School for Social Work > For Alumni > 90th Anniversary Celebration > At-a-Glance > Friday Panels and Workshops

Panel and Professional Development Workshop Descriptions

Friday, July 18
10:00am-12:00pm - Professional Development Workshops (Morning)

Kathryn Basham, Ph.D. '90 - Professor, Smith College School for Social Work
Returning Home: Refuge or Another Combat Zone?
This workshop addresses the stressors that warfighters and their families face as they reunite following their tours of duty in a combat zone. Although reserach data reveal certain protective factors that support a soldier's resilience, serious mental health problems have been reported by many soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Through the processes of secondary trauma, families and couples experience vicarious traumatization and benefit from a multi-modal clinical social work practice approach that attends to hightened intimate partner violence and family conflict.

David Burton, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor, Smith College School for Social Work
A Social Worker's Concern with the Relationship Between Sexual Abuse and Sexual Offending
Dr. Burtonk has focused on the role of sexual vicitimization history in tahe etiology of sexual aggression for nearly 20 years. In this talk he will discuss social work's role in clinical work with sexual offenders using research and clinical stories.

Yvette Colon, M.S.W. '90, Ph.D. - Director of Education and Internet Services at the American Pain Foundation
Silent Voices and Invisible Walls: Exploring End of Life Care with Lesbians and Gay Men
The needs and desires of lesbians and gay men with cancer at the end of their lives are not fundamentally different from any other dying individuals. There are, however, significant legal restrictions and societal attitudes that can negatively affect the dying experiences of lesbians and gay men. This workshop will review the challenges faced by lesbians and gay men at the end of their lives. Special attention will be placed on understanding issues of discrimination and misconceptions, disclosure and interventions to assist lesbians and gay men with healthcare decision-making and end of life care planning. The effects of disenfranchised grief of surviving same-sex partners will be explored. A comprehensive bibliography and Internet resource list will be provided.

Carolyn Jacobs, Ph.D. - Dean and Elizabeth Marting Treuhaft Professor, Smith College School for Social Work
Spirituality in Social Work Practice: Passing Fad or Transformative Presence?
This session will discuss the integration of spirituality and clinical social work practice. Throughout the history of the profession there has been an absence, or at times, a tension regarding paying attention to issues of spirituality in practice. Dr. Jacobs will explore state of the art from both practice and research on issues of religiosity and spirituality in the ways that clients make meanings of their lives.

Joan Lesser, Ph.D. - Adjunct Professor; Chair, Practice Sequence, Smith College School for Social Work
Cross Cultural Research, Practice and Training
This workshop will address the interweaving of research, practice and training within a cross cultural relational framework. Issues such as fostering collaborations with international colleagues, building cross cultural therapeutic relationships and appreciating how practice, research and teaching each inform the other will be discussed.

Ellen T. Luepker, M.S.W. '66 - Clinical Faculty, Hennepin-Regions Psychiatry Training Program and Private Practice, St. Paul, Minnesota
Videotaped Life Review: Its Personal and Intergenerational Impact
Using examples from popular media and the author's videtaped work, this workshop will define life review, describe the heightened need for life review in the latter stage of life, the value of systematically involving family members, and implications for including life review methods in psychotherapy.

Friday, July 18
12:30pm-1:45pm - Panels (Afternoon)

Friday, July 18
2:00pm-4:00pm - Professional Development Workshops (Afternoon)

Joan Berzoff, M.S.W. '74, Ed.D - Professor; Co-Direcotor of the Doctoral Program; Director, End of Life Certificate Program, Smith College School for Social Work
The Transformative Nature of Grief and Bereavement
This workshop will begin by reviewing some of the seminal psychodynamic theorists who have contributed to our knowledge of grief and bereavement. Next we will consider some of the ways in which grief may transform the ego, for better or for worse. Finally we will talk about the ways in which mourners may use their grief in a way that changes not only the self but the superego.

Susan Donner, Ph.D. '87 - Associate Dean and Professor, Smith College School for Social Work and Phebe Sessions, M.S.W. '67, Ph.D. - Professor, Smith College School for Social Work
Empowering Elders through the Use of Technology
This workshop will present findings from a National Science Foundation fundded research project exploring the assistance technology can provide elders, with the ultimate goal of helping them age in place. These preliminary findings come either from focus groups who have been exposed to the technology or from seniors who have directly tested out the technologies. Implications for what losses and gains result from the use of technology and what facilitation conditions are necessary for the use of technology with seniors will be discussed.

Martha A. Gabriel, M.S.W. '68, Ph.D. '83 - Associate Professor of New York University School of Social Work
Dangerous Listening: Explorations of the Effects of Therpeutic Listening
Therapeutic listening comprises the quintessential component of the helping professionals' activities. Clinical social workers utilize, day-to-day, hour-by-hour, year to year, a range of listening skills. Despite the importance and centrality of listening to the endeavor of helping, the literature in the area of therapeutic listening has been sparse at best. This workshop focuses on a historical review of our understanding of the activity of listening, presents typology of listening and moves to examples of listening in the use of different interventions. It addresses the benefits and risks to the therapeutic listener of this empathic activity. Case illustration and discussion will be encouraged and vignettes of therapeutic listening styles will be presented.

Josh Miller, Ph.D. - Professor; Chair, Social Welfare Policy and Services Sequence, Smith College School for Social Work
The Circle of Reconciliation: The Recursive Relationship Between Psychosocial Healing and Social Justice in Response to Terrorism and Armed Conflict
The workshop will examine the intergroup dynamics that occur when there has been terrorism and armed conflict. Using the social ecology of disaster as a framwork, a model of integrating psychosocial healing with social justice, peace and reconciliation will be presented using examples from Hurricane Katrina, and the civil wars in Sri Lanka and Uganda. Restorative justice models, such as the Acholi tradition of Matta Oput will be considered, as well as how social workers can contribute to healing through direct practice and psychosocial capacity building.

Catherine Nye, Ph.D. - Associate Professor, Smith College School for Social Work
Tales from the Field: International Practice, Ethnographic Research, and Student Placements in Northern Thailand
The workshop will review on-going ethnographic research on social work practice in secular/professional and Buddhist social service delivery systems in Northern Thailand. It will describe current work with professional social work supervisors and practitioners to formulate and codify their practice wisdom/local knowledge. It will also provide an opportunity to hear from students about their experiences in placements in social work agencies and NGOs in Chaing Mai, Thailand.

Marsha Kline Pruett, Ph.D., M.S.L. - Maconda Brown O'Connor Professor, Smith College School for Social Work
New Developments in the Family Court System: Using a Clinical Screen to Provide Better Services to Families
This research evaluates a clinical screening instrument that has been implemented in the courts throughout Connecticut to improve the family law system. The screen allows for identification of family strengths and problems and results in recommendations for four kinds of services. The evaluation examines which aspects of the screen contribute to the service recommendation and identifies the screen's usefuleness at improving the efficiency of the court system for families.

Rani Varghese, M.S.W. '99, Instructor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Adjunct Faculty, Smith College School for Social Work and Mike Funk, M.A., Instructor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Transformation in Action: Liberating Ourselves and Each Other
Liberation is about recognizing and eradicating the racism within ourselves and among each other. Personal and professional work around racism must include moving toward the liberation and the transformation of society. Relying on concepts from liberation theory and social justice education, in this workshop we will co-construct the world we want to live in. This workshop is geared toward the learner who has done previous work around race and racism in an academic or workshop setting.

* Continuing Education six-hour seminars will occur on Thursday, 7/17 and Saturday, 7/19/08 from 9:00am - 4:00pm. These events will have separate registration procedures and fees.

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General Information

At-a-Glance Schedule of Events

Panel and Workshop Descriptions
Friday
Saturday

Keynote Speaker

Housing & Accommodations

Shuttle Service Schedule

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS)

Faculty/Alumni Booksigning: Books for Sale

Map (pdf requires Adobe Acrobat)