Can’t do. Can do.

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Yesterday on the treadmill for my stress test I initially had some very negative thoughts. It was Veterans Day. While I’m not a veteran of the US, I was an NCO in the IDF.

I, in my younger years, have hiked the highest mountains in the Negev Desert, mountains in Northern Israel. I completed basic training and the NCO course. I loved hiking and backpacking and travel.

My nickname in almost any job has always been the Energizer Bunny. Though, since I woke up nearly fully paralyzed a few years ago, I feel like the Energizer Bunny who’s had the battery removed from his back.

So I was on the treadmill, out of breath, and in pain having little to do with my heart and mostly having to do with my Rheumatoid Arthritis and my Myositis.

It took five years to get those diagnoses down. Two misdiagnoses (one in Buffalo, and another at the illustrious Mayo Clinic until blood test would reveal what was going on.

And as my back was in pain and my arms were hurting and my joints were screaming from something I used to be able to do with a 60+lb trekker pack – well before my army days – I felt awful and like a failure.

That is until the social worker voice in my head said “you aren’t a failure. You don’t have to meet any physical expectations. You are Disabled. It’s okay to lose old skills and learn new ones. No, you couldn’t do what you used to, but your old you couldn’t do what you do now.”

I felt a wave of gratitude come over me as my heart continued to beat through my chest and the EKG machine attached to me continued to print…and I realized that the sum of my experiences is who I am now, and I would be a whole new person tomorrow, adding in todays experiences.

So often we let that negative voice of what we can no longer do through. Instead, before me opened a path of all the things I can do now that I couldn’t do then. From homeless to homeowner. From drifting to vocation and calling. From confused to having an identity.

Friends, normalize and validate these thoughts. Breathe. And then look ahead of you, because tomorrow you’re going to be able to do things you weren’t able to do today. You might not be able to do things you did yesterday. That’s the adventure. That’s the journey.

“Today 4 U Tomorrow For Me” – Angel, RENT

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When I was in the Israel Defense Forces I was a Chayal Boded (a “Lonely Soldier”) – someone who is serving in the army with no family in the country. I developed my chosen family and my brothers and sisters in arms during my service. As a Chayal Boded, I was often invited to friends’ houses during holidays.

During Simchat Torah, when we rewind the Torah and start all over again I was invited to a friend’s house. His family is Moroccan. The hospitality and culture, warm, and funny. After being fed…just…so much food (“He must be shy…give him more food…”) I remember sitting down for coffee with my friend and his family.

The conversation eventually turned to me: who I was, why on Earth I had moved to Israel and joined the IDF, what I thought of the Israeli men. When my friend’s mother found out that I had a degree (I had explained that I finished my degree in Linguistics and thought that this was my next logical step), she shared something with me: she had relayed her sadness, that in her own family, and in some (many?) segments of society, there was a drive to earn as much money as possible after the army instead of going to college or vocational school first.

It’s not that there isn’t academic drive in Israel (there is, and some incredible scholarship) it was that it often takes a few more years for young adults to engage with academic or vocational programs, as many go to other countries to sell in the mall kiosks, or find other ways to earn cash, until they come to a reckoning of what it will take to get by, and eventually thrive.

My friends mom was worried that the concept of sacrificing now for reward later was becoming something less familiar as just an…understood…concept. This is from a society that has sacrificed so much: from the ashes that our country was founded on, to wars, and blockades, and more. The Kibbutz movement, that made the desert bloom. She was worried that there was a shift in understanding: that those younger than me didn’t understand that the hard now is the key that opens doors later.

I can’t say that, in that moment, I agreed with her: I honestly didn’t know enough of Israeli society to know. What I did know, was that her thoughts, feelings, and beliefs were genuine.

This memory was brought back to the forefront of my mind this week when reading reports on COVID-19; the lack of patience and lack of willingness to sacrifice now for later. The growing segment that doesn’t realize that the hard now is the key that opens our front doors, and lives open up later.The lack of willingness to understand that we can’t go back, and we can only go forward. To understand that it’s going to likely get a lot harder before it gets better. That some sacrifices (wearing a mask) aren’t as hard as others (distancing, not seeing friends). The denialism. The shocking reality that despite three vaccination shots I’ve received, because of my immunosuppressants, I may not be protected at all.

We are standing at the precipice of historic revolution (as in a change as seismic as the industrial revolution): a total change in how we relate to one another, our communities, and work, locally, nationally, internationally…and while this has been building throughout the pandemic (and, in fact, in the lead up to it) I fear, as did my friend’s mother, that the denialism, the lack of hard now for later, will cause segments of society to be in shock when we can no longer deny our current geopolitical state.

Back on the street
Where I met my sweet
Where he was moaning and groaning
On the cold concrete
The nurse took him home
For some Mercurochrome
And I dressed his wounds
And got him back on his feet
Sing it!
Today 4 you
Tomorrow 4 me
Today 4 you
Tomorrow 4 me
I said today 4 you
Tomorrow 4 me
Today 4 you
Tomorrow 4 me
- Angel, RENT

Sample Blog Post for My UB SW150 Students

Journey

Hello SW150 students! This is a sample of a full credit blog post for Blog #1. Please let me know if you have any questions. – Matt

Beacon

Beacon by Frank Moore 2001

The art piece I’ve decided to talk about is one that’s incredibly important to me for a number of reasons, in fact I’ve carried a copy of it with me daily for many years.

The piece is “Beacon” by Frank Moore. The above digital replication does not do it justice. When I was first introduced to it as an undergraduate taking a drawing class, it was when we went on a field trip to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in 2002-2003. We were given the go ahead to walk around on our own and I came upon it – it was a painting the size of a wall, and it made me feel so incredibly small. I had my headphones in (as I almost always do) and I was listening to the song “Rest in Peace” from the Buffy The Musical soundtrack. 

You're scared
Ashamed of what you feel
And you can't tell the ones you love
You know they couldn't deal
Whisper in a dead man's ear
It doesn't make it real
– Spike, Rest in Peace, Buffy The Vampire Slayer the Musical

Go ahead and take a moment to listen to the song while you take in the painting. I broke down in tears in the middle of the Albright-Knox when I saw it, and its meaning and impact hit me. The painting and the music coming together to move me to a display of emotion I rarely show the outside world.

The painting shows a man on a hospital bed, lonely, in a sea of torment, connected to IV tubes, and with a tentacle holding injections. The lighthouse is a beacon of hope for a cure, shooting out a light that shares with it DNA/Genetics (Source: I remember the placard I read at the museum).

Having lost friends to HIV/AIDS (and the resulting complications thereof) this piece of art motivated me to become a sex educator in the LGBTQIA+ community, and to pass out/distribute condoms, and encourage HIV testing. It took the ember of activism in my chest and turned it into a roaring fire, which I carry with me today as a Social Worker.

More broadly, this piece had me consider the larger movements of art within the LGBTQIA+ civil rights movement. As it connected me to other art, I found other activists and artists who thought like me. I also began to more broadly learn the history of the LGBTQIA+ civil rights movements, through art and music. This piece of art connected me to a history that was my own, but hidden from me. I think it made me a better activist. Certainly, carrying a copy for close to twenty years must mean something.

The Social Work Future is Agency Based & Collaborative (or the End of Private Practice As We Know It)

Journey 1

In looking at #SocialWorkFutures, of one thing I am sure: the future of our profession is agency based and collaborative. In what I am sure will rankle some private practice feathers, below are my thoughts on this as we move into the unknown return to the new-normal.

First, as the world gets more complicated, we as social workers are going to continue to need to rely on a network and team of people to serve our clients and communities that cannot be replicated in pure private practice (e.g., hanging a shingle outside one’s home office).

From consulting across modality and research specialties, to working with clinical pharmacists, nurse practitioners, nurses, and medical doctors: private practice options for even the most network savvy social worker cannot replicate these experiences or agency based brain trusts.

Ethically there is a case to be made that to forgo this brain trust in search of solitary practice intentionally and negatively impacts our client populations.

There is a business component as well. As a freelancer and consultant for many years in New York, I specialized in rebuilding corporate books for business owners who didn’t keep records (outside of maybe some receipts that looked like they had been lit on fire and run over before being shoved in a box). Few people are actually prepared to run a business, let alone a private practice.

Expertise in one area (social work, counseling, EMDR, etc.) does not translate to expertise in all areas, and less so in the world of business, billing, and taxation. Agencies offer billing specialists, payroll departments, marketing, accounting, IT (in the world of ransomeware more important than ever).

As someone who no longer has to market their services outside of my web presence, I would rather everything go through my agency than have to handle billing or scheduling or multiple learning management systems. I would happily sacrifice a not insignificant percentage of my speaker fees for the kind of support my agency offers in all the areas that I am not an expert in.

I believe we are going to begin to see the hybridization of private practice and agency practice first, more fully than currently exists (because it does exist). Then, I believe there is going to be greater democratization of the existing agency structures for two reasons: first, it follows trauma-informed principles. Secondly, because everything I ever learned in my MBA shows better employee engagement, satisfaction, and bottom lines when this happens. It becomes a win-win for shareholders and stakeholders alike. In the end we are going to see a modern agency based structure that embraces multidirectional collaboration, working for the betterment of all stakeholders.

While I believe this will first happen at the micro level of the social work world, I believe it will also occur at the mezzo and macro levels.

With the push for a single-payer healthcare system in this country (while a bit far away in the present political…climate), I believe that there will be a greater incentive for agency based collaborative practice: once clients no longer have a reason to pay out of pocket when insurance can cover their social work needs across the board, when there is no longer any discernible benefit to engaging a private practice therapist in comparison to the breadth of options and resources only available through those engaged in agency based practice, when cash is taken out of the picture, I believe we will see a very different playing field.

Reflections on Memorial Day

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Having just co-facilitated the Veteran’s training this week, my military service and memorial day weigh heavily on my mind. Memorial Day in Israel is, obviously on a different day than in the United States. However, having had the privilege of serving with, and often times on behalf of the U.S. military, among other world armies during the tenure of my service, I can say with confidence that veterans around the world experience our memorial days very similarly.

In Israel I had the honor – more than once – of standing guard next to our eternal memorial flame. When we hold the memorial ceremony, across the country, at the exact same time a one minute siren can be heard blaring throughout the country: played in every city, town, village, moshav and kibbutz.

Everything – including traffic on the busiest of highways comes to a complete stop; people freeze in the crosswalk. If you’re on a bus you stand up. It’s hard to describe the sound of the siren while keeping guard over the eternal flame. It rushes through valleys and hills, through cities, and the desert, and it shoots through your chest; grabbing you by your heart strings. It’s the wail of countless soldiers who died in defense of their country, throughout history. In the language of anguish of the Warrior Class it says “remember me, I had hopes, and dreams too…I was a daughter…a son…too.”

Eventually the Siren ends and then there is a deafening silence. There are no “happy Memorial days.” There are only entire worlds that have ended, represented by individual families mourning their loved ones.  I, like so many veterans, cringe when someone thanks me for my service. I cringe equally when anyone calls me, or other soldiers heroes. Heroes are those that we stand guard for, and who we miss terribly. As I do every memorial day, I pray for the only thing any veteran can ever want: peace.

Yes, I’m using my phone during this meeting.

Journey, Podcast
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1339411/8423095-yes-i-m-using-my-phone-during-this-meeting.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-8423095&player=small

Transcript:

Yes, I’m using my phone during this meeting.

A question I’ve found myself asked at more than one meeting (work, committee, community, or otherwise) is “are you really on your phone during this meeting? I figured I’d share why “yes, I’m using my phone during this meeting” and “yes, my students are encouraged to use their phones in my class” has became a regular part of my self-advocacy, self-care, social worker vernacular. I may even make little cards with QR codes to hand out that link to this podcast.

This is an important topic. It’s important for disability rights, it’s important for students, it’s important for workers, and it’s important for the future of Social Work tech:

I can touch type on my phone as quickly if not more quickly than a keyboard, and certainly faster than I can write. Beyond speed, the main (and most important) difference is that I can put digital words to digital paper without the joint or muscle pain that accompanies typing or writing due to my rheumatoid arthritis and myositis. Yes I will, largely, be looking up at the speaker as they present or speak (it’s common courtesy, and it’s important to provide non-verbal feedback as a learner), but the speaker or presenter doesn’t need my unbreaking eye contact and undivided attention for me to understand and retain what they’re saying.

No one would ever be admonished for taking a brief moment in time to look down at their handwritten notes, and so I expect (and, since I set healthy boundaries, require) that the same courtesy is extended to me: whether I’m checking I typed a word correctly, or adding an event someone just shared to my calendar and then returning to the notepad app.

No I don’t write down protected health information (I don’t when writing on paper, either). Simply put, I use the most efficient tool for me to memorialize what you are saying, process it, think about it, remember it, and recall it later. That I have my phone out indicates that I care enough about what you have to say, to take notes on it, and to think about it later.

Solution Focused Practice calls on us to recognize that our clients and patients are the experts on themselves and their own lives. As practitioners, managers, leaders, and teachers we owe others (and ourselves) this same freedom and respect.

Finding Holiness In All Spaces

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Whether digital spaces, outdoor spaces, happy spaces, or sad spaces, one of the challenges I give myself is to find some connection to holiness. Right now, I am working to re-incorporate the writing time I used to spend, for close to a decade, possibly more) every evening. From 10th grade until just when I joined the IDF, every evening I wrote (at least once a day). Sometimes i wrote more. I was a prolific LiveJournal-er until the site was sold, re-sold, moved to California, and then eventually moved (illegally) to Russia (seemingly without consequence…well, legal consequences…I am sure there were ramifications we have yet to really feel or discover).

What I realized is that I have been missing a part of my holiness: this period in the evening where I can have ink dance across the page. The period of moment where I can move thought to words to intention and intention to action. To speak life and truth into the co-creation of my own reality.

So I have found holy space in 9pm at night. I am trying to make it beyond a habit, and to transform this time period, every evening, into a holy space. My space. A space to write, to heal. To discuss. To imagine. To create. To plan. To ideate. 9pm is my time. 21:00 is a good evening hour. For the night belongs to Jacob.

I took yesterday, and today ‘off’ of work and responsibilities so I could be present for myself, and for self-care. It was just so necessary; I have found little reason to sit in front of a computer and pretend to work if my brain knows that it needs time to slow down, to do nothing, to do something by doing nothing. So yesterday was spent watching a friend play rugby in the park in the beautiful 60 degrees, and sunny weather, followed by an afternoon and evening with friends. Watching movies as much as we were conversing (safely) amongst ourselves.

Today I had intended as a writing day. My body didn’t allow for it (chronic illness is something that can’t be planned for…just planned around). So instead of frustrating myself, I slept as much as my body needed, and then visited some Ohana for a socially distanced birthday party, got hugs for the first time in a while from some loved ones who I missed (all vaccinated, all wearing masks, all breathing in a different direction; a calculated risk on our parts); and spent the time enjoying the holiness of our company. The holiness of coming together again.

Coming home, I had two meetings, and now, I find myself feeling more relaxed. Ready to do some cleaning before bed. Ready for the work week, and the academic week that lies ahead. Ready. Ready in general for all that may come my way this week. One step in front of the other, one small step, as I continue to breathe in, and breathe out, deeply, and with intention.

Until 9pm is as known to my body as my internal alarm clock at around 6am…just known, that now is the time to write…whether by laptop, or phone, or tablet…to put thoughts to this digital paper…it will be a habit that transforms into a practice.

Selah.

Explaining Short Sales, GameStop, and Reddit

Journey

In case anyone wants to understand what’s going on with the stock market and Reddit and GameStop I wrote an explainer. Feel free to use:

So short selling is betting against a company in the hopes of getting a profit when that company fails. I’ll use an example that leaves out some extra details but will give the gist:

Let’s say you wanted to make money on a short sale. You borrow a bicycle (representing stock) from a broker who can loan it to you, instead of you purchasing it.

You have to return the bike.

You take the bike that you borrowed and sell it for as much profit as you possibly can.

You now have sold a borrowed bike.

You owe a bike to your broker.

You go out and hope the bike company has gone to shit and that you can buy a bike at clearance that’s the same bike you just sold for way more, to return it to your broker.

The difference between what you sold the bike for (hopefully high) and what you bought the new bike you’re returning (hopefully low) is your profit.

You only make a profit if the bike company is going to shit. They have to practically be giving bikes away they’re doing so bad. There’s no demand for their terrible bikes. No one wants them.

Now let’s say you sold that bike for what you thought was a really great deal. You take that money and go in search of the bike at lower price ONLY TO FIND a new bike club (coughredditcough) got really interested in that bike and they bought all the bikes up and now that bike is in demand and hard to get. They’re refusing to sell any of their bikes.

You’re about to learn a hard lesson about supply and demand.

You HAVE to return the bike to the broker or pay some MAAAAJJJJJJOOOOOOOR not returning bike fee.

You have to buy the bike (at an inflated cost due to demand) at a loss, or really hope you’ll get some money to cover your ass because each day you can’t buy a bike you’re up shits creek.

You just lost at bike gambling. Also known as the short sale stock market.

The Solution Focused Podcast: Updated Guests, Schedule & Sign Up Form :-)

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I am so excited to have the next five guests lined up for The Solution Focused Podcast! (iTunes, Spotify)!

I am looking for more guests!

To answer your first question: YES I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE YOU ON THE SHOW! I would love to hear about your work, your research, your SFBT ideas, what brought you into SFBT work, how you’re using it. If you’re involved in SFBT I would like to hear from you and have you on the show 🙂

I have another twenty open slots that I would love to get scheduled and filled (the sooner they’re scheduled, the sooner I can start creating marketing materials, get the behind the scenes stuff setup, etc.). I know that you (yes, you wonderful human being reading this, you) have something to share!

If you’re interested, please check out the open recording dates (three options for each show) and then please fill out the guest information form. You’ll get a confirmation email relatively quickly (a day or so, if not less), and then a calendar invite.

Please also see the FAQ PDF which explains the process and answers most questions 🙂

Warmly & With Gratitude (and excitement)!),

Matt

Season 2 Episode 1: A Solution Focused Brief Therapy New Year to You!

SFBTCast

Season 2 Episode 1: A Solution Focused Brief Therapy New Year to You!

Happy New Year everyone! 2020 was – without question – largely a dumpster fire. That said, we can take a Solution Focused perspective as we embrace whatever 2021 has to throw at us!

As I reflect on the past year, I find I’m asking myself the same few questions I ask patients when they come into my office (as virtual as it is these days). I figured I would reflect and record a Self-Solution Focused Therapy Session to open 2021!

“How are you feeling, how’s your mood?”

I’m feeling okay. I’ve worked to reduce my stress, anxiety, and depression. I am feeling confident, hopeful, and excited for the year ahead.

“What are your best hopes for this year? What will let you know this year was helpful, productive, and satisfying?”

My best hopes for this year are to continue forward with my doctoral program, and to continue to embrace my hobbies and interests passionately and with unbridled enthusiasm! I’ll know that this year is helpful, productive, and satisfying if I feel that I am progressing forward.

“What will let you know that you’re progressing forward?”

I’ll see my home office and home confirming to me and my style. I’ll have a clean house, bedroom, and home office. My laundry will be done, and I’ll have read and written about the subjects I’m passionate about. I’ll continue to expand my programs at work.

“Excellent. So on a scale of 1-10, where 1 is you’re nowhere near where you want to be by the end of 2021, and a 10 is you’re exactly where you want to be at the end of 2021, where would you put yourself on the scale?”

I think I’d put myself at a 6.7

“What let’s you know that you’re at a 6.7?”

My house is getting there. I’m feeling confident I’ll have it clean by this weekend. I’m feeling good about where my education is heading, and I’m feeling ready for school to start picking up again.

“What would let you know you were 10% better? What would other people notice about you?”

If I were 10% better huh? Hmmm. I think I would notice I’m sticking to my writing and cleaning schedule more often. I think other people – if they could see me, since I haven’t really seen people in person since COVID started – I think they’d see me doing more of my hobbies, and they’d see me less time stressed because things were organized. They’ll see me super excited to talk about school.

“So what’s your next, small step to move up on the scale?”

Me I’m going to start the laundry.

“And on a confidence scale, where 1 is not at all confident, and a 10 is as confident as a human can be, how confident are you that you’ll get started?”

Which means it’s time to sign off and get that laundry started!

Please let me know what would a Solution Focused Brief Therapy New Year would look like for you! Send me an email or tweet 🙂 And, before I go to start the washer and dryer, I’m excited to announce that in 2021 my hope is to interview SFBT practitioners from around the world! Stay tuned!

Thank you for listening. Please tune in again two Sunday’s from now (and every time in-between), as we continue forward together down our solutions focused path. Comments, constructive criticism, feedback, and questions can be sent to matt@socialworkdesk.net. Yes I’m on Social Media at @TheMattSchwartz on all of the platforms you’d think to look at. I’m Matt Schwartz, and it’s a pleasure to be your host.

The music you’re listening to in the background today is Boston Landing on “Blue Dot Sessions” generously shared through a creative commons license. Please find more of their music at www.sessions.blue, that’s w-w-w- dot s-e-s-s-i-o-n-s- dot b-l-u-e.

I’ll see you in two weeks with more; until then, make good choices.