Social work career advice from Dean Nancy Smyth, PhD: her path from MSW to Dean, why MSW is just the beginning, 10+ essential clinical competencies for private practice (substance abuse screening, mental health assessment, domestic violence, trauma, dissociation, CBT, MI, record-keeping), women in academia challenges, virtual reality therapy applications, and trauma-informed care integration.
Social Work in Advocacy and Public Policy
Are you interested in pursuing a career in advocacy or public policy? Melinda Lewis advises you to: “Choose an organization that you’re excited about not, just a job description that sounds good… also an understanding of how policy systems work, how to build organizational strength, and how change happens.” This week, I had the honor of interviewing […]
What Is Social Work In Child Welfare Like?
Many people are rather confused as to what child welfare social workers do, especially in light of how the media portray their role. @SocialJerkBlog, a social worker employed in the field of social work, describes her typical day as including “some parent training with clients. This can be working on behavioral charts and disciplinary consistency, […]
Bipolar Disorder Brought to Life
As is the norm for most classes in graduate school for social work, we had to write a final paper at the end of the Human Behavior III class that I took this summer. Human Behavior III is essentially the equivalent of Abnormal Psychology in many other programs in which one learns about the different […]




