Dennis Feaster

Partial Transcript: This is Hannah Kenny in Hope College's Social Work and Sociology office on July 1.

Segment Synopsis: Feaster reflects on his early years as a social worker in the community. He shares about his engagement with clients who have nonverbal abilities and how he has learned to value the relationship rather than the control over the client's situation.

Keywords: community; connect; control; disabilities; early years; engagement; environmental factors; impulse; mental health; nonverbal; social work; uptight

Subjects: engagement; social work

Partial Transcript: And you certainly alluded to this when you were talking about your past experiences, but, could you share some of the situations or problems that your clients disclosed when you were working with them?

Segment Synopsis: Feaster opens up about some of the memories he has of his client's presenting problems in community mental health field. He emphasizes the importance of connection and safety for both the client and the worker.

Keywords: acceptance; autism; awareness; community mental health; connection; emotion; internal; nonverbal; suicide

Subjects: community mental health; connection

Partial Transcript: Let me tell you another story, and then maybe I can circle back around.

Segment Synopsis: Feaster talks about how he experienced a client's trauma by sharing a story. He discusses the role that his family of origin played throughout his childhood and how that impacted his early career as a social worker. He had to learn the differentiation between client and self.

Keywords: appropriate; barriers; connection; control; death; differentiation; engagement; experiential; feedback; felt; grief; normalizing; pain; process; trauma; vicarious

Subjects: barriers; differentiation

Partial Transcript: Has that process in your workplace every affected your life outside of your job?

Segment Synopsis: Feaster unpacks the ways in which his social work career both positively and negatively impacts his life outside of work. He then recounts his first exposure to the idea of self-care as indulgent. Through experience, Feaster saw the necessity for self-care and began seeking mind-body practices.

Keywords: Chinese; awareness; behavior; benefit; body; capacity; centering; default; father; grounding; husband; indulgence; inpatient; introvert; listen; mind; recharge; self-care; social environment; social work; space; understand

Subjects: Body-mind centering; awareness

Partial Transcript: Do you notice or pay attention to certain things in yourself that kind of trigger a necessary break or trigger a need for self-care?

Segment Synopsis: Feaster shares the framework of traditional Chinese medicine to explain the energy and feelings that go into his mind-body practices as a method of self-care. He says that circular breathing and unclenching are ways of grounding the rising energy.

Keywords: breathing; circular; energy; feeling; grounding; mind-body practices; rising; traditional Chinese medicine

Subjects: energy; mind-body practices

Partial Transcript: Do you have any other resources that you utilize for self-care?

Segment Synopsis: Feaster discusses his other outlets for self-care, which include faith and family. He talks about the impact that self-care has on his emotional health, stating that he is more functional when he is implementing self-care.

Keywords: emotional health; faith; family; functional; meaning; pain; social work; spouse; theology of the body

Subjects: emotional health; self-care

Partial Transcript: When you think about your story as a social worker, your experience with self-care change over time, what is that like, when you're thinking about experiencing secondary trauma?

Segment Synopsis: Feaster reflects that experiencing primary and secondary trauma have been his principle reasons for seeking self-care. He shares that as an early social worker, he did not have the tools to express his needs for self-care. He was aware of the pain, but had to learn how to be more aware of the dynamics of pain.

Keywords: awareness; body; change; consistent; dynamics; effective; efficient; knowledge; pain; practices; seeking; self-care; time; trauma

Subjects: awareness; knowledge

Partial Transcript: You have so much experience to bring to the table and especially in your role as a professor also, my final question for you is, what kind of advice might you give to emerging social workers when thinking about both your own story and your clients stories about self-care and secondary trauma?

Segment Synopsis: Feaster gives advice to emerging social workers based on his own social work story. He shares that you will be more help for a longer amount of time in the most effective way if you pay attention to your self-care regiment.

Keywords: advice; benefit; client; faith; fills; flowing; imagery; metaphor; mind-body experience; self-purifying; springs; stream; tonic; water

Subjects: advice; self-care