ErieKIDS Blog

I realized today that it has been nearly 9 months since I last posted to the ErieKIDS blog. What happened and how did I let it get away from me? Well, here is a condensed timeline of events since June 2009.  I am, however, very sorry.  And, for those who read this blog, I will try very hard to keep it up-to-date.  Here’s what we’ve been up to:

June 2009 - Connie Osiecki and I began to look for a new home for our joint family therapy practice and one that will accomodate ErieKIDS and an in-house production studio. Also, ErieKIDS began its Strategic Planning process. We put the final touches on the film we produced for The Ophelia Project.  We began production of a film for Family Services.

July 2009 - We found a potential new home at 1934B W. 8th St. I continued to negotiate with my, then, current landlord for an open space only 3 doors down from my old office.

August 2009 - We took possession of 1934B W. 8th St. and immediately began reconstruction. Also, I began teaching for my third year at Edinboro University of PA in the Social Work department.

September 29, 2009 - I moved my office and began seeing clients.  Also, Kimberly Morrow and I were invited to sit on the Anxiety Disorders Association of America’s Clinical Advisory Board - Direct Service Committee.  We volunteered to produce an educational film on treating anxiety disorders. We began to plan for that film.

…from September to December 2009, Connie and I spent a great deal of time getting settled in the new office and I put together the production studio, which is finally done and operational! We produced a film for Perseus House on Skillstreaming. We also participated at the Early Connections Family Expo.  I was invited to speak to a class at the Early Connections Early Education Conference at the Tom Ridge Center. I spoke on “Stress and Families”.

December 2009 - I was invited to teach “Mental Health” at Edinboro University of PA. I began to compile information and lesson plans.

January 2010 - Back to school at EUP, teaching Family Social Work and Mental Health.

February 2010 - Wondering how the last 9 months got away from me.

And there it is…if you’re a facebook friend, you can view these before and after photos of our new office space:

http://www.facebook.com/ErieKIDS?ref=name#!/album.php?aid=144060&id=653167532

I promise to work more diligently to keep this blog up to date. Hope to see many of you tomorrow at the Erie Together Community forum!!

Jeff

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...toasting our friend, Susan Esper

Susan Esper passed away on Saturday, May 30th. Susan was a vibrant, sassy, red-headed social worker that was quick to laugh and first to a battle of wills.  She had just begun her career as a social worker and true to form was already setting the world on fire.

Last night, I and a good number of colleagues, fellow-students, friends and families came together to say our last goodbye to Susan and offer our respect and condolences to the dozens of family members in attendance.

While speaking to one of my students at the funeral home, I remarked, “We should all be so blessed to be remembered by 100s of visitors honoring our memory as there are tonight”  Sadly, Susan will be laid to rest today and her family will say their last goodbye.

As a group, we decided to spend an hour together catching up with how things are in our lives and to share a toast of Susan and how she touched all of our lives. With 13 of my students (ex-students, now colleagues) together, I was moved both by the events of the day and by listening to these brilliant young social workers talking about their jobs, what they love, what they hate and how they will make things different.

I was touched by their warm comments about our class together.  This wonderful feeling of pride that I felt was something very new for me.  I’ve never had the opportunity to be proud of a student until this point.

As we mourn the loss of a good friend and colleague, we’re blessed by finding time to share our stories and in the end, a hug and wishes for bright futures.  Thank you Susan, say hi to my Dad.

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On Friday, May 8th, my colleague Kimberly Morrow and I attended the OCFWPA conference at Station Square in Pittsburgh, PA.  Kimberly and I were invited to speak on “Families in the treatment of OCD”.  For those of you who saw my mini-documentary from our talk in Albuquerque NM, you saw that Kimberly was not too fond of my camera.  I started friday morning with the intention of capturing the day, but she put a end to that quickly.

After some coffee and terrific ride to Pittsburgh, we met Elaine Davis who was attending to last minute details.  One of the things she offered was that a young lady was going to be coming in for a book signing.  Within moments, Kathleen Dunn and her mom, Katie arrived to get set up for the book signing.

Kathleen is an 8 year old OCD patient who wrote a book about OCD and how to cope with it.   I asked Kathleen and her mom if I could interview her and she agreed to do so.  However, Kimberly and I had a lunch date with Dr. Alec Pollard,

a leading expert in the treatment of OCD, Founder and Director of the Saint Louis Behavioral Medicine Institute Anxiety Disorders Center (ADC) 1982, St. Louis, Missouri.  I’ve heard so many great things about Dr. Pollard and have read one of his books; The Agoraphobia Workbook.

…I was excited to meet him, but never guessed that I would have so much fun with him over lunch.  Kimberly and I are generally very easy going and don’t nearly take life as seriously as we probably should.  We found Dr. Pollard to be just the same. Playful, silly and sarcastic; it was a real pleasure to spend time with him over lunch.

We talked shop a bit, discussing how family systems is becoming more and more integrated into work with patients at his institute. Kimberly and I shared how it is an integral part of our collaboration.  We finished our lunch and were back to the conference to present.

Dr. Pollard presented first, followed by Dr. Hodak, an adult psychiatrist from WPIC. Dr. Hodak is a great psychiatrist and a good friend of our practice in Erie.  Dr. Pollard spoke again on treatment and paid Kimberly and I a wonderful compliment as being “cutting edge” in our practices with families. Thank you!

Then it was our turn to speak.  Although we only had 45 minutes, I think we were able to relay the value of having families not only participate but how having families be a part of treatment really is essential and not optional.

The highlight of the day was getting back to interview Kathleen.  Right on time, Kathleen and her mom were ready for my interview. I’m pleased to introduce Kathleen to you!

Visit Kathleen’s website at: http://www.abcocd.com

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To all of the students of the Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Social Work Graduating class of 2009 (and those of you who have a class or two to pick up) CONGRATULATIONS!!!

You make a young professor proud…

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It’s 7:30am…. We’re about to leave for Tracy Elementary, the first of three locations for the new ReadingNOW local spot produced through ErieKIDS Production. Stay tuned… this should prove to be our most moving ad.

ReadingNow - our newest client

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I wanted to share some great news, but the blog went down and the fine people at bizland have me going again.

First, I was humbled and honored by my colleagues last Friday at the National Association of Social Workers - NWPA division award luncheon. I was award the “Social Worker of the Year”. One of my students received MSW Social Work Student of the Year. It was pretty terrific to share the experience with my wife, Leslie and close colleague and friend, Kimberly Morrow, LSW.

Then, with no time to spare, I hustled up to St. Vincent’s for a presentation organized by the Ophelia Project. Dr. Cherise Nixon, Joe Markewicz (CORE) and I presented on “Father and Daughter” relationships. Titled, “Fathers be good to your daughters”, the talk was a nice combination of stats and practical advise for the dads, moms, and professionals in attendance. It was very fun.

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Today, my daughter and I went out to eat for breakfast. She was up early and my wife and son wanted to sleep in, so we had a date for breakfast, just she and I. We were left with instructions to bring my son a muffin home. No problem.

Off to breakfast and our cheerful waitress was really great. We ordered our food and I said to the waitress “I’d like to order a muffin to go”. I turned to my daughter and said “Do you think we should get mommy a muffin too?” Of course she agreed and the waitress smiled and left. A few minutes later, she returned with our food and said “I’m sure that will make her mom very happy when you bring your daughter back to her.”

It took a moment, but I thought…”she thinks I’m divorced and am taking my daughter out for a custody visit.” After a moment, the reality of her innocent statement kicked in. She must see so few men with their daughters, and when she does, it probably IS a custody visit.

My first reaction to moments like these are with interest from a sociological perspective. My second is sadness. This situation was no different.  Divorce is so prevalent, why wouldn’t she think that? I guess our goals for our movie “In the Middle” are reasonable.

So, I’ll invite you to come and listen to a talk at St. Vincent’s. The Ophelia Project is sponsoring it and I’m speaking at it. It’s called “Fathers, be good to your daughters”. Hope to see you there.

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It’s hard to believe that a week has already passed since I left for the ADAA National Conference. Kimberly Morrow and I, along with Becky Pomeroy and Susan Moore-Motily of the Independent Psychology Practices of Erie (our private practice) and other friends (Amy Coon Miller of Safe Harbor, and Cheryl Baldwin and David Motily) attended the national conference in Santa Ana, New Mexico, just north of Albuquerque. Kimberly and I spoke at the conference on the value of integrating family systems in work with children with anxiety and other emotional disorders.

I brought a small hi-def camera along to chronicle the event and our adventure. It was a terrific time and I learned and experienced a lot and am presenting it here. Enjoy.

ADAA Mini-Documentary

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FaceBook…you know the world’s largest social networking site? FaceBook has an amazing “plug-in” called “FaceBook Causes”. This is a way for nonprofits to enter the FaceBook world and as such enter the world stage. Something otherwise impossible for most nonprofit organizations.

Today, ErieKIDS celebrates its’ 1,000th member to our cause. This is such an exciting and humbling development. Just in the last 24 hours, our members recruited 22 new members. And as the cause grows, so does the speed of new membership.

If you’re not a FaceBook member, please consider joining and joining our cause. Your support helps us in many ways:

1. It helps to spread the word.
2. It helps to keep you up to date on our work and how you can make changes in your own family.
3. It helps to promote our function and encourages collaboration.
4. …which in turn, helps us help families.

Follow this link to our Cause page: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/32720?m=4a83263b

Thank you for continuing to support us, and for your tireless work to promote family wherever you live.

Best Regards,

Jeff

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After a terrific meeting with two men that I greatly respect, I am left to question my “world view” on the idea of inspiration.  Our conversation covered a good many topics; one of which was what will it take to drive our community towards a greater collaboration?  I can say right from the beginning that often, I am left frustrated by the pace and direction of change in a number of areas of life. Sometimes, if I don’t hold my emotion in check, it is easy to slide into cynicism and blame. I wish I was immune but honestly, I’m not…just one of many things I’d like to change.

But after this emotionally charged “what do we need to do to change” meeting…I am left with a lingering question. “Is there really anyone out there that doesn’t want to be inspired?”

We all are witness to folks to who really try hard in life, not just on their own behalf but on the behalf of others. I could make a list of those people who I look up to. Conversely, there is at least an equal list of people who often frustrate us with their own cynicism, right? Just keeping it real….

But here’s the gazillion dollar questions; “Is there really anyone that doesn’t want to be inspired?” Is there?

I know that often life can feel like a “dream vampire”; an apparition that indescriminately moves around and squashes drive, drains creativity and steals hope. All too often it seems that demon has an unending supply of energy and broad reaching influence over even the best of us. It’s tools are so clever and discrete that we can find even ourselves in an uninspiring role without knowing only to realize our behavior after the fact.

So here’s  what I’ve come up with, and I’m just spitballin’…trying to work out the details. What if the next time we encounter that person who does little to promote growth…what if we directly or indirectly encourage and uplift them. What if we assume that if they had the strength, skill and awareness, they would choose to be otherwise? What do you think would happen.

I mean…does anyone really not want to be encouraged?

If this is all a little too “sunshine and butterflies” for your tastes, that’s ok, just please, let me live in blissful ignorance. Thank you.

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