Experience Day 2021

Mini Classes

• Resilience or resistance: How to think about social work within a humanization context

  This mini course will focus on the differences between the concepts of resilience and resistance and their impact on social workers’ understanding of social problems and interventions.

  Taught by Professor Debora Ortega.

• Weighing our Worth: An introduction to Weight Discrimination and Weight-Inclusive Practice

  This mini class will introduce students to what weight discrimination is, how it occurs, and where it arises in our practice as social workers. We will participate in a brief embodiment exercise, critique public health paradigms around weight, learn some of the science about the connection between weight and health, and discuss ethical ways to treat people all across the weight spectrum. We will end with a discussion of how this knowledge can improve our approach to our work with social work clients and our relationships to our own bodies. 

  Taught by Assistant Professor Erin Harrop. 

• The Restorative Approaches

  A brief introduction to restorative justice – a philosophy and set of practices focusing on how people repair harm together in the wake of crime or violence. Learn the basic principles of restorative dialogue and imagine how restorative practices can be used for peacekeeping and conflict transformation in communities, schools, workplaces, and prisons.

  Taught by Assistant Professor Shannon Sliva. 

• Ecological Justice

  This may be a term unfamiliar to you. We often hear of environmental justice, but what is ecological justice? In this mini-course you will meet the concentration leads for GSSW's new Ecological Justice concentration and learn how you as a social worker will be activated into ensuring a healthy and flourishing future for people, all other species, and Earth.

  Taught by Clinical Associate Professor Sarah Bexell and Associate Professor Lisa Reyes-Mason. 

• Experiential Therapy

  Experiential Therapy can be a guided activity, a game, a mental puzzle to work out, time in nature, or a physical challenge. Through Experiential Therapy, the client often moves out of their comfort zone and into a place of new insights of self-discovery, confidence building, self-awareness, and new methods of how to cope with issues in their life. 

  Taught by Associate Professor Julie Laser.