My Mentor, Jolene

"Everybody has to emotionally emancipate from parents in order to be an adult. In order to be a leader, you have to be an adult." 

--Jolene Swain, director of field education at CSUN, social worker & documentary filmmaker of "No Greater Bond: a mother's influence on manhood. Letting go is loving more." Jolene has been my mentor since 1992.

Jolene Swain speaks to my macro social work class about leadership and parenting.

My mentors drop pearls of wisdom.  Here are some of Jolene's:

•  "It's the healthy person that asks for help."
• "You don't know everything. Why do you need to know everything?"
• "It's easy to follow the group. It's difficult to stand alone."
• "The mentee chooses the mentor."
• "Confrontation doesn't have to be negative. Have your say. Deal with it or it grows."
•  "Know what soothes you vs. looking for someone to take care of you."
• "Be able to contain and bind your own anxiety."
• "If you learned it then you can unlearn it and learn something new."
• Talking about her son: "in order for him to be happy, I have to let him go."
• "My ultimate joy is to see my son live his life."