SSW Alumni Spotlight: Barbie Nadal-Cristofaro, MSW

Posted on September 7, 2021June 8, 2023 by Jackson, Abigail

Alumna Barbie Nadal-Cristofaro

Name, Profession Title, SSW Class & Concentration.

Barbie Nadal-Cristofaro MSW, 092 (pending), 2016 – Administration and Case Work

Briefly describe your current career path.

I have been fortunate to continue doing community work around many social issues. Currently, my role as Vice-Chair for Interval House Connecticut allows me to create awareness on domestic violence and intimate partner violence issues; it is the largest safe house in the state. I am proud to serve my community and give back to the very agency that I once resided in. I am also a school social worker for Hartford Public Schools and I run a small business, ‘Ends2meet LLC’, which creates awareness on poverty and provides people with basic needs including counseling. Additionally, I am the Co-owner of ‘2AssureUS’ LLC, which will be providing consultation services for mental health startups and offer therapeutic services as well as parenting programs.

What are your favorite hobbies?

No hard work goes without some fun! Family and good friends are priorities. I make time to enjoy traveling, working with photography and hosting events.

What was your favorite moment at UConn SSW?

Some of my favorite moments were making lifelong friends even though I came in as an adult learner. Additionally, I was fortunate to meet inspiring professors who demonstrated trust in my abilities and even donated to my then cause, End2meet.

What is something you learned at UConn SSW that still applies to your work today?

I learned to be a better leader and not to give up, especially when the moments are challenging! It is in these areas where our strength is found. I learned that our gut feeling is more important than the credit it gets. Most importantly, I learned more about advocacy and today most of my work revolves around it, whether I am speaking up for a student’s needs, joining a cause, speaking at events, creating awareness, building equity and hope all comes from knowing the importance of advocacy.

The Role of Self-Stigma in Engagement in Opioid Use Disorder Treatment

Posted on September 1, 2021September 24, 2021 by Wessell, Lindsay

Beyond Borders: The Human Rights of Non-Citizens at Home and Abroad

Posted on August 31, 2021October 8, 2021 by Wessell, Lindsay

Dr. Kathryn Libal, Associate Professor and Director of the UConn Human Rights Institute, co-edited Beyond Borders: The Human Rights of Non-Citizens at Home and Abroad. Published by Cambridge University Press, the book was made available online in August 2021.

Read the preface below:

States have long denied basic rights to non-citizens within their borders, and international law imposes only limited duties on states with respect to those fleeing persecution. But even the limited rights previously enjoyed by non-citizens are eroding in the face of rising nationalism, populism, xenophobia, and racism. Beyond Borders explores what obligations we owe to those outside our political community. Drawing on contributions from a broad variety of disciplines – from literature to political science to philosophy – the volume considers the failures of law and politics to guarantee rights for the most vulnerable and attempts to imagine new forms of belonging grounded in ideas of solidarity, empathy, and responsibility in order to identify a more robust basis for the protection of non-citizens at home and abroad. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Molly Land is the Catherine Roraback Professor of Law at the University of Connecticut School of Law. Her research focuses on the intersection of human rights, science, technology, and innovation.

Kathryn Libal is an Associate Professor of Social Work and Human Rights and Director of the Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut. Her publications have focused on human rights, social work, and refugees and asylum seekers.

Jillian Chambers is a Juris Doctor Candidate at the University of Connecticut School of Law, where she is the Symposium Editor of Volume 53 of the Connecticut Law Review and Executive Brief Writer for the Connecticut Moot Court Board

Relieve Anxiety with Emotional Freedom Technique – Theory and Practice

Posted on August 18, 2021September 1, 2022 by Beth Sharkey, MSW

Catherine Ewing, LCSW, MDiv

2-parts:
Wed, Feb 23, 1 – 3:30 pm & Wed, March 9, 1 – 2:30 pm
4 CECs

$80 – UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors
$100 – All Others

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

Life as we’ve known it has been turned upside down and inside out. Change, loss, fear and uncertainty all add to our already high stress levels and worrisome thoughts. Based on feedback from her previous Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) presentations, Catherine Ewing expanded this program to a 2-part webinar. In the first session, you will learn the basics of EFT (tapping). We will explore how it can relieve anxiety and help bring our clients and ourselves back to a place of inner peace.

In the second session, we will have an opportunity to share our tapping experiences during the previous two weeks, ask questions, and have time for additional practice. If time permits, we will do a group tapping experience based on the energy of the group and what feels most helpful and appropriate to help you move forward in your tapping practice.

Please join us for this 2-part webinar to learn the basics of EFT and walk away with a tool that will change your life. This is the perfect time to learn this simple, but powerful technique for yourself and your clients.

In this engaging webinar, we will:

learn the Basic Recipe that is the basis for all of EFT
learn the 8 standard tapping points
have a direct experience of the benefits of tapping
learn how to use EFT for self-care and with clients
have time to practice and gain confidence in using EFT

The Foundation for Understanding Mental Health

Posted on August 17, 2021September 1, 2022 by Beth Sharkey, MSW

Qur-an Webb, MSW and colleagues from Welcome2Reality

Wed, Oct 20, 2021
2 pm – 4 pm
2 CECs

$40 – UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors
$50 – All Others

This webinar was created to provide a base level understanding of mental health challenges and disorders from stigma to trauma to treatment and more. The training will be delivered in an interactive format by including activities, promoting discussion and creating a safe space for to engage in critical conversations around mental health and what we can do to promote better mental health wellbeing and functioning.

We will discuss the factors that puts someone at risk or protects them from developing a mental illness, including the influence of trauma. We will examine the effect of stigma on the perception of mental illness on the individual and societal levels, including how this is often internalized. We will explore some of the most common mental health disorders and then bridge into discussing treatment methods, how to identify signs versus symptoms, barriers to treatment and ways in which we can work to eliminate stigma, promote treatment engagement and emphasize the importance of self-care.

Learning Objectives:

Understand the prevalence of mental health challenges and disorders
Explore risk and protective factors for developing a mental illness
Discuss the impact of trauma and the physiological manifestation of signs and symptoms as they influence mental health
Discuss the impact that stigma has on the perception of mental illnesses on the societal, communal and personal level
Learn some tips for eliminating stigma, engaging in treatment and the importance of self-care

Finding and Improving a Trauma-Informed Workplace Using Brain Science

Posted on August 13, 2021August 13, 2021 by Beth Sharkey, MSW

Patricia D Wilcox, LCSW

Friday, Sept 24, 2021
10 am – 12 pm
2 CECs

$40 – UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors
$50 – All Others

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

Our growing awareness of the importance of trauma-informed care goes beyond clinical work with individuals. It includes the organization and practices of the whole agency system. Helpers cannot treat their clients any better than they themselves are treated. In addition, as we consider the high toll that working with trauma survivors can take on treaters, it is increasingly clear that self-care practices are not enough. In this era of staff shortages and high turnover, the agency must take action to sustain the hope and energy of its workers. What are these actions?

When staff feel they are connected with each other and the agency, and are using and developing their best selves, they are calmer and more effective. Trauma-informed care means using the relationship as the primary vehicle of change. Staff cannot have open-hearted relationships with clients unless they feel safe and connected. We will share strategies for developing a protective social environment.

Participants will be able to:

Define a trauma-informed workplace and list five components.
Develop a list of questions to ask in a job interview to learn more about organizational practices.
Critique their current organization through a polyvagal and trauma-informed lens.
Appraise and discuss their own personal contributions to a culture to sustain employees and develop a plan for future action.
Utilize polyvagal theory to examine staff reactions to safety and danger and develop an action plan to increase staff connectedness and safety either as an employee or as a supervisor.

More details about the webinar:

This webinar will first address the process of seeking a job in an agency that takes care of its workers. What should the interviewee look for? What questions should they ask?

The webinar will then address the role of the individual employee in creating and enhancing a trauma-informed system. What can one person do? The new field of polyvagal theory will help participants understand how safety and danger affect their own behavior and that of their co-workers, including the role of implicit bias. A tool to develop insight into one’s own experiences of safety at work will be introduced. A sense of safety is greatly enhanced by connectedness. Participants will also examine how the racist climate influences our sense of safety and danger, and how self-awareness and specific strategies can help us bring anti-racism into our treatment. Other areas that have been shown to be essential for worker job satisfaction are voice and choice and a sense of purpose and efficacy. Participants will explore actions they personally can take to evaluate and improve these factors in their work settings.

The webinar will also address the role of supervisors and leaders in creating a sustaining workplace, including a checklist of possible action steps.

Impact of COVID-19 On Services for People with Disabilities and Chronic Health Conditions

Posted on July 15, 2021September 24, 2021 by Wessell, Lindsay

How Our COVID and Re-entry Experience Can Help Us Be More Powerful Healers

Posted on June 2, 2021August 16, 2021 by Beth Sharkey, MSW

Patricia D. Wilcox, LCSW

Wed, July 14, 2021
9 am – 11 am
2 CECs

$40 – UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors
$50 – All Others

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete.

We have all had to endure many changes and stressors during the pandemic crisis. How can we use our experiences to enhance our clinical compassion? Participants will examine their experiences during this crisis and consider what they can learn from them in areas such as:

Living with a sense of constant danger
Being cut off from loved ones
Ever-changing and difficult to understand rules and advice
Loneliness
Loss
Being unable to access resources
Handling multiple stressors at once
Lack of resources
Uncertainty and fear of the future
The complexities of returning to the world

Now, we are re-entering our worlds and moving towards our new normal. What have we learned that we want to keep? How can we observe our own responses in trying to achieve a sense of safety, and learn from them about the journeys that our clients take? How can we translate this new awareness into changed practices for our work and our lives?

Learning objectives:

Participants will identify and explore their own COVID19 experiences.
Participants will connect these experiences to events that are common for their clients, and explore how clients manifest these stressors in ways that now makes more sense.
Participants will identify the features of their own reactions to the loosening of restrictions and to assurances of greater safety, and through this gain a greater understanding of the body’s mechanism of danger and connection.
Participants will translate this new understanding into changes they will make in their practice.

Social Justice Issues in Supervision

Posted on May 25, 2021September 1, 2022 by Beth Sharkey, MSW

This webinar provides at least one hour of content on cultural competence

Patricia D. Wilcox, LCSW and Aminah Ali, MSW
Mon, June 28, 2021
1 pm – 3 pm
2 CECs

$40 – UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors
$50 – All Others

This webinar focuses on trauma-informed supervision through a social justice lens, an approach to supervision that begins with the personal and extends to the professional. Personal histories, identities, characteristics and psychological experiences of supervisors, as well as structural and environmental conditions of the organization, are considered in supervision. This perspective promotes the role of the supervisor as a leader in establishing a culture within their team that is responsive to and inclusive of the positionalities and unique experiences of clients and colleagues. Supervisors are encouraged to remain vigilant in their commitment to social justice by leading their teams and organizations in achieving truly inclusive diversity.

Participants will be able to:

Define their social work values and create a plan to promote social justice in their roles as leaders within the organization
Find how to improve their interactions with supervisees by identifying the positionalities and unique experiences of supervisor and supervisee
Critique the culture of the organization by partnering with their supervisees
Appraise and discuss implicit bias and how it impacts the supervisory relationship and work with clients
Discuss with supervisees the applications of racism and inter-generational trauma-informed perspectives in supervision and practice and prepare a plan to utilize this knowledge within their practice

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete

Boundaries in the Time of COVID-19

Posted on May 25, 2021September 1, 2022 by Beth Sharkey, MSW

Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II
Tues, June 15, 2021
10 am – 12 pm
2 CECs

$40 – UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors
$50 – All Others

What do you do when you are experiencing the same thing that is causing the anxiety, depression, trauma, and general turmoil that your clients are needing you to help address? How do you maintain boundaries when we are collectively going through this challenge together? Where do clinical boundaries intersect with human boundaries? Come having a healing conversation about how COVID is straining your boundary skills and what to do about it.

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete