Current Courses
Spring 2025
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OSHER 959-001
Personal Spiritual Practice
Fall 2024
Entrepreneurial Experience
- self employed.
01/01/1982 - present.
Employees: 1.
Comments: I have been in private practice as a clinical social worker since the early 1980s. I see most clients on scholarship, free of charge.
Professional Organizations
- 2009-present Utah Board Member, National Association of Social Workers (NASW). Position: Chair, Utah NASW Committee on Social Justice & Advocacy. 01/01/2009 - present. Position : Board Member.
Practice History
- (1) I continue to provide counseling services, generally free of cost, to clients in community (2) I continue to provide LCSW supervision, free of cost, to a few community practitioners . 01/01/2020 - present .
- I continue to offer Clinical Supervision: (1) LCSW supervision to the MSW social worker (clinical director) at University Neighborhood Partners (Bridge Training Clinic West), with a focus on work with refugees and immigrant populations. 2. Supervision of PhD student at the Bridge Training Clinic East, on campus at CSW, specializing in providing services for transgender teens. 01/01/2018 - present .
- I continue to provide (no cost) clinical social work sessions to clients at the Bridge Training Clinic East., which I have since the Bridge Training Clinic was first developed. 01/01/2018 - present .
- Clinical Supervision 2017 1. Provide LCSW supervision to the MSW social worker (clinical director) at University Neighborhood Partners (Bridge Training Clinic West). 2. Supervise PhD students at the Bridge Training Clinic East, on campus at CSW (two students). We specialize in providing services for transgender teens. 3. Provide advising through the CSW Practicum Office for four students at the University Counseling Center. 4. Supervise MSW student at Calvary Baptist Church counseling center. 01/01/2017 - present .
- Clinical Social Worker, Bridge Training Clinic, College of Social Work, University of Utah. 01/01/2016 - present .
- currently co-facilitate three ongoing dialogue programs: 1. January, 2012-current White Male Privilege Dialogue Training Group. CSW with University Counseling Center, University of Utah 2. September, 2008-current Dialogue Training Group with Women’s Resource Center, University Of Utah 3. January, 2003-current Monthly dialogue group. Bridging the religious divide. Salt Lake City . 01/01/2016 - present .
Teaching Philosophy
I think of teaching as my true vocation; the word vocation meaning "life calling" or "called by spirit".
What is good teaching? Good teachers are good students. I think of teaching as "learning publically", in front of my students.
Why is learning important for a teacher? The Latin root of "education" means "to draw out". What does the teacher draw out (or learn about)? I believe that my central job as a teacher of future professional helpers, is to draw out the consciousness, wisdom, and values, that are already in my students.
Good teachers also treat students with loving kindness. We challnge our students because we care about them; we challenge them to feel and think critically, to learn to focus their attention as needed, to learn how to show loving kindness to their own clients and colleagues, to learn to be of service to the world.
I believe that, especially in this era of digital libraries, internet resources, and communication technologies, knowledge acquisition is not necessarily the most important goal in education. As the great philosopher J. Krishnamirti pointed out, all knowledge is about the past, and therefore always incomplete in the present. The tendency to hold on to, and even identify with the partial truth of knowledge, is as teacher and author Eckart Tolle has written, the core of ego; and ego is the identification with everything that is ultimately not who we are, including the work we do, our belief systems, our political parties, and even our own feelings and thoughts.
Instead, I focus especially on helping students develop their own consciousness, or "reverent awareness" of their innner selves and outer worlds. The word "reverent" refers to the abilty to accept the way the world is in the here and now, the ability to love myself and others as we are, and accept the world as it is. As the Western psychiatrist Jack Kornfield noted, upon studying Eastern psychologies for many years, the best therapies East and West are all about consciousness work.
What does this mean about classroom learning? Yes, we explore theories, and facts, and practice skills. But the foundation of professional helping comes from the consciousness of the helper. Without the ability to see myself and the Other accurately, I may only see people through the lenses of the theories and models we have developed, or the hidden biases that come from my cultural and familial programming.
Finally, dialogue is an essential tool in teaching and professional helping. Dialogue is, as Martin Buber noted, a "confirmation of otherness" in which I and the Other treat each other with respect and listen to each other for understanding. Most professional interactions that my Social Work and Peace and Conflict students will have with their client populations will involve modeling and teaching dialogue.
I beleive that a mark of an educated person is that she can engage in dialogue with anyone, especially with other folks with who she has strong mistrust or percived differences. Dialogue is a life skill that is not only indispensible in our work and love lives, but also necessary for humanity's ultimate survival.
Most of us learn best by doing, so I seek to develop opportunities for experiential learning in the classroom. Much of the classroom experience is in our human interactions. For example, instead of conducting role plays, we conduct "real plays" in which we actually practice working with consciousness as we interact with other people.
There is no teaching approach that "works" for all students, but over the years, most students have reported that the approach I have developed is useful to them in learning how to be professional helpers.
Courses I Teach
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SW courses
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number of courses and students
See course list attached, for full list of courses taught. According to CSW staff, I have taught the most students each year, of all instructors/faculty, over all the years that this data has been collected.
Teaching Projects
- Fall, 2019-present. Generational differences: Implications for teaching in higher education. Project Lead: D.S. Derezotes. 11/2019 - present.
- Fall, 2019-present. The use of the enneagram personality scale in social work practice. Project Lead: D.S. Derezotes. 09/2019 - present.
- Transforming classrooms into inclusive communities. Project Lead: David Derezotes, Director. Collaborators: see current complete list below. CTLE 09/2016 - 05/2020. Total Budget: $45,000.00.
Pedagogical Publications
- Much of my scholarship has been model-building. I am currently writing my 6th textbook. Paper accepted, 01/01/2018.
- The TCIC team is preparing several evaluation/dissemination projects, including a documentary film as well as outcome surveys and projected articles. Paper in progress, 09/2016.
awards
see teaching and mentoring awards in vita
Small Group Teaching
- Bald Eagles music band is a group I have organized for over 10 years at the CSW. Duane Luptac and I led the group, and we always included students. After Duane Luptac left the CSW in 2019, I organized the Bald Eagles into a mostly-student band. 09/2019 - present
- I am working with a number of students, from undergraduate through graduate and doctorate levels, on many projects that they have identified as important to them. These include program evaluation and documentary of TCIC, radio programs on KRCL, independent study courses at the CSW, and PCS internships. 01/01/2016 - 12/31/2018
Other Profile Data
Dissertation for PhD students:
As Chair of Dissertation Committee, complted one dissertation in 2016.
As Member of Dissertation Committee, worked on three intnernal committees and one committee in another department
Independent Studies:
Supervised independent study classes for 2 PhD students, 8 MSW students, 2 undergraduate students