocybin. She is currently a Psychedelic Session Facilitator and has served as Director of Clinical Services and as a research coordinator. She has been involved with all the psilocybin studies and has conducted over 500 study sessions including Club Drug studies with Salvia Divinorum and Dextromethorphan. Mary has trained postdoctoral fellows, faculty, clinicians, and research assistants as guides and taught individual and group meditation to breast cancer patients in a Johns Hopkins research study. She completed MAPS MDMA therapy training program. She is a teacher and mentor at California Institute to Integral Studies for their Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research (CPTR) certificate program and conducts training for therapists in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Mary is a Psychedelic Harm Reduction and Integration Coach and leads a Death Awareness/Death and Psychedelics Workshop. In 2003 she started a meditation group for employees in her department. She also has 15 years of experience with direct patient care as a hospice volunteer.

We speak with NASW member Kristen Lee, Ed.D., LICSW, about overcoming fear and learning to take risks.

Visit the show notes page for related episodes and resources.

Monique Bingham, MSW, is NASW's 2022 Emerging Social Work Leader. She works as a mental health therapist at the Anti Recidivism Coalition, which works to end mass incarceration in California.

Ms. Bingham's own father was incarcerated when she was a child and released when she was an adult. She has produced a documentary, "Unchained Scholars," about formerly incarcerated social workers.

Read the show notes for resources.

Social worker Caitlin Ryan, is founder and executive director of the Family Acceptance Project. She talks with us about how her organization has worked for 20 years to help families support their children who are LGBTQIA2S+ and how social workers can also do this work.

We speak with Will Frances, Executive Director of NASW's Texas chapter about the aftermath of the horrific mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. 

Schools should be safe, supportive havens for students and staff. What can be done to stop the epidemic of mass shootings across the country? 

Visit the show notes page for related stories

Our guests are NASW Mississippi Chapter Executive Director and Special Populations Coordinator Gwen Bouie Haynes and Mary Velasquez, professor and director of the Health Behavior Research and Training Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. 

NASW and the NASW Foundation are partnering with the Health Behavior Research and Training Institute at The University of Texas at Austin Steve Hicks School of Social Work on Connect to End COVID-19, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funded initiative to support social workers and their clients in informed vaccine decision-making.  

Read the show notes for related resources.