I found this week's theme to be particularly interesting and engaging, as the content related to my interests, previous experiences, and personal and professional passions in terms of the topic of engaging with people with disabilities as a population in social work.
Palombo's articles on working with children with executive dysfunctions and the therapeutic process of working with children with learning disabilities to be really interesting, as I have personal experience working for a school-based occupational therapist as my first job out of college. Although I only helped her with the administrative end of her practice, I learned a lot about early childhood interventions (from an OT perspective), and it contributed to my interest and passion in working with this population. So, I found it particularly interesting to learn about working with children with learning disabilities and other intellectual disabilities in a therapeutic setting really helpful information. It felt like it was helping to give me language to things that I already intuitively knew to be true.
I also worked with adults with disabilities in the employment counseling capacity, who seemed like they were the individuals who the system missed, and they never received any interventions of any kind prior to this. A job that doesn't require much background or training, but should, and should include stuff like these readings.
Most importantly, I found the film Far from the Tree to be incredibly moving:
As silly as this sounds, it brought me so much joy to watch the individual with Down syndrome watch Frozen and be so emotionally moved by Elsa's powerful narrative. It's almost embarrassing to admit that I, too, have used very similar techniques in my own mental health hearing journey; (I even have an Elsa tattoo on my arm, and my sibling has Ana's). Music and movies and media of that sort is such an important part of self-expression and should definitely be a part of therapy, whenever possible to include it.
My heart felt full after seeing the individual who was a little person attend a conference, where she was able to meet people who shared that in common with her for the first time. As a macro/mezzo social worker, in particular, it reminded me so much about the importance of community for an individual. It also made me extremely excited, because I am about to attend a similar event of my own: The Ehlers Danlos Syndrome conference is actually here in Philly right now, and I will be attending! It goes from this Wednesday-Sunday, and I am planning on attending at least two of the days. I will get the chance to meet other Zebras! The concept of disability as an identity, as presented in Far from the Tree, is definitely a concept that resonates greatly with me. And such great timing of the lesson plan!