Graduation

It's crazy that I just started grad school and am already thinking about graduation, but that's how it is with this advanced standing program. We had a "Steps to Graduation" meeting on Thursday, and I got all of the info regarding the School of Social Work's (SSW) graduation ceremony. So here is the date and information:

SSW Graduation Ceremony

Saturday, May 15, 2010 4:00PM

Tedd Mann Concert Hall (2128 S. 4th St, Minneapolis)

So everyone is invited, although I certainly don't expect you all to attend! There's no limit on how many guests that we can have, and there are no tickets or anything. The ceremony is only for the SSW, so it is small and intimate and supposed to be very lovely. Whatever family that I have in attendance will get to come up to stage and "hood" me in the graduate hood. There is a reception afterwards at the Concert Hall.

I just thought I'd throw the date out there for anyone that has an interest in making a trip to the Cities. I wish that I could offer a place to stay for everyone, but obviously space is extremely limited at my apartment so you'd be on your own in terms of accommodations.

The funny thing is that, although I will be walking in the ceremony, I won't actually be finished with school until the end of the July because I'm taking three summer classes. So my degree won't be posted until August. They allow that because most advanced standing students have to take summer classes to get all of their credits in, and it wouldn't really be fair to not let us participate in the ceremony just because we have to complete more credits than the full program students.

Again, I know that my parents will hopefully be coming and that is more than enough to make me happy, so please don't feel any obligation to attend just because I'm posting about this. I just wanted to make the information available!

A tough day

Today was a bit of a tough day at Wellstone. Fridays are usually easy. I get there around 8:30, help greet buses until a little after 9:00, visit in one of the kindergarten rooms until 9:20, then sit in on one of the classroom's morning meetings until 10:00. I have supervision from 10-11:00 and then 6th grade girls group from 11:20 until 12:00. After that I go home. Pretty low-key day.

This morning I went to one of the 1st grade dual immersion classrooms for morning meeting. There is one student in there that is one our caseload. I'll refer to him as Ian. Ian is an adorable little African American boy, one of only three African American kids in that dual immersion class. The rest are all native Spanish speakers. He has ADHD and was having a rough time at the beginning of the year, but has recently been doing so well that they decided that he really didn't qualify for Special Ed services anymore. We still planned to keep a close eye on him just to make sure that it was the right decision. So I went in there to see how he was doing. Everything seemed to be going fine, until about 5 minutes to 10. The class was going around in a circle and sharing, and he was getting more and more upset that he wasn't getting "called on", even though I explained to him that the teacher was going around in the circle and his turn would come eventually. He ended up diving under the table and when it was his turn, his teacher said that if he didn't come out she was going to skip past him. He shouted out his answer, but she wouldn't accept it until he came out from under the table. This upset him even more and he started knocking over chairs and crying, shouting "I hate this school!" At this point the teacher more or less blamed me for this meltdown, saying that she thought the attention was setting him off and that he normally didn't do that.

Luckily he actually willingly left the room with me. I just said, "Wow sweetie, you are just having such a tough time aren't you? Let's go somewhere where you can calm your body down." I put my arm around him and I could tell that he just really needed that. So we went to my office around the corner and did some sensory activities that are designed to help him regulate his body and emotions. Then we did a little conferencing around what had happened in the room and talked about what he needed from his teacher when he was starting to feel that icky feeling in his body that made him have such a hard time. We talked about making a "volcano" card that he can show to his teacher to let her know that he needs a break. So that's something I'll need to meet with his teacher about. We also talked about knocking over chairs is not an okay way to make himself feel better. So at this point I was about 35 minutes late for supervision. Luckily I have a walkie-talkie that most of the support staff have, and so I radioed up to Julianne to let her know that I was dealing with a situation. When I walked him back to class, they were just coming back from having school photos done so his teacher asked me to walk him to get his picture taken. When all was said and done, it was nearly 11:00 so we only ended up having about 20 minutes for supervision.

[Supervision, just as a side note, is when Julianne and I can process what's happened during the week and I can ask questions about practice techniques or theory or anything. She usually asks guided questions also to get my thinking. We typically have supervision for an hour each week. ]

Just as we were getting ready to get our 6th grade girls, Julianne got a call from the Focus room (which is the behavior room) asking for her to come check in on a student. So she said that she would do that while I took the girls down to get their lunch, and she'd meet us back up at the office. 6th grade girls group consists of 5 girls that are all pretty low functioning in terms of cognitive ability and also social maturity. They're all funny and sweet girls, but they can be a handful. We have group during lunch time, so they bring lunch up to the SW office, eat and then we do a lesson, usually around a social skill or something to that effect. Lately we've been doing Yoga Calm, which is meant to help them build self-awareness, confidence and self-regulation strategies. Anyway, Julianne actually never came back for group because she got held-up in the Focus room. So I was left with group all by myself, and it did not go well. I'd led another group by myself once, but it was only two girls. The girls today were super energized, and it didn't help that we hadn't had group for three weeks because there wasn't school the past two Fridays. It was impossible to get them to do anything. They were so excited about Halloween, and just wanted to talk and talk. So I sort of felt like a failure, but I knew that they were just having a challenging day. That happens in group sometimes, even when Julianne is running it. I made sure to "name it" at the end of group though. I said, "So group was kind of hard today. I understand that everyone has a lot of energy because lots of classes are having parties today and everyone's excited. Also we haven't had group in a while, so we're kind of getting familiar with it again. So today was a tough day, but that's okay. Next week will be better." It was important for me to let them know that it was hard for me too, so that they knew that (1) My expectations were higher (so they don't start to think that group will always be so unproductive and not want to come any more) and (2) I recognized where they were at and understood.

I ended up leaving almost 30 minutes late because Julianne still wasn't back and there was a 5th grade student that wanted to work on a math test in her office. I wanted to provide that student with the quiet space, so I just waited in there with her until Julianne got back. Then I went home and worked for about six hours straight on a midterm paper that is due tomorrow morning.

So there's a little peek into my life! I realized that I don't write enough about my day-to-day, to answer some of those questions like "What exactly is school social work all about?" So there's some of what I do. It's pretty hectic and you really need to be flexible and able to deal with ever-changing schedules. Things come up, there are always students in crisis ... You have to learn to prioritize and improvise. Usually it's not so bad that I miss supervision and then Julianne misses group, but I have to be ready for those things. So there you have it! (And that's just a half day...)

Message from Mira

Hey everyone,

As most of you know, I was hired as a Children's Mental Health Case Manager at Washburn Center for Children three months ago and absolutely love it (check out a link about the work that we do: http://washburn.org/about/video.html). Washburn has been named by NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) as their Provider of the Year 2009 (check out the attached Washburn Newsletter for more info on this, Washburn and the Holiday Toy Drive)

Yes, it is that time of year again, when the staff here at Washburn Center for Children are looking for individuals to help with our Holiday Toy Drive. Many of the families that we work with do not have any extra money to purchase holiday gifts for their children. Currently we have about 350 kids that need gifts, and only 161 sponsors for those children. So if we do not get more sponsors or money we are going to have to figure out a way to decide which kids get gifts and which do not. I know that it’s not a great time to ask, but I’m hoping that some of you would be willing to either sponsor a child or donate money for a gift. We are asking that people spend about $20 per child.

If you are able to help out, you can:

• Buy gift cards (and mail to me (see below), I'll go buy toys with my team for our kiddos)
• Mail a check to Washburn (c/o me and I'll go buy toys with my team)
• Go through Washburn's Development Team. One plus of going through the Development Team is that your donation would be tax deductible! Either way, makes sure to let it known that you are donating money to the Case Management Holiday Toy Drive and let me know that you are doing so.
• Sponsor a child or family. Please give me your contact information and you will be mailed gift tags and information about the child you will be sponsoring so you can buy a gift for him or her.

The deadline on this is tight- we would like to know in the next two weeks how many kids are going to be able to receive gifts.

Thanks so much for putting up with this mass email and I totally understand if this is something that is just not an option for you this year. If you know of anyone else (parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, companies...) who might be interested in helping out, please let them know about this opportunity as well.

Thanks!

Mira

If you wish to write a check, please mail it to me at:

Mira Swanson

Case Management

Washburn Center for Children

2430 Nicollet Ave S

Minneapolis, MN 55404

Feeling some anxiety...

So I'm feeling a little bit of anxiety about my internship at the moment. Everything is still going really well, and my supervisor is still awesome. The thing is, there have been several people in the MSW program who have lost their field placements because of budget cuts, etc. at their agencies. So all of the field instructors were asked to consider taking on another intern. Julianne and I discussed it and decided that we would be open to the possibility of taking someone on if we really felt as though they would be a good fit. This was a few weeks ago, and we never heard anything back, so we figured nothing was going to happen.

Well, after work today I saw that Julianne had forwarded me an e-mail from a girl in the program who was wanting more information about Wellstone and possibly wanting to set up an interview. So it looks like we might be interviewing someone after all. The truth is, I have extremely mixed feelings about Julianne taking on another intern. I really like having a supervisor all to myself, and I worry that with another intern there we will be compared to one another. This is especially hard when you have people coming in with such different levels of experience. Looking at her resume, I saw that she was a psych major in undergrad and seems to have a lot of experience already in clinical type work, which is where I don't have a lot of experience. That's also the area that I feel most insecure about, and I worry that if we take on another intern who is very strong in that area, I am going to feel even less confident. I've spoken with other people in the program who are at agencies with more than one intern, and it seems like that is a common problem for them. My other fear is, what if we take someone on and I end up not liking her? I know that this is obviously something that happens in the real world, and I need to be prepared for it. However, this is my internship, and I feel like I deserve to have it be the kind of experience that I want. I'm certainly paying enough for it!

Anyway, feel free to tell me if I'm being ridiculous. I know that I should just relax and have faith that it will all work out. But you all know me, I have a tendency to worry! I'll keep you updated.

FFOTD: Mirror Neurons

Okay, this fact is really cool! So mirror neurons are cells that fire in our brains when we see actions and when we repeat that action. In a NY Times article ("Cells That Read Minds" -- January 10,2006), UCLA neuroscientist Dr. Marco Iacoboni tell us, "When you see me perform an action -- such a picking up a baseball -- you automatically simulate the action in your brain ... You understand my action because you have in your brain a template for that action based on your own movements." Basically, when we watch things happen, our brain is imitating those same things.

These mirror neurons are also directly related to empathy, or understanding the feelings and expressions of others. Dr. Iacoboni continues to explain, "And if you see me choke up, in emotional distress from striking out at home plate, mirror neurons in your brain simulate my distress. You automatically have empathy for me. You know how I feel because you literally feel what I am feeling." When you see someone being physically hurt and feel as though you can sense their pain, it is because you really do feel their pain -- at least in your brain. Those who rank high on scales measuring empathy have "particularly active mirror neuron systems", the NY Times article explains.

This research on mirror neurons could have implications for little understood conditions such as Autism. As the article states, "While many people with autism can identify an emotional expression, like sadness, on another person's face, or imitate sad looks with their own faces, they do not feel the same emotional significance of the imitated emotion. From observing other people, they do not know what it feels like to be sad, angry, disgusted or surprised." Some researchers have been led to believe that broken mirror neurons could play a part in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Mirror neurons are also important when it comes to our understanding of violence and aggression. While it has been found that mirror neurons work best in real life, a study in the January 2006 issue of Media Psychology "found that when children watched violent television programs, mirror neurons, as well as several brain regions involved in aggression were activated, increasing the probability that the children would behave violently." This could help to explain why those who witness a lot of violence are more likely to become violent. Many people worry that watching violence will desensitive us to violence and make us think that it's okay. It turns out that it could be more complex than just psychology. It could be that those violent behaviors are actually becoming imprinted in our brains and becoming part of our neurobiology.

It just goes to show how fascinating and truly complex the human brain is. And now when I get teased for being "overly sensitive" when it comes to movies, etc. I can just respond, "I can't help it! I have highly active mirror neurons!"

Here is a YouTube video that I found discussing the connection between empathy and mirror neurons:

E-mail Notifications

I was just talking to Grandma and commenting that I wished there were a way to have automatic e-mail notifications sent out every time I updated my blog. I know it's easy to go to the site and do a quick check to see if it's updated, but it still might be a nice option. When I first made the blog, there wasn't this e-mail notification option. However, Blogger has recently adopted that feature! So, if you want me to put you on the e-mail notification list, let me know. Either comment on this entry or send me an e-mail.

FFOTD: A Hormone For Caring

Today's fun fact is a mixed bag. On one hand it's extremely interesting, on the other hand it's implications are a bit depressing. It has to do with the hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin helps mammals to bond. Women produce a heightened level of oxytocin during childbirth and then pass it on to their infants during breast-feeding, which helps them to bond and attach.

Now research has found that people with higher levels of oxytocin tend to be more trusting! Alongside this finding is the research done at UW by Seth Pollak on Russian and Romanian infants adopted by Wisconsin families. These infants, adopted from orphanages where they lacked sufficient emotional care, were found to produce oxytocin differently -- even a number of years after their adoption. According to an article in the New York Times ("Exploring a Hormone for Caring", November 22, 2005), a typical child will have a rise in their oxytocin level after 30 minutes of interaction with their mothers. This rise in oxytocin did not occur in the previously neglected children. As the article states, "Dr. Pollak believes that oxytocin acts through the brain's reward system and gives infants a positive feeling about social interactions. The finding that the adopted children in the study apparently get less of an oxytocin reward could explain why some children from Eastern Europe, as they grow older, have difficulty forming social relationships."

One thing that we do know from child development and neurobiology is that children are very resilient and new neural connections can form and adjust depending on their environment. The article notes that it could be that these children's biological systems will eventually adjust. Regardless, the best intervention continues to be "adoption into loving families." In the future, these findings on oxytocin may help us discover more effective interventions for previously neglected children.

What this news on oxytocin also tells us is how important attachment and bonding are. I will hopefully talk more about attachment in another entry, because it's pretty much at the foundation of child development. However, for now I just want to point out that besides making people more trusting, higher oxytocin levels also make humans more resistant to stress and social phobias. This means that children with secure attachment figures are going to be better equipped to engage in trusting, healthy relationships. They are also going to be better able to deal with the world and manage stress and anxiety. Here is scientific proof that children need to be loved and cared for.