It's the Big Day

Second interview for Assistant Professor position.
Six candidates.  Two openings.
Four-hour interview.
Interview with the Dean, the Department Director, the search committee, present colloquium on urban families, trauma and resilience, and finally dinner with search committee.
Questions about my research, teaching methods, and experience.
I will be busting open my brain and heart for this one - laying it all on the line.
Then I will come home and hug my daughter and call it a night.

When I am old and people ask me about my greatest joy and accomplishment - I will smile and say it is being Paolina's mom. 
Love, work and play - that's what Freud said we all need for good mental health. 
Living a life in balance is the reward.
This line of work exercises all my faculties. 
I have been preparing my whole life for this. 
I am grateful that my daughter gets to see me doing what I am passionate about and I'm glad that it will pay the bills too.

Feeling calm and ready.
My friends and family members are sending positive vibes and prayers.
I've invited my mothers, daughter, God, angels and my ancestors in the room for moral support.
I have prayed surrender. I have smudged myself with sage.
This is happening. Naturally.
Cliff diving for Yesus.
Amen.

Spirituality & SW

Spirituality is a human need; it is too important to be misunderstood; avoided; or viewed as regressive, neurotic, or pathological in nature.

Social workers must recognize that a person’s spiritual beliefs, values, perceptions, feelings, and ideals are intrinsically connected to religious, philosophical, cultural, ethnic, and life experiences.

It is important that the practitioner acknowledge that spirituality in a person’s life can be a constructive way of facing life’s difficulties…Developing practice skills in addressing spirituality begins with acceptance of the values, beliefs and attitudes that are fundamental to the client.

When the client chooses to use spiritual perspectives, practitioner empathy and encouragement of client self-determinations should follow.

Clients may choose to pursue self-help group membership, church involvement, prayer, meditation, or commitment to a social action or cause.

The practitioner should be willing to incorporate goals in treatment that include spiritual values for the accomplishment of tasks.

(Sermabeikian, 1994, p. 181-182)

Say It and Heal

“The mere act of disclosure is a powerful therapeutic agent that may account for a substantial percentage of the variance in the healing process (Pennebaker, 1997, p. 162)”

Feel It All

"Stop pretending that I have it all together.
And if I'm scared, be scared.
Allow it.
Release it.
Move on."

--Beyonce Knowles

Rewriting our stories

"Recovery approaches that emphasize deconstructing fragmented traumatic memories and reorganizing them into a coherent, meaningful narrative have been associated with reduced PTSD severity (Foa & Meadows, 1997). This suggests the importance of helping clients and their families make sense of the trauma by constructing new narratives that reduce self-blame and guilt.  One such approach is to use attachment theory as a component of narrative family therapy in promoting recovery."

A Family Systems Perspective to Recovery From Posttraumatic Stress in Children
Bernardon & Pernice-Duca, 2010
The Family Journal:  Counseling and Therapy for Couples and Families, 18(4), 349-357.

Solidarity of Equals

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a covenant between equals. Al Sharpton always says, “We’re all created equal, but we don’t end up equal.” 

A beloved community of equals…soon enough, there won’t be anyone left outside. 

Tattoos on the Heart
Father Gregory Boyle

Hope in the Tunnel

"I know you think you're in a deep, dark hole, pero la neta, you're in a tunnel.  It's in the nature of tunnels that if you just keep walking, the light's gonna show up.  Trust me, I can see it -- I'm taller than you are."

Tattoos on the Heart
Father Gregory Boyle