The Power of Your Story: Self-Care Day 2017

Columbia School of Social Work celebrates its 10th anniversary of Self-Care Day on Monday, October 23, 2017.

RSVP is required: csswselfcare2017.eventbrite.com

If your desired workshop is full, you may sign-up on the waitlist on the day of. 

Performance and Panel Discussion: Narrative in Social Work: The Power and Possibility of Story | 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
(Livestream Available)
Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway @ 116th St.)
Doors Open at 9:30 a.m.

Benaifer Bhadha (MSW `08) opens Self-Care Day with a performance piece expressing the value of telling one’s own narrative as a form of self-care and healing. The editors and contributors of Narrative in Social Work: The Power and Possibility of Story join Benaifer on stage to share their experiences of integrating narrative theory and approaches into their practice. The discussion features Ann Burack-Weiss (MSW `71, PhD `90), editor and contributor of Narrative in Social Work and will be moderated by Lynn Lawrence and Lynne Mjiangos, contributors and co-editors of the book. Professor Mary Sormanti will moderate for our livestream audience.

Panelists and Topics
Christiana Best-Giacomini (bio): Transnational Parenting
Benaifer Bhadha (bio): HIV/AIDS in Kenya
Rachel Blustain (bio): Foster Care Parents
Ann Burack-Weiss (bio): Aging
Hedi Mandel (bio): Medical Social Work

Moderators:
Lynn Sara Lawrence (bio)
Lynne Bamat Mijangos (bio)
Mary Sormanti (bio)

Books available for purchase at Book Culture, 536 W. 112th street.

Lunch (will be provided) | 12:00-1:30 p.m.

All Day Sessions @ CSSW | 1:30-5:00 p.m.

DIY Herbal Tea and Heating Pad Workshop with Aretha | 2nd Floor Hallway

Make your own tea and heating pads! Learn about different herbs used for relaxation and mood enhancement.

Pet Therapy with Penny | 3rd Floor Hallway

Come hang out with a certified therapy dog! Get some smiles, snuggles and kisses to help you relax mid-semester.

All Day Sessions @ CSSW | 1:30-6:00 p.m.

Game Room | 306

TV Room | C03

SWAG Arts Lounge | 4th Floor Hallway

Please bring your own yoga mat for yoga classes and the Alexander Technique class. We are not able to provide yoga mats. 

Workshops: Block 1 @ CSSW 1255 Amsterdam Avenue | 1:30-2:30 p.m.

Does it Matter How We Sleep? (Livestream Available)
Inna Andreva-Miller, MD, MSW | Rm. 301

What do we do more than anything else? What do we spend 1/3 of our lifetime doing? Of course, I am talking about sleep. This workshop covers a range of topics including sleep architecture, sleep in the animal and human worlds, and recommendations for helping your clients with sleep disorders.

“Don’t Mend, Buy Safety Pins”: Shedding Your To-Do Lists Through Poetry
Lynn Sara Lawrence, MS | Rm. 404

We will be doing a close reading of Louise Erdrich’s hilarious and liberating poem “Advice to Myself”. This will be followed by giving a writing prompt so participants can have fun writing their own “note to self”.

Global Village
John Robertson and the International Students Caucus | Rm. 304

In this program, you will have a chance to engage in cuisine as well as cultural exchange with international students or students having international experience. Students who would like to share their local cuisines should bring foods to share with other participants. In addition, our guest speaker, Professor Robertson, will facilitate discussions on exploring subjectivity, objectivity, and identity in globalized era. All students are welcome to the event, and there is no requirement for bringing stuff!

Body Positive Workshop
Kelly Kirshner, CSSW Student | Rm. 311

Activities in this workshop will include discussion of intuitive eating, intuitive exercise, health and beauty messages in the media, and negative food talk.

Sound Meditation and Mindfulness Workshop (Livestream Available)
Ellie Pappas, LMSW, Reiki Practitioner/Personal Freedom Coach | Rm. 405

This presentation will begin with sound healing. I will play a crystal bowl for a 15-minute soothing meditation. We will then all participate in a simple chant to relax our minds and activate our self- expression. I will then provide a writing exercise to help the participants focus on what it is they are wanting to bring into their lives. Lastly, I will ask participants to share what they expressed in writing. Sharing it vocally affirms what you are in the process of creating for yourselves.

Chillaxing with Gussie the Pug
Professor Amy Werman | Rm. 305

Everything seems more manageable with a Pug to pet. Animal-assisted therapy has been shown to have many beneficial effects, especially in terms of reducing stress. Gussie the Pug has been in practice for 5 years as a licensed therapy dog and is available to help you take the edge off! She is a great listener and will lead a discussion on managing the demands of graduate school.

Poem as Prompt
Lynne Bamat Mijangos, MSW, MFA, MS | Rm. 302

Group participants will read and discuss a poem, write to a prompt, and read to each other.

Realistic Time Management
Thalea Torres, CSSW Student | Rm. 406

This time management workshop will first reflect and identify personal priorities and the tension that sometimes comes between them and the reality of limited hours in a day. The presenter also will discuss the personal nature of time management, as well as identifying some personal time-sucks that each person as an individual engages in. Acknowledging the reality of these tensions and pitfalls will help provide realistic outlooks on one’s own time to warrant more accurate and manageable planning. Following a more personal reflection, participants will move on to looking at tools that can facilitate streamlined time management techniques including planners and apps.

Workshops: Block 2 @ CSSW 1255 Amsterdam Avenue | 2:40-3:40 p.m.

Stress-Less: Tools for Managing Organizational Stress
Typhani Carter, LCSW, Vice President of Programs, The Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation | Rm. 301

Social work practice and organizational stress are often inextricably linked. Social workers are often employed by organizations that experience significant stress, ultimately creating an environment for its staff that is wrought with tension. When tasked with balancing the significant needs of service-users, being responsive to the insurmountable demands of the organization and managing their own life stressors, Social Workers can feel overwhelmed. If not managed appropriately, this overwhelm can significantly impact Social Workers’ daily functioning.

This workshop will encourage participants to: (1) explore organizations as systems, (2) identify characteristics of healthy versus stressed systems, (3) identify ways in which organizational stress impacts functioning and (4) develop tools to combat the effects of organizational stress.

“Don’t Mend, Buy Safety Pins”: Shedding Your To-Do Lists Through Poetry
Lynn Sara Lawrence, MS | Rm. 404

We will be doing a close reading of Louise Erdrich’s hilarious and liberating poem “Advice to Myself”. This will be followed by giving a writing prompt so participants can have fun writing their own “note to self”.

Body, Breath and Voice: Using Your Instrument for Self-Care and Healing
Benaifer Bhadha, Performance Activist and Educator | Rm. 304

Our bodies are powerful instruments that hold stories, emotions, possibilities and all too often, pain and stress. Dynamically moving our bodies and taking time to connect to our instrument and breath is a powerful form of self care. In our time together we will use body excavation, movement and theatre exercises to turn our gaze inward and connect to the stories inside us that want to be told. Together, we will greet each story with deep acknowledgment and whole-hearted listening. When we are seen, held and heard, we can truly begin to understand what we need for our own self-care and healing.

Restorative Flow Class
Alessandra Tantawi, CSSW Student | Rm. 311

Focusing on Hatha (open heart) and Pranayama breathing (mindfulness of breath), we will flow and breathe together. All levels are welcome, I will meet you where you are. I know it can be difficult to find time to focus on ourselves while in school and in the field of social work in general. Let’s take an hour to simply connect our breath and body. I’ll provide some great music to guide us through our flow and I will end the class with some mindful meditation that I hope you will carry with you and even share with your clients. So grab your yoga mat, or simply bring a towel to practice on, some water and your lovely self. Please bring a yoga mat or towel.

Alexander Technique for Social Workers
Karen Braga, MFA, Adjunct Professor at NYU | Rm. 312

The Alexander Technique is a mind/body technique that teaches students how to release tension in an easy and organic way. Students will learn simple exercises to reduce stress, enhance posture and cultivate well being. This workshop is great for tight shoulders, “bad” backs, “computer slump” and mental fatigue. Please bring a yoga mat. 

Sound Meditation and Mindfulness Workshop (Livestream Available)
Ellie Pappas, LMSW, Reiki Practitioner/Personal Freedom Coach | Rm. 405

This presentation will begin with sound healing. I will play a crystal bowl for a 15-minute soothing meditation. We will then all participate in a simple chant to relax our minds and activate our self- expression. I will then provide a writing exercise to help the participants focus on what it is they are wanting to bring into their lives. Lastly, I will ask participants to share what they expressed in writing. Sharing it vocally affirms what you are in the process of creating for yourselves.

Community Care and Self-Sustainability at CSSW
Undoing Racism Internship Project | Rm. 305

Join interns from the Undoing Racism Internship Project (URIP) for a workshop about community care and self sustainability, and expanding the current dialogue about “self care.” Which parts of ourselves are left out of this discussion? Is physical self care more important than taking care of our political selves? Is self sustainability a solo job, or can we as a community do more to take care of one another? How do our identities impact what we need from ourselves and others? Join us to dig into these questions and more!

Our Own Narratives: How Storytelling Can Renew Our Well-Being
Heidi Mandel, PhD, LSW: Social Work Supervisor at The Jewish Board of New York | Rm. 302

Health care social workers practice in a high stress environment. Expressive writing to a prompt can liberate our imagination and strengthen our spirits. Stories draw us into the suffering of our patients. As we lean into their experience and courage, they teach us what hope looks like.

Considering Vicarious Resilience, Recognizing Our Resourcefulness
Madelyn Miller, PhD, LCSW, Psychotherapist, Adjunct Faculty, NYU Silver, Chairperson, Disaster Trauma Committee, NYC-NASW | Rm. 406

Across our work with survivors of trauma and loss, as we emphatically engage and openly listen to narratives of suffering and survival, it is inevitable that we are deeply affected. Not only do we experience vicarious trauma, but importantly, we often experience vicarious resilience, that is, the positive transformation to our inner experience in response to the resourcefulness and perseverance of our clients and their determination to face the future. Through discussion, this workshop considers vicarious resilience, the importance it plays in social work, and how it can be fundamental to our self-care.

Let Me Read To You: Listening for Pleasure, Relaxation, and Restoration (Livestream Only)
Prof. Mary Sormanti

Stories, which are essential to human development, are written and told for many reasons and in many contexts. As professional caregivers, stories are central to our work. We are keen and active listeners, adept at encouraging others to remember, share, and expand upon their stories in ways that facilitate their well-being. When these stories are laden with suffering both the telling and the listening are especially demanding. In this workshop, participants will be invited to engage in a different type of listening – listening for pleasure, relaxation, and restoration to brief carefully chosen stories read aloud by the facilitator – followed by informal discussion and simple creative writing activities.

Workshops: Block 3 @ CSSW | 3:50-4:50 p.m.

Reclaiming Our Bodies
Erfei Zhao, CSSW Student | Rm. 301

I believe that movement is a common language that we all speak in spite of everyone’s unique background, and by engaging those muscles that we don’t normally pay attention to, we get to shift our focus from all the stress accumulated in our brains to our body movements. During the session, I will facilitate an exercise where participants will be given a safe and creative space to express their important life events through movements and, thus, to share their personal values among each other and also help themselves relieve stress by reflecting on their own experiences.

Reading Poetry, A Poetry Reading (Livestream Available)
Adam Pellegrini, Director of the CSSW Writing Center | Rm. 404

Join us as we consider what it’s like to experience poetry performed—what moves us, what challenges us. We’ll compare poems we read quietly to recorded performances, and reflect together. We’ll close with an informal poetry reading where everyone is invited to share, and listen. Bring your favorite poem or a poem you wrote yourself!

Body, Breath and Voice: Using Your Instrument for Self-Care and Healing
Benaifer Bhadha, Performance Activist and Educator | Rm. 304

Our bodies are powerful instruments that hold stories, emotions, possibilities and all too often, pain and stress. Dynamically moving our bodies and taking time to connect to our instrument and breath is a powerful form of self care. In our time together we will use body excavation, movement and theatre exercises to turn our gaze inward and connect to the stories inside us that want to be told. Together, we will greet each story with deep acknowledgment and whole-hearted listening. When we are seen, held and heard, we can truly begin to understand what we need for our own self-care and healing.

The Yoga of Journaling
Josie Rosario, CSSW Student and Yoga Instructor | Rm. 311

This soul-full and nurturing Vinyasa-based yoga class will combine movement, breath, and bumpin’ tunes to create an experience of transformation. We’ll follow this class with a 15-minute journaling session to set powerful mid-semester intentions, unpack feelings and thoughts that might have come up during yoga, or for any purpose your heart desires. This class is open-level and is for every BODY. Please bring a yoga mat.

Alexander Technique for Social Workers
Karen Braga, MFA | Rm. 312

Toward a Positive White Racial Identity: Finding Ourselves in the Racial Justice Journey (Livestream Available)
Laura Vest, MSW, Forensic Social Worker | Rm. 405

The program will raise awareness of the ways white people have lost humanity while dehumanizing others for centuries, and together, as a group, we will learn and share compassionately about our struggles to form a positive white racial identity in this day and age. We will talk about the three types of disconnection that occur for white-identified people, and how understanding our often unexamined fight, flight and freeze responses to undoing racism, unearthing a sense of rootedness, and social action can help us form a positive and radical white racial identity.

Community Care and Self-Sustainability at CSSW
Undoing Racism Internship Project | Rm. 305

Join interns from the Undoing Racism Internship Project (URIP) for a workshop about community care and self sustainability, and expanding the current dialogue about “self care.” Which parts of ourselves are left out of this discussion? Is physical self care more important than taking care of our political selves? Is self sustainability a solo job, or can we as a community do more to take care of one another? How do our identities impact what we need from ourselves and others? Join us to dig into these questions and more!

Poem as Prompt
Lynne Bamat Mijangos, MSW, MFA, MS | Rm. 302

Group participants will read and discuss a poem, write to a prompt, and read to each other.

Workshops: Block 4 @ CSSW | 5:00-6:00 p.m.

The Yoga of Journaling
Josie Rosario, CSSW Student and Yoga Instructor| Rm. 311

This soul-full and nurturing Vinyasa-based yoga class will combine movement, breath, and bumpin’ tunes to create an experience of transformation. We’ll follow this class with a 15-minute journaling session to set powerful mid-semester intentions, unpack feelings and thoughts that might have come up during yoga, or for any purpose your heart desires. This class is open-level and is for every BODY. Please bring a yoga mat.

Mindfulness Meditation: Transcending the Higher Self (Livestream Available)
Pablo Orozco-Castro, CSSW Student | Rm. 305

Participants will be able to gain foundational knowledge of the following concepts: mindfulness, meditation and bodywork. Some additional concepts that will be covered include: self-care, developing grounded awareness, guided self-inquiry (being your own therapist) and developing a critical consciousness through meditation. A guided meditation will be presented to develop awareness around, preventing and addressing the social phenomenon of microaggressions through discussions around solidarity, unity through humanistic/liberation psychological frameworks.