Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back [Book Review]

Posted on Saturday November 2, 2019 by Jacob Campbell.

I’m a little bit buried with school work, teaching work, and my new job. One of my assignments this week is to write an amazon style book review. I listened to this book two times now, and have been reading thought it again. I’ve really enjoyed it. I didn’t want to post just a couple of paragraphs on Amazon, but wanted to write something here at the same time… so this is a little bit shorter than some of my other book reviews

Zolli and Healy (2012) offer a wide ranging, transdisciplinary look into the concepts resilience. They examine resilience from models related to the individual, groups and organizations, and from ecological systems. They also look at how resilience is facilitated by what they call translational leaders.

In the descriptions and understanding of resilience, their book is full of many examples of resilience through a number of different viewpoints. I found it an interesting viewpoint to be able to look at ecological resilience (such as examples realted to rainforest regrowth as the program focused on Regrow Borneo, Tree by Tree or how the oceans reefs are resilient) and making connections to how that resilience can and could be connected to the various systems at play in our world.

Along with systems, communities and the translational leaders that help to facilitate the resilience within them provide powerful examples how where our society can go, if we put forth the effort to look at our systems and increate collaboration through trust and cooperation (Zolli & Healy, 2012).

If you are interested in how do individuals, organizations, and communities can become more resilient, this book is an information filled read.

Creation of an Annual Report for CEUs for my LICSW

Posted on Monday October 14, 2019 by Jacob Campbell.

This morning, I’m taking a little bit of a break from paper writing, answering discussion questions, and generally focusing on my Ph.D. studies. My birthday is coming up soon and one thing that means is that I have to submit my renewal for my Licensure. In Washington State, as a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW), to keep my credentials up to date, I have to submit for my renewal every year on my birthdate. It can be challenging to determine the best way to stay organized and up to date on all of the requirements in our lives. To help me do this for my licensure, I’ve decided to create an annual report that I’m going to generate each year before submitting my renewal.

In Washington State, there is no requirement to generate an annual report such as this for licensure. There is an affidavit that is required to be signed stating that I am current in my licensure requirements. If I am ever audited, I will be required to provide documentation regarding my completion of these requirements. But even the required documentation is not very complicated. The Frequently Asked Questions Section for Continuing Education describes the following:

WAC 246-809-650 says acceptable documentation shall include transcripts, letters from course instructors, certificate of completion or other formal certification, as required in chapter 246-12 WAC, Part 7.

Again, my understanding of this is it is only necessary to provide this information if you are audited, and it is really not that much information. Because, I want to make sure that I am fulfilling my requirements, I want to be able to track that I have everything necessary and to be able to plan for what I need to do before the next year.

Information taken from the Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker on the Department of Health Website states:

“Social workers must renew their license every year on or before their birthday. Thirty-six hours of continuing education (CE) with six hours in law and ethics is due every two years. Social workers are required to submit the appropriate fee, renewal card and an affidavit of compliance with the continuing education requirement. Beginning with the first full CE period after January 1, 2014, social workers must complete six hours of training in suicide assessment, treatment, and management. The training must be repeated once every six years.”

Of these 36 hours that can be completed, only 26 of those hours per reporting period can be using distance learning programs. See Social Worker and Social Worker Associate Continuing Education Frequently Asked Questions for more details. It states that

“Distance learning programs must be approved by an industry-recognized local, state, national or international organization or institution of higher learning. These programs must require tests of comprehension upon completion. Limit distance learning programs to 26 hours per reporting period.”

The fee for the renew is $116.00. Information about the fees can be found at Social Worker and Social Worker Associate Fee Schedule.

So, using the Drafts App I created a template that I can save in my OmniFocus task list. It’s just a repeating task, with the notes section having a blank version of my task template. While I’ve updated my system to use Shortcuts to track training that I participate in, my post Tracking Trainings Using Drafts and Launch Center Pro in 2014 is still relevant and could give you an idea how I am collecting some of this information to put into my report. I can take the information I’ve already created, and copy and paste the relevant sections and do some planning around what I need to do for the next year and poof I’m done. You can see the Markdown version of my report below:

LOTx [YEAR]x 10x Annual Report on CEUs for LICSWx
# [YEAR] Annual Report on CEUs for LICSW

**Name**: Jacob Campbell  
**License Number**: LW60930561  
**Date**: [DATE]  
**Purpose**: The purpose of this annually generated report is to keep track of the various continuing education that I have completed to be assured that I am meeting my licensure requirements to keep up to date with my LICSW.  

## Requirements for Renewing LICSW

Information taken from the [Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker](https://www.doh.wa.gov/LicensesPermitsandCertificates/ProfessionsNewReneworUpdate/SocialWorker/LicenseRequirements/LicensedIndependentClinicalSocialWorker) on the Department of Health Website states:

> "Social workers must renew their license every year on or before their birthday. Thirty-six hours of continuing education (CE) with six hours in law and ethics is due every two years. Social workers are required to submit the appropriate fee, renewal card and an affidavit of compliance with the continuing education requirement. Beginning with the first full CE period after January 1, 2014, social workers must complete six hours of training in suicide assessment, treatment, and management. The training must be repeated once every six years."

Of these 36 hours that can be completed, only 26 of those hours per reporting period can be using distance learning programs. See [Social Worker and Social Worker Associate Continuing Education Frequently Asked Questions](https://www.doh.wa.gov/LicensesPermitsandCertificates/ProfessionsNewReneworUpdate/SocialWorker/ContinuingEducationInformation) for more details. It states that

> "Distance learning programs must be approved by an industry-recognized local, state, national or international organization or institution of higher learning. These programs must require tests of comprehension upon completion. Limit distance learning programs to 26 hours per reporting period."

The fee for the renew is $116.00. Information about the fees can be found at [Social Worker and Social Worker Associate Fee Schedule](https://www.doh.wa.gov/LicensesPermitsandCertificates/ProfessionsNewReneworUpdate/SocialWorker/Fees).

To renew online I need to access [http://www.doh.wa.gov/hsqa/Renewals.htm](http://www.doh.wa.gov/hsqa/Renewals.htm). My SAW Service code is **[REDACTED]** and my DOH Online Renewal User ID is **[REDACTED]**.

## List of CEU's in Previous Two Years

The following is a list of CEUs that I have received, taken from my running table of CEUs located at [/Data Collection/Continuing Education Tracking.csv]([REDACTED]).

Date | Title | CEU Quantity | CEU Type
--- | --- | --- | ---
N/A | Total Number of CEUs | [NUMBER] CEUs | Both Requirements

[Copy CSV Entries and Include in the table above]

## Descriptive Information for Qualifying CEUs

The following are the entries I have created related to the various pieces of training for each of the training which meet the requirements for my LICSW Renewal. It is taken from [/notes/LICSWx Trainingx List of Training received.txt]([REDACTED]).

[Copy Text File Entries and Include Here]

## Needs for the Next Year

To keep up to date, the following are the needs for continuing education that should be completed during the next year. 

* I have [NUMBER] CEUs ([NUMBER] In-Person and [NUMBER] Online) which will still be current for my [NEXT YEAR] renewal.
* I need to obtain [NUMBER] CEUs before my next renewal
* I need to obtain [NUMBER] CEUs related to [AREA OF NEED]
* A maximum of [NUMBER] CEUs can be done online before my next renewal
* My last training in _Suicide Assessment, Intervention, & Treatment_ which is required every six years was completed 02/20/18

The following is my plan to complete my CEUs:

- Verify that I have planned required CEUs for LICSW Six Months Prior to Deadline @parallel(true) @autodone(false) @context(Roles : Locus of Transformation) @tags(Roles : Locus of Transformation, Activities : Planning) @due(2020-04-18 17:00)
- Obtain 6 CEUs in Law and Ethics @parallel(true) @autodone(false) @context(Roles : Locus of Transformation) @tags(Roles : Locus of Transformation, Activities : Planning) @due(2020-10-18 17:00)
- Obtain 6 CEUs in General Area of Practice (#1) @parallel(true) @autodone(false) @context(Roles : Locus of Transformation) @tags(Roles : Locus of Transformation, Activities : Planning) @due(2020-10-18 17:00)
- Obtain 6 CEUs in General Area of Practice (#2) @parallel(true) @autodone(false) @context(Roles : Locus of Transformation) @tags(Roles : Locus of Transformation, Activities : Planning) @due(2020-10-18 17:00)
- Obtain 7 CEUs in General Area of Practice (#3) @parallel(true) @autodone(false) @context(Roles : Locus of Transformation) @tags(Roles : Locus of Transformation, Activities : Planning) @due(2020-10-18 17:00)

You can check out the PDF version of the report, 2009 Annual LICSW Report Example.

While it took me about two hours to figure out exactly what I want to be in my report, and the creation of it. I think that in the next several years, as I recreate this report, it should be super quick to do. It is very useful as a tool to determine exactly what I need to do for the next year. If you have your LICSW, I would highly recommend having both a system in place for how you track the training that you participate in and how you can be sure that you are fulfilling the requirements of your credentials.

Creators on Creating Book [Infographic]

Posted on Friday September 27, 2019 by Jacob Campbell.

The following is an infographic that I created based on Barron, Montuori, and Barron’s 1997 book Creators on Creating: Awakening and Cultivating the Imaginative Mind. Its a pretty interesting book. They took 39 creative people talking about their creative processes. You can by the book on Amazon. You can download a PDF Version of the Infographic - Creators on Creating.

Creative Inquiry and the Ph.D.

Posted on Wednesday September 18, 2019 by Jacob Campbell.

The course work at the California Institute of Integral Studies Transformative Studies Department is all really based around this idea of creative inquiry. The idea of creative inquiry does not mean just studying something in an interesting way, although I would guess that could be a portion of it. In my thinking about it, and from reading about it as educational style, it is more of a worldview that somebody takes on and thinks about their academic scholarship.

One of the professors in our program, Alfonso Montuori and my teacher for Introduction to Transformative Studies, seems like he is pretty prolific in writing about both creativity and creative inquiry. He describes there being two educational styles that are dominate in academia separate from the concept of creative inquiry. One of them is reproductive, in that they they are about the person who is learning reproducing others work verses creating their own work. This style also could be described as more coming from the head verses the hear. He describes the second style as a narcissistic style, where the learner is looking internally for their learning, he even goes as far as to say it is all navel gazing. This style could also be described as more from the heart.

The way this frame works in my head, is that there is a continuum that these two styles are on either side of. One looking at the head and one looking at the hear. Creative Inquiry would be right in the middle of the two.

I find the idea of creative inquiry pretty fascinating. I wrote an essay about it, that you could check out if you are interested The Ph.D. and Creative Inquiry: A Short Synthesis Paper.

Choosing a Research Topic - Criteria for Choosing and a Digital Tool

Posted on Friday August 30, 2019 by Jacob Campbell.

At any education level, choosing a research topic is a complicated and difficult task. The topic that we pick can really have serious ramifications both in how we go about researching that topic and can impact us in classes or our career direction. Whether you identify as a knowledge worker, a social worker, or a scholar, having the competency and ability to complete meaningful research starts with first determining what you will be investigating.

This video discusses some of what is happening in my life around choosing research topics, some criteria that we really should take on in selecting a research topic, and using MindNode as a tool for planning what research typic you are going to select.

Reference

Alderman, J (2014) Choosing a research topic. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/bliss/17

Montuori, A. (2010). Transdisciplinarity and Creative Inquiry in Transformative Education: Researching the Research Degree. In M. Maldonato & R. Pietrobon (Eds.), Research on scientific research: A transdisciplinary study (pp. 110–135). Portland: Sussex Academic Press.

The Mise en Place for University Class Preparation

Posted on Wednesday August 14, 2019 by Jacob Campbell.

Summer is quickly coming to an end. I’ve been knees deep in preparing for my classes for this upcoming semester at Heritage. This semester I will be teaching three classes. I will be teaching SOWK 486 - Theories of Practice I for one section and two sections of SOWK 459 - Social Science Research Methods. I’ve taught my theories of practice class for a number of years now, and have a format that both I and the students seem to like and find useful. A couple of years ago, we changed textbooks (not just editions) and it took a lot to modify my class to incorporate the new textbook. This year, I’m keeping things pretty much the same… and as I go through and prepare each week I will be just making some incremental improvements to the class.

Teaching a class for the first time, like I will be doing for the social science research methods is a pretty big undertaking. I met with the fellow faculty that will be teaching the course on the Topanish campus, along with the instructor who previously taught the course at the beginning of the summer. We got a chance to see how she had previously implemented the course. I was also able to download the book and start browsing through it some. It’s seems to be very well written… I’m liking some of the examples and stories the author has used so far. Even the way in which the textbook is published is kind of exciting. While most textbooks cost hundreds of dollars, this one is free. It is being published by the Open Social Work Education, which has the ambitious goal of turning the core curriculum of social work open by 2025. We are using DeCarlo (2018) Scientific Inquiry in Social Work.

Because the previous instructor did not include use this textbook last year, I decided that I would follow her flow of class lectures from the previous year, and went through and skimmed the various chapters to try to pick what chapters the students would be reading for that weeks class. It’s not my favorite way of preparing for a class, as I’d prefer to have read the book already, but I can only do so much. I’m sure I will be going through and reading the chapters a week or two in advance of my students every week.

Knowing that my Ph.D. program I will be starting next year, I will have to write a dissertation, I’m kind of excited about this class as well. I think it will be good to be deep in looking at research methods, and should be additive to my studies and my program. The next couple of years, while I have some other examples of program evaluations I have previously completed, my research will really add to this class as well. All that being said, it’s going to be a pretty busy semester.

Being busy and having a lot going on is not something that is new to me, and one of the ways that I manage is by trying to be over-prepared. In some ways, some of what I do might seem a little crazy, but it does really help me from going crazy. A term that I heard by way of Merlin Man, on Back to Work (a wonderful podcast that I’ve been listening to for a long time and only one of the probably three different podcasts where I listen to Merlin at, is Mise en place.

Mise en place (French pronunciation: ​[mi zɑ̃ ˈplas]) is a French culinary phrase which means “putting in place” or “everything in its place”. It refers to the set up required before cooking, and is often used in professional kitchens to refer to organizing and arranging the ingredients (e.g., cuts of meat, relishes, sauces, par-cooked items, spices, freshly chopped vegetables, and other components) that a cook will require for the menu items that are expected to be prepared during a shift. – Wikepedia

While this is a cooking term, and is probably mostly applied to physical items… I find that I really have to put everything in it’s place in my digital life as well. I can really relate to this idea of wanting to have everything in order. In some ways, as I am getting ready for a new semester I feel like I have to take things and organize it all so that it can all be in order. I figured I would open the kimono a little bit into some of the madness of what I all do.

As I described planning what my reading assignments, looking at course assignments, updating the dates, adding clarification to the assignment descriptions, and making sure that the syllabus is well formatted all take me quite a bit of time. I think about my course syllabi as a kind of contract I have with my students and try to put everything that they will need for the semester in it. After I get my syllabus mostly up to date, it’s time to start putting everything into place.

First, I like to keep everything in plain text, written in markdown (you can read my Review of David Sparks’s Markdown Book an Investigation to Formatting Documents for more of an understanding about what this is). These bits of text get put all over the place and let me do all kinds off things with them. For example, I have a colleague that is teaching a the SOWK 486 class with me. For each week of my class, I have a text file that has all of my lecture notes. This semester I went to the last year and copied all of the files, exported them into a word file so that she could use them if they were helpful for her.

Along with updating my syllabus, I also am making sure my calendar is up to date and that I am planning the best dates to make sure that I can reasonably grade papers based on my schedule. I love the Shortcuts (formerly Workflow) App, and if you aren’t using it… you really should be. One of the shortcuts that they have listed in the gallery is the “Create Multiple Calendar Events in Fantastical” shortcut. This is so helpful, and it is pretty amazing. Basically, it lets me write in more or less natural language a long list of calendar events, and then it creates them all for me. I use this shortcut pretty frequently. But in preparing for my course it might look something like this:

8/21/19 from 5:30-8:15 PM Week 01 SOWK 486 - Theories of Practice I at Heritage University /h
8/28/19 from 5:30-8:15 PM Week 02 SOWK 486 - Theories of Practice I at Heritage University /h
9/4/19 from 5:30-8:15 PM Week 03 SOWK 486 - Theories of Practice I at Heritage University /h

The shortcut goes through and parses each of these lines of text and creates a separate calendar entry for each date, during the time I say with the title “Week xx SOWK 486 - Theories of Practice I” at the location of Heritage University on my Heritage calendar. I actually create these text dates using the Numbers App (but would work just the same in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets) so that I don’t have to figure out the calendar dates. In the first row of the table, I add the date of the first class, and then the date adds seven days. As well the week with it’s number increments and I can just use the fill function and I have all of my course dates.

I can then take those and copy and paste them into my text editor (drafts on iOS and Sublime Text on macOS) and use find and replace to delete the tabs that get inserted into the cells. I then take that and copy it and run the shortcut… where all of my class sessions get accurately placed onto my calendar. I do the same with all of the dates listed in the academic calendar, like when the last day to drop a class is and what holidays there are (well, and because I’m me, I do this for my university where I teach, the university where I am taking classes, and for the school district where I work). While I could add the address in the lines of text above, I like it to use the address (along with the title) of my contacts card entry for the university. So I go through each of the calendar entries for my classes and just start typing a space after “Heritage University” and the contact address comes up. I then add the travel time toggle so that I can get notifications when it is time to go to class. I come back and do a second round with my calendar entries, but more on that in just a second.

I mentioned that all of my lecture notes are just text files. I go through and create all of those prior to starting my classes as well, even though until I’m actually preparing for an individual class I don’t fill them in. I like them to be organized in a way that I can easily access them. I go through and use the same ways of not having to manually re-write everything for all of my classes. I end up creating a number of text files that start off looking like

Heritagex SOWK 459x 2019x Classx 01 Planningx
# SOWK 486 Fall 2019 Planning: Class 01

**Location**: CBC Campus - Tuesday T-336 & SWL-220  
**Time**: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30-8:15  
**Week 01**: 08/19/19 — 08/25/19  
**Reading Assignment**: N/A  
**Topic and Content Area**: Course introduction, overview, and Expectations  
**Assignments Due**: N/A  
**Other Important Information**: Special Joined Class

## Agenda

Each of these files is named something like Heritagex SOWK 459x 2019x Classx 01 Planningx.txt where the having the “x” in the name allows me to search for only the file names that have these little types of tags. For example, I can search for all of the files I’ve created for anything in 2019 or that is related to planning. This is another little trick that I originally got from Merlin.

I use a drafts action of saving a draft to dropbox where the first line becomes the file name, and it saves it to my notes folder on Dropbox. I then take and copy the information section into the notes section of my calendar entries. It’s super helpful to have this same information at my fingertips on my calendar, so that I know exactly what is going to be happening that day.

I also go through and use the taskpaper format that is used in Omnifocus to put together tasks for the semester. I have a project for each class with defer dates and due dates that remind me of what I have to due each week along with the assignments. It feels good during the semester to check things off as I go. These tasks end up looking like the following, but it allows me to pretty quickly go through and find and replace things. I also used the date calculator in Alfred on my mac to copy the date, type dcalc 2019-08-14 + 1w and paste in the date for the next weeks tasks. That task paper format look like the following:

- Week 16 Course Preparation @parallel(true) @autodone(false) @context(Roles : Heritage University) @tags(Roles : Heritage University, Activities : Creation) @due(2019-12-03 23:00) @defer(2019-11-24 00:00)
    - Week 16 lecture preparation @parallel(true) @autodone(false) @context(Roles : Heritage University) @tags(Roles : Heritage University, Activities : Creation, Activities : Planning) @due(2019-12-01 23:00)
    - Week 16 posting course materials @parallel(true) @autodone(false) @context(Roles : Heritage University) @tags(Roles : Heritage University) @due(2019-12-01 23:00)
    - Week 16 weekly communication @parallel(true) @autodone(false) @context(Roles : Heritage University) @tags(Roles : Heritage University) @due(2019-12-01 23:00)

While this isn’t all of the preparation I do for my classes, it helps feel like I can know what exactly is going to be happening as I go through the semester.

New Republic of the Heart - Book Review and I’m Going Back to School

Posted on Wednesday July 31, 2019 by Jacob Campbell.

Several months ago, as I was deciding whether or not to move forward with my application to the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) for their Ph.D. Program - Transformative Studies, my mom recommended this book, the New Republic of the Heart. While in general, I could probably talk about an integral perspective, it’s not a topic or understanding that I have fully fleshed out. While this book is not just really about the integral perspective, it describes things from that perspective. So she shared the audiobook with me. I listened to the first 75% of the book pretty quickly, but I knew I wanted to write about the book as well. Life was pretty hectic, and I was also in the middle of making the move to have my content in this website format (I’m pretty happy with the move so far… although I’m still pretty sure eventually it might bite me in the butt).

Basically, I haven’t been exposed very much to a specific viewpoint on transdisciplinary work or even work that integral in nature. My experience in social work, and especially coming from a more generalist perspective, has given me some good foundation looking at how we use the scientific method to determine the work we do. Furthermore, my mostly eclectic practice style lends itself pretty well to trying to integrate those perspectives into a bigger understanding. With social work, especially from a mezzo and macro perspective being able to connect and understand other disciplines is a vital skill. I’m sure in the future I’ll write more about these topics, but it seems to be a pretty great connection.

I am really and truly excited about moving forward with my Ph.D. and completing my studies at CIIS. That being said, there is always that fear that is there. I know a number of people that are ABD (All But Dissertation - meaning they didn’t finish their doctoral programs). College is expensive (I’m still paying on my loans for my MSW) and I have to figure out again how to balance family/ school / work / and life.

Especially as I was initially considering CIIS, I was worried about the program and what my degree should be in. Is this the right program, is this the direction I should be going in, what’s the best course of action. Not only in general about what the program is, but about the Transformative Studies program specifically. Could it be that it is a bit too “‘Hippyish.” I sat in on a zoom meeting with some of the faculty and prospective students and when they were talking about the dissertations that people completed, two of the examples were around ayahuasca. Really it’s not that I have a problem with ayahuasca or for that matter studies using hallucinogens for medical purposes (it’s fascinating and there is quite a bit of literature around the topic). If you are interested, you can read my blog post New Experiences and Broken Things, where when I was in the Peruvian jungle I went through an ayahuasca ceremony with some shamen. My hesitation was more around if they are a bit too much on the scientific fringe.

I don’t know exactly what I want my dissertation to be on, but my current school of thought is around trauma and kids. I talked to my advisor about this as I did my admissions interview, and they thought it sounded like a very viable option. Really, it was like I was as I was going through this minor existential crisis (I’m sure it is not the only one I will be going through), that my mom recommended this book to get some perspective on integral practice.

The book was pretty great. Like many of my book reviews, this isn’t really a comprehensive review of the book, but more some stuff that stood out to me. It’s also been a while since I listened to the majority of the book. I ended up listening to a couple of the books in the Red Queen Series books that I recently wrote about that I recently wrote about.

In general, it is a very soundly put together book that is interesting and has some pretty common-sense arguments. It is especially interesting in that he uses the kind of integral perspective and really applies it to a specific subject, that of climate change. But really, it is a pretty generalist in its thoughts and approaches.

One of the topics that I found the most interesting was the concept of the “We-Space”

“People are already spontaneously evolving a new global tribal practice by meeting in camps, seminars, group outings, and online conversations, as well as classes, conferences, and celebrations with international participants. There is an inherent systemic necessity at work: the urgent need for human maturity to guide our collective decision making. How will these global conversations evolve? One thing is clear: we will need two kinds of conversations. We need open forums that welcome new participants and draw new people into this practice of conversation. But we will refine our praxis and be personally transformed by deeper, more personal and intimate conversations in closed groups of people we can get to know. These can become communities of practice where we and our tribes can actually evolve.” (pp. 575-576 from the Apple Books version)

Having a strong community is something that I’ve always wanted to have more of and be more involved with. If you are interested at all in climate change, and really we all should be, I’d really recommend the book. You might take up some of the mantels of an advocate that is so needed in these days.

Floating the River - Summer Fun

Posted on Tuesday July 23, 2019 by Jacob Campbell.

I absolutely love doing anything outdoors, and one of my favorite things I do every year (hopefully a couple of times this year), is being able to get some people I care about and getting out on the river and just floating. It’s slow, but to me it is so relaxing and a beautiful experience (even if we don’t get out of the water until it late in the evening.

You can see this on my website, Floating the River - Summer Fun or on the GoPro Sharing Service - Floating the River.

Soundtrack: KRANE - Daylight
Shot on my Hero Black and my iPhone 10.