Dan Millman '08

I’ve lived in the Valley since graduating from the University of Massachusetts and spent my 20’s doing direct care work, volunteering at a collectively-run community arts space in Easthampton, Massachusetts, and occasionally making videos and doing performances concerning such topics as professional wrestling and the early life of Yoda.

Staying in the area was important for my wife and me and over the years I’d think from time to time about Smith’s Social Work School as a way to build from my experiences of working in residential programs for adults struggling with mental illness. I went over to the School for Social Work office to get more information and found that the program seemed like a good fit. In particular, I was excited by Smith’s attention to issues of difference, its psychodynamic orientation, and the inclusion in the curriculum of challenging and interesting ideas such as postmodernism.

My first-year placement was on an adult inpatient unit at the Brattleboro Retreat in Brattleboro, Vermont, where I was supervised by a Smith-trained clinician. The challenge of the placement, and what made it such a good learning experience, involved working with people in a fast-paced and short-term setting on very practical goals, while at the same time working with them to create a therapeutic (if brief) relationship. I also facilitated a spirituality group and co-facilitated a group about creating meaning with a creative-arts therapist. This year, my placement will be at a community mental health clinic, Child & Family Services of the Pioneer Valley, in Easthampton, where I will get experience in a more clinically structured setting.

Throughout my experience in the program, I’ve appreciated the focus on the inter-connectedness of theory and practice. The summer classroom experience, in which we have the opportunity to share and get feedback on our clinical work from other students and instructors, has helped me to think more deeply about my work during the placement, in ways that integrate issues of race and gender, theoretical perspectives, and the challenges of working within the larger social-service system. And the learning community at the school is an environment in which I feel comfortable taking risks in thinking about these challenging issues. Class discussions have, at times, helped me to re-connect with what I find exciting and moving about the possibilities of social work. And, at its best, the program has helped me to make connections between interests and experiences -- thinking about how the mind and emotions work, the role of maleness, being part of a cooperative group, working in direct care, making art and seeking connections with other people through art -- that had previously seemed disconnected.

My interests in social work include group work, spirituality, gender and men’s issues, and the importance of community and connection, including supports that may lie outside of both the medical model and professional social service programs. I’m further interested in thinking about what role social workers might play in connecting people to these community supports, and in integrating medical model and professional social service supports with community and community-based supports.