NASW Social Work Talks

We speak with Dr. Jill Harrington, DSW, LCSW, creator and co-editor of "Superhero Grief: The Transformative Power of Loss," which provides practical ideas for promoting healing through modern superhero stories.

We speak about how to stop anti-Asian violence and hate with Janlee Wong, MSW, who was Executive Director of NASW's California chapter for over 25 years.

See the show notes for related resources.

Gun violence remains a serious public health issue in the United States. About 46,000 Americans died due to gun violence in 2023, with half using guns to die by suicide. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is a partner with Brady, a campaign to end our nation's gun violence epidemic. In this episode of NASW's Social Work Talks podcast, NASW Policy Advisor Mel Wilson talks to Kelly Sampson, senior counsel and director of Racial Justice at Brady, and Colleen Creighton, senior director of End Family Fire at Brady, to get the latest news on the organization's campaign.

Mary Cosimano, LMSW, has been with the Department of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research since 2000 when they began research with psilocybin. She is currently a Psychedelic Session Facilitator and has served as Director of Clinical Services and as a research coordinator. She has been involved with all the psilocybin studies and has conducted over 500 study sessions including Club Drug studies with Salvia Divinorum and Dextromethorphan. Mary has trained postdoctoral fellows, faculty, clinicians, and research assistants as guides and taught individual and group meditation to breast cancer patients in a Johns Hopkins research study. She completed MAPS MDMA therapy training program. She is a teacher and mentor at California Institute to Integral Studies for their Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research (CPTR) certificate program and conducts training for therapists in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Mary is a Psychedelic Harm Reduction and Integration Coach and leads a Death Awareness/Death and Psychedelics Workshop. In 2003 she started a meditation group for employees in her department. She also has 15 years of experience with direct patient care as a hospice volunteer.

White Ribbon VA is a national call to action to eliminate sexual harassment, sexual assault, and domestic violence across the Department of Veterans Affairs by promoting a positive change in culture so that the actions outlined in the pledge become the organizational norm. NASW and other mental health organizations have partnered with White Ribbon. In this episode we talk about the importance of White Ribbon VA with Dr. Bridget Truman, associate director of the Prevention and Management of Disruptive Behavior at the Veterans Central Office, Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention in Asheville, NC; Doctor Angela Lamson is a professor at East Carolina University and a representative of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy; and Doctor Carole Warshaw, MD, director of the National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma and Mental Health and a representative of the American Psychiatric Association.