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Dian Grier is a member:
Prison debate team wins Ethics Bowl against CSUB
Tehachapi News
CCI Warden William “Joe” Sullivan and CEO Rhonda Litt-Stoner approved the recent initiative through its mental health department. Under the supervision of the Chief of Mental Health, Dr. William Walsh, clinician Dian Grier, LCSW, has started a unique program to create meaningful experiences for inmates; preventing mental health issues; and, assisting with reducing symptoms for those with a diagnosis. Grier had worked with groups of women prior to her position at CCI. She has been developing programs with male inmates over the last five years to meet their needs. When comparing men and women in group therapy, she noticed that men were not responding as well as women to processing feelings in groups. Traditional masculine norms and stigma associated with mental illness can keep men from seeking help.

Amy Burnside is a member:
4 Breathing Techniques That Could Be Better Than Xanax
brit.co
Therapist and mindfulness instructor Amy Burnside, LCSW, explains. “It’s important to catch your stress early and intervene with the breath at the first sign. If you wait too long and the stress gets too high, the breathing will be less effective and you may need more extreme coping mechanisms.” Burnside recommends monitoring stress and emotions on a scale from 0-10 (0 = no stress and 10 = highest stress possible). “Try to catch the stress growing before it reaches level 5,” she advises. “This will help your brain stay ‘online,’ allowing for rational thought.”

LeslieBeth Wish is a member:
7 Unexpected Habits At Work & In Your Personal Life You Didn’t Realize Were Caused By Anxiety
Bustle
When it comes to signs of anxiety, some of them are much harder to see than others. In fact, a lot of manifestations of anxiety, in your private life or professional one, don’t look like anxiety at all. “Anxiety in your love life can often be as undetected as air,” Dr. LeslieBeth (LB) Wish, LCSW, tells Bustle. “It often surrounds you when you are about to break up or make a change in your love pattern.” But it’s not just your personal life that can be affected by anxiety without even realizing it. “Anxiety at work can also seep invisibly into your life,” she says.

Julie de Azevedo Hanks is a member:
Why so many women don’t like how they look, and the movement to change that
Deseret News
African-American women are less likely than white women to be consumed with thoughts about their physical beauty. When asked how big a priority being physically attractive is, 16 percent of African-American women in The Washington Post/Kaiser poll said attractiveness is very important, compared to 28 percent of white women.… Julie de Azevedo Hanks, a licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist in Salt Lake City, agreed that among African-American and Hispanic women, there seems to be more variety in what is considered beautiful. “You think about J-Lo (Jennifer Lopez), who’s really curvy, or Oprah, and there tends to be more variety in body size and features. There’s a narrower definition of beauty for white women. And we see more white women in general, so there’s more messaging about that.

Danielle Forshee is a member:
What Happens To Your Body After A Breakup, According To Experts
Elite Daily
“When we go through a breakup, the reason that we feel sad, have crying spells, have changes in sleeping patterns and appetite, and experience a decrease in energy and motivation is because of the decrease in serotonin stimulation and production,” says doctor of psychology and licensed clinical social worker Dr. Danielle Forshee.

Janice Tracht is a member:
The lesson for us all within the Larry Nassar case: Educate youngsters about sexual assault
Luxora Leader
Janice Tracht, a retired clinical social worker with a background in working with children who‘ve been sexually abused, likened Nassar‘s deceit to a magic spell he cast on those around him, grooming them to believe that he was the utmost authority on treating these young athletes. “This is a doctor,” said Tracht, 68, of West Bloomfield. “He‘s going to take care of you. These kids come in with that trust. … They were at such a disadvantage because of this. … And that‘s what makes this all the more cruel.”

Karen Bellows is a member:
These mental health providers are being asked to share notes from patient sessions
The Kansas City Star
They’re questioning whether they violate parity laws that require insurers to cover mental and behavioral health care the same way they cover medical care. “It’s all about cost containment basically and it’s not looking at and really honestly questioning what’s going on in this treatment that it’s taking this amount of time,” said Karen Bellows, a clinical social worker who does mental health counseling in Topeka.

Katia Coonan is a member:
Trafficking of middle schoolers in Tallahassee
FSU News
Katia Coonan, Clinical Social Worker and Senior Child Investigator for the Florida Department of Children and Families, serves as the lead investigator on child sex and labor trafficking cases in the 12 counties of Florida judicial circuit 2 and 14, which is the North Central Florida Panhandle. Those cases that you saw today, even though they were happening in New York, are happening two blocks from here,” Coonan said. “We see the average age of entry is 12 or 13 years old.”