Social Work Spotlight - Episode 106: Dean

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

In this episode I speak with Dean, a dedicated and compassionate counsellor who specialises in client-centred therapies for both individuals and couples. Dean is a social worker with additional training in nursing, mental health and addiction, as well as being an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker. Dean specialises in anxiety, depression and addiction, with a talent for helping clients quit smoking, drinking and other substances.Links to resources mentioned in this week’s episode:Open Arms veterans and families counselling service - https://www.openarms.gov.au/Lives Lived Well - https://www.liveslivedwell.org.au/Dean’s website - https://www.apollocounsellingservices.com.au/aboutDean’s LinkedIn profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dean-bell-443531191This episode's transcript can be viewed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QzarWfFdhWZCk3wagV_5r7dfCO1E2vKfXWjWOoQL-Gs/edit?usp=sharingThanks to Kevin Macleod of incompetech.com for our theme music.

I begin today by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eura Nation, traditional custodians of the land on which I record this podcast, and pay my respects to their elders past and present. I extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people listening today. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have an intrinsic connection to this land and have cared for country for over 60,000 years, with their way of life having been devastated by colonisation. Hi and welcome to Social Work Spotlight where I showcase different areas of the profession each episode.

I'm your host, Jasmine Lupus, and today's guest is Dean, a dedicated and compassionate counselor who specializes in client-centered therapies for both individuals and couples. Dean is a social worker with additional training in nursing, mental health and addiction, as well as being an accredited mental health social worker. Dean specializes in anxiety, depression, and addiction with a talent for helping clients quit smoking, drinking and other substances. Dean, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. Really looking forward to having to chat with you

and getting to know more about your social work experience. Yeah, no worries. Happy to be here. I'd love to know firstly when you started as a social worker and what drew you to the profession. So I went back to uni after having done a Bachelor of Nursing. So that was like when I first finished school, I'd done the Bachelor of Nursing but hadn't sort of practiced for a while. And sort of quite a large sort of change happened. Yeah, relationship issue

and then major financial issues. So I kind of, I was looking at sort of what options there were. And I kind of went, so that was in 2019, I think, went up to. Townsville and started the master of social work then. Mm-hmm. I actually know quite a few people who studied nursing and then transitioned over to social work. For you was it kind of through your nursing, you had exposure to social work, so you kind of already knew what it was about? Yeah, like it was actually quite interesting because my first job was oncology and so a lot of our interaction with

social workers was quite limited. However, you know, we'd occasionally, call the social worker, you know, particularly if there was a sort of like traumatic death. But yeah, there was very limited, you know, interaction with social workers. And I'm not sure whether it was the hospital system that I was working in that weren't very supportive at the time of social workers. But yeah, we certainly didn't have a great deal of exposure or I didn't. And then I moved from there to intensive care and that that was quite similar, very limited interaction with social workers. But I think how I kind of sort of figured out that social worker was what I wanted to do was I went back to my university transcripts and had a look at which things I did well in. And it was

sort of psychology and social work. So I initially kind of went down the road of looking at both. And then after sort of looking at the whole sort of idea around psychology, particularly that sort of research-based stuff, and I think I would have had to go back and do an undergrad to then sort of progress, whereas social work was two years of masters and then you're out. So that was kind of, you know, the reasoning behind it. I think I enjoyed sociology. I enjoyed the idea of theories and stuff, you know, whether that sort of translated into, you know, my study, I don't know, because I think theories I didn't get when I was studying. But yeah, that was the biggest hurdle for me, I think. But yeah. I'm assuming that having then been out of university practicing as a nurse,

you can see the translation of that theory. If you've had difficulty understanding why you're learning something and then you've had time as a nurse to practice things. Coming back to university, probably you've had more time or experience or skills or even just maturity to understand why it's important to learn these sorts of things. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think my challenge with theories was the application of theory to practice and, you know, how that sort of, you know, and I still, I think I still struggle with that, to be quite honest. And I think maybe it's because of the language and the language change and, you know, that idea of, you know, an approach or a theory or a practice, you know, how does that,

people sort of interchange those quite a lot. Yeah. But I don't know. I probably, I probably do, you know, apply theories more than I realize. But, yeah. Yeah, it's just hard to put a word to it. That's right, yeah. I noticed when I worked in a hospital setting, the nurses, especially the after-our-n nurses,

became kind of like the quasi-social workers because you've got a captive audience, you've often got the relatives who couldn't be there during the day, and you're sorting out a lot of, or at least being exposed to a lot of psychosocial issues. So I feel like you had practice in it before you even started social work. Yeah, potentially, yeah. Yeah, definitely. It's also really hard. Like those first roles out of uni for you as a nurse were really tough areas of nursing,

I would imagine. Yeah, I think looking back at it, because the hospital that I worked at had sort of like a mixed ward. It was like half of it was palliative care and the other half was oncology and hematology. So it was kind of, you know, really diverse work, but really sort of emotionally taxed. in there. Yeah, I think that's probably why I don't mind hard work. Like I don't mind the really sort of, you know, complex work and that sort of emotional work. Because, you know, in those early days it was incredibly, you know, I think I'd finished uni at 21, 22 and straight in, you know,

dealing with complex human challenges and those sort of end. of life issues, particularly for younger people with, you know, cancer diagnosis and things like that. Going back to university, going back to study social work, did you still have to do two placements and what was that experience like? I did do two placements and I have to say they were at the time, you know, the first placement was at an Aboriginal controlled health organisation. So it was with a kinship kind of fostering work. And so that was really good.

I really enjoyed that. I had a really good supervisor. I think from memory, the university person was pretty good too. So that was a really great experience, particularly around that idea of or the extension of that stolen generation. and children keep getting removed from family. You know, there's this idea that we take children away and it's better for them.

But in fact, my experience, particularly for Indigenous kids, is it's much worse for them because they're often taken away from their families, their culture, their communities. Once that happens, there's that sort of Western idea of, you know, broken attachment. And yeah, that was a really good. experience for me. I think, you know, I would leave that place every day and go, how do I, you know, how do we, you know, make a better opportunity for these kids and their families and their communities?

But, you know, I think that's where I started to learn to, to be able to kind of switch off, you know, do the work and then switch off. The second placement was a little more disappointing. It was still within the Indigenous youth space, but it was sort of like a boarding school. It was sort of a quasi-boarding school for Indigenous kids who were First Nation kids from places where they didn't have schooling. So they would come to that school. They would board there and go to different schools around the area. a very Western model for learning and just have any understanding of the impact of taking these kids from their community to this boarding school, which was very regimented, and then spread out to,

you know, the state system within that location. So it was, yeah, it was just for me a really difficult placement and there were quite a few issues within the organisation as well and then there was this idea that this organisation was also involved in pokies so it was like the funding was coming through pokes which was you know so it was just a really you know for me a muddled kind of world that wasn't really i don't know it just didn't really with your values? No, not at all. Yeah. So, and I think the challenge there for the university was like they've got all of these students, but not enough places to place them. So they were actually, you know, just taking whatever placements, even though on the book side of it, it would have

looked like an okay placement. But yeah, it just wasn't. I think I was a glorified office person, and going through applications and stuff like that. So it was, yeah, it was interesting. What a shame, because I feel like that could have been such a great opportunity for learning, but perhaps just didn't have the right support behind you to make it what it could have been. To make it work.

Yeah, yeah. A lot of time that informs, like a negative placement experience can inform what you really don't want to do when you leave uni. Was that the case for you? Did you have an idea of what you wanted to do straight out? No, I didn't actually, to be honest. But it did give me a foot in the door with a drug and alcohol organization in the area.

And they had a program working with youth. So I think it kind of was a progression for me. Yeah. So I think it probably, even though I probably don't like to work in that space so much now. But yeah, it was certainly a good. a good stepping stone. So what was that first roll out? So it was drug and alcohol. It was early intervention. So it was, yeah, drug and alcohol counselling, early intervention. So it was sort of aligned. I think they were funded by youth justice. So we would work quite closely with youth justice case

managers who were working with the young people who were likely to be involved with or have interaction with the youth justice system. So it often would, we would go into communities with youth justice workers and work with young people to kind of, you know, explore some of the reasons, you know, for substance use, work with their families, We would go into youth justice detention centers and do programs there with some of the workers there and work with some of the cultural leads there within the youth justice, the detention centers.

So that was, it was interesting work, but it was also quite engagement was difficult. So, you know, it was sort of up and down a lot of the time. But at the same time, there was some really good outcomes for young people. So that was my first role. And then I sort of transferred internally to a, it was called a psychosocial role and predominantly again working with indigenous people,

but those who were either they had just left the prison system or were involved in the process of. Yeah, so that was, I really enjoyed that role because it, sort of started to pick my interest in in counseling itself in you know some of the the methodologies of counseling and then you know at the same time i was like well drug and alcohol is my thing and i probably had some you know in my early two you're probably 20s to 30s some lived experience with that as well so i was like look this is something that i really kind of can be passionate about and have some understanding about. So I ended up doing a graduate diploma and mental health

and addiction at the same time as being there. So that was a good, probably feel like I'm not using it so much now. But yeah, that was a really good period. Very, you know, great team, great people. Really sort of just, I think the organisation was also pretty good as well, even though it was in a really sort of growth phase and I think you know from what I can see they're still in that growth phase so you know they've got some really great programs you know particularly in Queensland for for individuals that are struggling with addiction so yeah that was that really yeah not funded by pokey's hopefully no funded by you know individuals who use that it's kind of simpler really well When you say it's a psychosocial role, I'm curious as to what you interpret that meaning.

I'm guessing it means that someone from an allied health background or a nursing background could slide into that role because of their experience and skills. But what did you perceive your contribution could be as a social worker specifically? I think I always fought against the idea of being a social worker. like I always had this, I'm just a social worker kind of thing. And I think I still do have that kind of perception of my skills. Like I probably undervalue them. But, you know, saying that, I think it's about looking at the total person,

you know, what they bring to the room, really. A lot of the challenge really is about, you know, exploring what the individual and their families' experience of addiction looks like. Yeah, so I think, you know, there was a research article that sort of stuck in my head, which was about we can sort of, you know, people can make change, but as soon as they go back home, if home hasn't changed, then the likelihood of that change is going to be less then if there were changes at home as well. Yeah.

Yeah. So, and that's particularly that idea of rehab. You know, people go to rehab. They make all of these changes and then the hardest period is going back home and realizing that nothing's changed, that they've made all of these changes, but nothing's nothing in their, you know, in their social world or their environment has changed. So that makes staying with the change really difficult. Was there capacity then to work with the caregivers or the partners support people

so that when the person transitions back to that home environment, there's a bit more of a stick? There's, we didn't really, because we didn't have any rehabs where we were. There was certainly rehabs run by the organisation in different locations. but from my understanding there was a limited ability to do that. I know we, within the youth program that I worked in, there was sort of a loose arrangement with the youth rehab that was set up there. And so we would work with that rehab in those sort of, you know,

final weeks of the young persons kind of coming out of that rehab. And again, that was sort of, you know, working with, you know, family members, etc. Although I think the funding model was very clear that we weren't working with the family. So it was that was the difficulty as well was that, you know, how do we kind of again, you know, encourage change and sort of support that change if we're not looking at the whole system. Yeah. So what prompted the move from? Townsville to Ipswich. How did that all come about?

Oh, it all came about quite. It was my partner had, you know, always wanted to move back to Brisbane because he's from here. I'm from here too, but I was quite happy up in Townsville. And then we talked about it and we sort of, we were like, yeah, let's do it. The perfect job came up. So he was like, yep, let's within, I think within four weeks, we had left. Yeah. So I had been working, I'd moved from drug and alcohol to open arms. So working with veterans. So I'd been there for about a couple of years. And then thankfully, they were able to transfer me to the Ipswich office, which was, you know, ideally I really wanted to kind of work in the city. But, you know, at the time they didn't have any positions there. And as luck had it, it was. It was. was a much better move for me anyway.

Yeah. And then how did the transition happen from working at Open Arms with the vets to starting your own practice? I think from the day that I started at Lives Live Well, the drug and alcohol place, I was like, actually, that's what I want to do. I want to do the mental health social work gig. And I want to, you know, I want to be, because previously prior to going back to university, I had my own business, which didn't do particularly well.

So I kind of wanted to go and actually do something, you know, do my own thing. Yeah. And having the challenges of a business that perhaps didn't do as well as you were hoping, how were you able to translate that and learn from that in starting a social white business? I think I always lacked confidence. I always lacked the ability to go. actually, because the business that I had, I didn't have any skillset in. So I didn't have, it was actually just, you know, having the right people in the right places at the right time.

And certainly it didn't have any business kind of now at all. So I think this time around it was more about actually I've got the base, you know, I've got the knowledge base. I know what I can do. And I think lives of the world really taught me a lot about doing things yourself. So we used to have our own booking system. We used to have our own. We would have to contact our clients, follow them up, book them in, do all of that, do all of the admin, all of pretty much from start to finish.

Any of the reports we had to do ourselves, which is standard. But, you know, all of the admin stuff that you would normally, you know, have an admon. men staff to do, you would do it yourself. So I think that taught me that I can actually do it. And then moving into open arms, I think that moved away from all of that, but I still had that. I still had the ability to go, oh, I can do this. You know, if I'm, you know, chase, follow up a client, book them in, you know, do all that. So, yeah, I think, I think the other is that my partner is probably very good at doing the bookkeeping side of things. And I've been very, very sort of mindful that that's not my forte. So we've talked about maybe sort of transitioning that over to

somebody else eventually. But he seems to be quite happy to keep doing it. Yeah. Are you hoping to expand the business and bring more people on or keep it just you? I'm not really sure. I think what I've been really sort of focused on is being able to foster, you know, learning for other people. So currently I've got a student that comes in a couple of afternoons a week and she's doing a master's of counselling, I think. So, you know, fostering learning, I think is really important, whether that sort of translates into growing the business. I don't know. But I'm quite happy with where things are at, I don't think if this is all it is for, for the, you know, until I finish, then that's fine too.

Mm-hmm. I imagine having gone through the process of getting your accredited mental health social work status helped, especially for someone like yourself, you've said you've had difficulty articulating what your skills are and what your value is. You would have really had to hone on that to actually complete the modules, right? Yeah, I struggled with that. I think, yeah, I really struggled with it. And I think the whole process was very, at the time, very clunky.

It wasn't an easy, straightforward process, you know, like, because their technology at the time was kind of, you know, you could lose things and then you have to redo it. So I think that in itself probably refined things a bit for me. Yeah. So I was lucky enough to get through it. I'm still not sure how that happened. I think, yeah, I think to credit open arms, they were very, and I was working with my supervisor,

you know, my direct report was a psych or clinical psych. So she would, you know, she would go through all of my care plans and just, you know, with a red pen. And we used to get a lot of defense referrals, direct defense referrals. So, and because they were sort of fast turnover clients, you know, they were, you know, anxiety, depression, grief and loss. So I would see them six or seven sessions. So I was doing lots of care plans, probably two or three times more than most people, because I just wanted to get it, you know, for that exam part of it, I really wanted to just nail it. And yeah, I was lucky to to have done it. So yeah. Yeah, really good experience. I know that there is no such thing as a typical day in social work, but in your current role,

what might you be doing day to day? Oh, it's probably like I've sort of worked up to, I initially started with five clients or day. Now I'm up to seven. I've tried to kind of mix a presentation, you know, client presentation or sort of, you know, referral base. So I'm kind of seeing veterans. I'm seeing couples. I've got a few young people that I work with and a few, probably a few Medicare mental health plan clients that are bulk built. So there's a really nice kind of varied work, but it's generally I would see seven clients a day. I do have a day off on a Monday, which is technically a day off, but it's all of my admin that gets done then. Try and do my notes during the day, but, you know, anything that's sort of residual I'll catch up on

on the Monday. But that's the typical day. Like it's, you know, it's kind of checking, you know, client might reach out, there might be something that pops up that I have to follow up on. I probably more responsive than most people. So that kind of adds a little bit more pressure to my day. So yeah, I probably have to work on that as a sort of, hey, you know, I'm not always going to be able to respond, you know. So that's kind of my day, like, you know, Tuesday to Friday, couples. I think I had a sort of a run of couples on Friday, but I'll try and mix that up a little bit more. But yeah, I do try and do some outreach work, but it's not something I enjoy. So it's, yeah, so I do that sometimes because the NDIS have, you know, particular events

that pop up. And I'm sort of just at the process of working on a practice group in Ipswich because there really there isn't one at the moment. So, you know, there's been a lot of people interested in working on that with me. So that's kind of an exciting project to kind of, you know, have monthly catch-ups where we can sort of support each other and we can collaborate. Initially, I was thinking, you know, of doing, having a social work specific approach. But I feel like there might be more benefit in doing a collaborative one. So just in the early stages of kind of working on that.

That's so important because I assume that one of the challenges, one of the many challenges of private practice is not just that set up, but the isolation that you might experience. And this practice group would give you an opportunity to expand your network and receive extra support, give extra support. It'd be sort of a really great mutual network. Yeah, yeah. Because I think, you know, I had a fairly good

network in Townsville and then coming to Ipswich I don't I was really kind of focused on you know doing the work and not you know there really was an opportunity to kind of you know network or do any of that sort of activity outside with the support of open arms at that point but yeah I think yeah it would be good to kind of get that sort of collaboration and you know not feel like you're working in a silo kind of thing. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You mentioned quite a broad range of cohorts, I guess, or types of people that you support.

What are the main funding sources? And do some people have, you know, private funding or through insurance, that sort of thing? Yeah. A big majority of the client base is referred by open arms. So that's one of the major referrals. The mental health care plans are quite, you know, there's probably, you know, five or six, there's not a lot. And then the couples are sort of self-funded or they pay as they go. So there's, yeah, I'm in the process of kind of setting up referrals for Queensland Police and

Queensland Ambulance Service. Yeah, that's kind of where clients are coming from at the moment. there are some clients that self-fund and then the mental health care plans and I think NDI yeah I've lost one. NDIS is starting to be a bigger referral source as well which is good because it's an area that I kind of was interested in you know at university and I worked as a support worker at the time so it's kind of yeah a really interesting and a really diverse client with diverse kind of challenges. It's so good that there's that I would imagine steady referral coming from external organisations and it probably puts less pressure on you to have to market yourself, which I'm

guessing you find a little bit challenging to be able to say, hey, I'm here, use me. Yeah. Well, actually, my partner's been very helpful with that as well. So we do do online, I think it's like AdWords or something. like that. I can't remember what it's called. But yeah, we kind of do that. You know, and that's ongoing. And that gets a lot of couples through and some mental health care plans as well. I wanted to sort of have a really diverse client mix. And I think that's the thing that kind of keeps me motivated. And so I know some of my colleagues who do open arms work, you know, they do, that's 90% of their work.

So I really wanted to kind of, you know, diversify and have a different sort of, you know, yeah, that's kind of, you know, the marketing side of things has worked. I think, you know, psychology today is very helpful with that as well. And so that's probably, you know, Google AdWords and then Psychology Today sort of 50-50 on that sort of referral base. And then I started getting, you know, just word of mouth stuff, which is. you know like really really helpful yeah so that's kind of been a nice yeah it's like oh I said to my partner the other day it's like oh maybe I actually do do a good job yeah yeah yeah so yeah other than the imposter syndrome what do you find most challenging about the work that you're doing or about private practice in general I think I think I think because the buck stops with you.

So everything that you do has an impact. And I think even to the degree of your words are so powerful. So, you know, really being conscious and using that sort of reflexive kind of approach to do. Somebody said, you know, oh, we don't do any harm. But I feel like we can because we are such, we do have such. a, you know, even for such a period, short period of time, we have such an influential position in somebody's life that we actually have to be really conscious of that and not be biased and not be, I feel like, yeah, it's, yeah, it's really important for us to be

mindful of that. So I think that's one of the challenges. I think because I've got such a diverse kind of presentation, the need to, you know, continue the training. and, you know, to be on top of that is really important too. Ongoing sort of PD is really a challenge given, you know, you really, I just don't have all that much time. So, you know, that's the challenge, really. It's interesting you talk about that, do no harm, because we spend so much time developing trust with someone.

It can so easily be broken or affected. and yeah, just I think maintaining that through constant demonstration that you're on the same page and that you're working in the same direction and that you're doing what you can, even if it is in your own time with the PD staff, of making sure that you're doing your utmost. But then you run the risk of being too responsive, as you were kind of indicating before,

being too reliable and being too available. So finding that balance is really tough. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. because I think it goes back to that idea of, you know, being, you know, using that word, you've got to hustle, you've got to keep on top of things. You've got to, you know, have the best intention, but also be mindful that this is your business, that you actually have to.

It has to be client-focused, but it also has to be successful. So. Yeah. What do you say you like most about the work you're doing? I think seeing that, you know, like sometimes you go, well, how do we, when you first see a client and they're in that sort of state of distress and the challenge, you know, the goals are sort of, you know, quite significant. It's like how do we, how do we get there? But we eventually, you know, in a lot of cases we eventually get there. And so it's kind of like then looking back and going,

how did we get there? You know, how did we, you know, and that's really interesting. And I think, and I think that's where social work comes into play because it's about the relationship. It's about that, you know, work walking alongside the client. Whereas I feel like other sort of professions are very much, this is what you need to do. And this isn't how you need. They're very prescriptive.

Whereas, you know, that sort of exploration, using the relationship to work on, those changes that the client has identified. So I think that's quite, that's a real difference in social work, I feel. Would you say the majority of the people that you support with addiction difficulties are male or is there an interesting diversity within that as well? I have to say, like when I was in the drug and alcohol space, it was predominantly men. And I think that was maybe because of the interaction, the justice system, that it was actually, you know, imposed upon them to make the change. The women that we, or that I saw, were far more complex and the use was significantly impacting their mental health, their physical and mental health. So I feel like the complexities,

if it was a if you look at it gendered wise the complexity was significant for females even though they were often there were less of those gendered presentations so less females were presenting with drug and alcohol problems whereas men they were mandated either by courts or by probation parole that they would have to attend sessions so I probably as since starting private practice, I don't think I've seen, I haven't seen female with drug or alcohol issues to date, probably because there's a whole bunch of services in Ipswich that are a little bit more responsive than, say, up in Townsville. So I think maybe those services are more accessible. I'm just, I guess, reflecting on your own positionality as someone

who's perhaps more mature than a complete new starter, grad social worker and male identifying, working with a lot of these people who are male as well. I just wonder whether that helps or whether that makes things more challenging for you. Yeah, I feel like there's a sort of a layer of complexity too because I guess, you know, you, I was thinking about it the other day because I had a couple of clients who were all of the, you know, racist, homophobic, transphobic. And so that, you know, and given, you know, I have some Indigenous heritage, but I'm also gay. And so it's sitting in that space is really at times very difficult. And so, you know, I've been able to, you know, combat that by doing things that are

in sort of contrast to it. So working against that. you know, that phobia. So yeah, I think that's really a challenge for me. I was talking about it with a client the other day because we were sort of talking about gender issues and she was sort of saying, you know, do you find it difficult working females or women? And I was like, no, but I'm aware that some women find this difficult if I'm, you know, and that's sort of gendered. So, you know, giving clients that opportunity to go, hey, you know, it might not work for you and that's okay. And you might feel that particularly around, I'm really clear around trauma and that sort of sexualized trauma. And so it's like, you know, when you're ready to do that work, I'm really clear

that it's more appropriate that they do that work with another woman. And I guess for me, you know, having some connections in Ipswich where I can really confidently say, hey, here's where, you know, somebody with EMDR or, you know, another sort of therapy that could be, you know, somatic therapy could be really helpful. And so being confident that, you know, that sort of referral is appropriate and safe for them. So I think, yeah, that's kind of, I've gone around, you know, roundabout way, but I guess, you know, understanding my limitations as a gay male.

So that's kind of, you know, important to kind of be upfront about that. And I think I, you know, very clear at the very start, particularly if there's, you know, and I find it really difficult when, you know, a lot of the referrals that we get, you know, they've sort of painted a picture of past trauma that is, is to me, you know, disclosing these really sort of difficult moments in people's lives that don't need to be disclosed. It doesn't need to, all we need to do know is anxiety, depression, difficulties, you know, managing, regulating emotions. We don't need to know the detail. And I feel like that's really unfortunate that we actually have to put these things in words that then

follow the client for the rest of their interaction with mental health services. Yeah, right. That sort of stuff can be really hard to reflect on, especially if it's not front of mind while you're doing the work and you've got seven people to see and you just have to move on to the next one. What sort of support do you need, do you access in order to be able to work? work through that. Yeah. Currently I have a clinical psych as a supervisor and I think that was about really sort of reinforcing my view of myself as a social worker being okay with hey this is what I am.

And I think we're at that sort of point where we're in the process of I want to do EMDR. So I think that's where I'm going to go with that supervision. I do also have a supervisor who's a social worker. So that's kind of, and I just started that probably, I think it was just at the end of last year. So, yeah, I've got two supervisors at the moment. I probably, it's, for me, it's very helpful because I do feel like I'm in a silo. I work in a sort of like a space that's shared by dietitians and exercise physiologists, so I don't actually work with anyone else that I can go, hey, have you got 10 minutes. I've got some colleagues from Open Arms, but again, because we work with similar clients and sometimes the same clients, it's really important for me to kind of not go,

hey, can we talk about this? So that's kind of why I think I've got two supervisors. I'll probably keep, you know, I'll have an EMDR supervisor and then a couple's supervisor, you know, couple's general kind of supervisor down the track. I'm not sure whether, because my supervisor currently is, my social work supervisor is an MDIIS specialist. So that was one of the reasons why I sort of accessed her support, you know, services at that point. Yeah, because I had no idea about MDIS or how it worked or what to do in that space. So that's, she's been incredibly helpful with that. Yeah, it's a whole separate beast. Yes. Yeah. So, Dean, if you weren't doing this sort of work, this sort of social work, what do you reckon you be doing? What else are you interested in?

Oh, that's a really good question, hey? I mean, it really sounds like you found your niche. You're very passionate about this. Surely at some point you've gone, wonder what that would be like. Yeah, I think school counselling was something that I kind of toyed with, but I think it's very that space is very competitive and it's more, you know, more sort of occupied by, you know, particularly the Catholic system by the psychologist. So yeah, I've thought about that for a bit. I don't know. I thought the hospital going back to the hospital system might be appealing. particularly around the, you know, their sort of approach to assessments and, you know, they're really, and I guess they're sort of as thorough as the open arms assessments, maybe a bit more thorough.

So that kind of was appealing at a very short period of time. I didn't really want to go back to weekend work or not work. So, yeah, I think they were the two predominant kind of, there was a job that I, saw when I first moved here. And it was the timing was just a little bit wrong. But that was working with victims of crime. And so that kind of would be really appealing to me. Yeah. So I guess, you know, working in or with indigenous communities was also a big driver. I was able to kind of, you know, at uni, I was able to kind of do some work over there as well, you know, in remote communities. So that is a sort of a passion or a side passion and maybe

down the track, you know, working with youth in urban centres would be something that I would like to do in the future, you know, just as a, you know, additional kind of, you know, one day a week with the Aboriginal controlled organisation, health organisation would be something that I would like to do. But yeah, we shall see. Yeah. I guess that all just points to the breadth of social work practice, right, that there is so much diversity within what you can do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think one of the things that I was, I knew that I wasn't particularly good at or wanted to do was case management. So I think that's one of the reasons

why I really sort of honed in on the counselling side of things. Yeah, but I think there's, you're right, there's such a diverse range of things that we can do. Yeah. If people were wanting to know more about the types of work you're doing

or even the approaches, like the DBT, the Act, EMDR, you mentioned some of the exposure therapy, you're doing which sounds incredibly interesting or even if it's just the accredited mental health social work process where would you direct them yeah just they can go onto my website because i i guess that's the other thing that i didn't mention is that i'm really big on you know people doing going through that process of mental health accreditation and while my experience was you know was stressful

i feel like supporting others through that process is really important because I don't think I was really well, I felt well supported. I feel like Open Arms does do a lot of work in supporting people to attain their accreditation, but I think from an individual perspective, it was just, oh, how does this work? Or what do you do here? So I feel like I'm more than happy to kind of help with that.

I think the process has changed again. So it's not as, yeah, I think, it's a little more streamlined but there's a lot more to it now that even I think I finished mine two or three years ago but it's kind of like even more so you know more stringent now yeah so yeah happy to happy to talk things through I'm also really big on you know setting up your own clinic so you know I've helped a couple of my colleagues do that or get in the you know in the process of doing that. So I've got a whole bunch of material and stuff and, you know, helpful kind of shortcuts to kind of help people to do that because, you know, somebody was kind enough to help me

with that as well. So I was like, oh, I'm happy to pay. And she was like, no, just as long you pay it forward. And I was like, I will do that. So I'm more than happy to kind of help. And there's there's a bit of a sort of, I haven't made a pack, but, you know, there's a whole bunch of stuff which is like, you know, consent forms and things like that, which are you can sort of change and modify to your own liking. Yeah, and just my experience of different sort of software and stuff like that that can be really helpful and insightful. Yeah. I love that concept of passing it on. I think that's really important. I guess if anyone is in the Ipswich area and would be keen to get involved in your practice group, they should reach out to you.

on your website or LinkedIn parts. Yeah, or even just LinkedIn, because I think that's, I'll probably put it in humanities as well so that, you know, people can just kind of log in and register there. I think from my perspective that nursing experience, the exposure really early on to the difficult medical and psychosocial concerns set you up really well for then studying and practicing social work and the initial experience that you have,

had in the Aboriginal control organization and you gave the example of attachment styles and support needs that people were having. You've in that process really needed to identify and practice some self-care strategies and switching off was really important for you to learn early on. And also through the youth justice, celebrating the small wins. So things progress so slowly or not at all and you have to really find. I guess the sense of uplift or the thing that's going to give you energy to keep moving forward. And sometimes it really is just those small wins that perhaps someone can't identify for themselves,

which is what counseling can be all about. The imposter syndrome in social work is real. It is so real and we tend to undervalue our skills. But I also think your capacity and willingness to foster student learning can possibly also help you to demonstrate your abilities. your skills and I feel like I want to make you a little social work badge that says I'm a social worker, ask me how, just to initiate those discussions and just be like, hey, I know stuff. I just need someone to draw it out of me, please. Yeah, yeah.

But yeah, even just you mentioned you were working as a support worker while you were at uni. And I think that experience is so important if anyone has the ability, can afford to be doing extra things while they're studying. I think that would just set them up really well as well. Oh, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And you've really worked hard to develop and maintain relationships with the clients, with the people that you support, where other people might have let them down. So there's that really important role of holding space for someone, developing trust, making sure that you can be responsive while also finding balance within your practice. So,

there's so much that you've talked about that's so incredibly important for other people to hear and yeah just really grateful that you can share all of that and yeah thank you so much for your time it's been wonderful i appreciate your time as well i appreciate that you know you do this for the love of it so yeah and i mean it's it's also developing my network right so i'm expanding constantly and and drawing energy from other people's energy so you know there's it's not completely altruistic but It's something that I love. Little passion project, and I just love that I get to hear about what people are doing in other businesses, other areas that I wouldn't have had exposure to either. Yeah.

Thank you again, Dean, so much. And I will put links to all of your things in the show notes so people can go off and find you. But otherwise, yeah, again, I really appreciate your time in doing this. Thanks for joining me this week. If you'd like to continue this discussion or ask anything of either myself or Dean, please visit my anchor page at anchor.fm.fm slash social work spotlight. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, or you can email SW Spotlight Podcast at gmail.com.

I'd love to hear from you. Please also let me know if there is a particular topic you'd like discussed, or if you or another person you know would like to be featured on the show. Next episode's guest is Cass, who studied forensics and criminology before moving into. social work. She has experience in responsive and early intervention supports for children, youth and families and currently works for an indigenous non-government organization as a therapeutic specialist in family preservation and out-of-home care. I release a new episode every two weeks.

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