358: Justice + Mindfulness In Social Work Education - With Dr. Loretta Pyles

<p>Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C revisits a previous interview from 2018 with Dr. Loretta Pyles. In this discussion you'll hear Loretta and Laura speaking about the process of social work education.</p> <p>To the listener - please keep in mind that this episode originally aired 4 years ago, many aspects of the educational process for social workers are critiqued in this conversation and there are many ways that change is being demanded and slowly implemented now. Loretta's approach is still not the norm in social work education. Loretta came to mind-body healing practices in 1999, after leaving a difficult long-term relationship and becoming burnt out from her social services and social change work. She found herself anxious, grief-ridden, and disconnected from her body, mind and spirit. Over the years, she has committed herself to a journey toward wholeness, presence, and compassion. The realizations that she later found in meditation and yoga deepened her ability to understand the ways in which oppression and undigested experiences rest in the mind-body continuum.  To learn more about these parts of herself and to experience life more fully, she practices a range of modalities including mindfulness, lovingkindness, breath work, physical poses, devotional mantra, group support, and self-inquiry.</p> <p>Loretta’s sensibility about transformative social change was formed during her time working in a women's collective at a community-based domestic violence program in Lawrence, Kansas.  She continues to be inspired by the insights of collective and consensus building that come from feminist and other social movements, as well as conscious communication practices. She works with public and non-profit organizations to promote healing justice and offers workshops which support social workers and activists to embody mindful practice and self-care through trauma-informed and anti-oppression lenses.</p> <p>Loretta received her B.A. in philosophy and sociology from Baker University, an