DO NO HARM

Reservist

Reservist, the event that comes after national conscription, happens for a period of 2 weeks every year. It is a ritual/life event that every male Singaporean has to undergo. You meet up with old army friends, work and train hard; go through some measure of inconvenience such as slugging it out in the jungle, sitting in the heavy rain, and waiting long hours for activities and training to start. Then you make promises to meet up and catch up after reservist is over, but then the next time you see each other will only be the following year's 2-3 week stint.

Reservist is also a place where life cycle transitions are even more obvious and pronounced, 2 week snapshots of doing the same things, but with changing physiological and socio emotional sense of self each time I'm there.

Generating Conversations Part 1

Attended the first Systemic Psychotherapy Conference, which was held in memory of Anthony Yeo, the Father of counselling in Singapore. The symposium was actually an interesting and thought provoking one, especially generating some thoughts and "inner conversations" regarding my role as a social worker in Singapore.

To keep my posts short and sweet, I'll probably discuss these thoughts in several parts (hopefully you get to see all the parts). No point me summarising too much what the speakers were talking about, as you can probably google this information.

On Trauma

 
 

In my work with clients and families, I realised that most of these families have faced post traumatic stress in relation to events that have happened in their lives. Trauma that affects them, and poses challenges in their interpersonal relationships, as well as relationships with the environment. Traumatic events range from serious experiences with rape, family violence, accidents, sudden death of a loved one, to events which I mistakenly assumed were too "trivial" to be traumatic: failing an exam, discovery of an affair, etc

How Soccer and Social Work can be the same

 

This being the world cup season and all, here are some lessons I learnt from Soccer that can be brought into Social Work. What better way to tell it than through the quotes of soccer greats!

Recognising your demon dialogues

In her book "Hold Me Tight", Dr Sue Johnson (2008) talks about the typical 3 disruptive patterns of communication that couples may fall into that may affect their emotional connectedness in their relationships. She calls these patterns the Demon Dialogues. Recognising that these patterns, as opposed to the content of your discussions, are responsible for the deterioration of one's relationship presents the first step towards building healthy and sustainable couple relationships.

Community Health Care: The next step

 

I believe that the next step for social work in Singapore would be the integration of medical support into the community itself. From the time of the almoners, we have realised that Social Work cannot be excluded from medical practice. From a Person in Environment perspective, we cannot ignore the medical and physiological realm from the socio emotional in our claim for a holistic view of practice.

2-year anniversary

Today, or rather yesterday, marks my 2 year anniversary of marriage to my dear wife Shidah, not counting the total 8 years I've known her. Marriage is never an easy road, but the ups far outweigh the downs; I consider myself blessed that I married my best friend, someone who not only tolerates my antics, but also joins in them as well.. 

Storytelling

 

I have always been interested and fascinated with the art of storytelling. A good story reaches out not only to children but stirs feelings and change in adults as well. A story once told, is no longer yours, as the person who hears the story listens and interprets the whole story through his own set of  values and schematics, culminated from a combination of his natural characteristics as well as transference from his prior life experiences. 

The Rise of the Seniors' Activity Centre

 

Being aware of the ideology of Social Constructionism, also means that we need to be able to construct social service establishments, as evident here. I can now proudly add "Construction Work" in my vast repertoire of skills.

 Jokes aside, this picture is significant as it is the culmination of hard work and sweat contributed by so many different persons (Social Workers, staff, Management, Governing bodies, etc) over a period of 2 years. What is particularly satisfying is seeing how industry, teamwork, and a healthy dose of passion is repaid with actually physically seeing an entirely new set up being built, in this case the Seniors' Activity Centre. 

Interesting new challenges and more hard work awaits!

And no, we are not actually the ones physically building the place.

The Cat in the Hat returns

Have finally got the "mojo" to write this blog again after a long hiatus. It's really great to take a short break from anything related with work, just to get reacquainted with the things you love to do, like slacking about, playing sports, and meeting up with old friends etc. Some call this recharging. But for me, its just simply being in touch with your self again, review your life goals, before you reenter the workforce with renewed vigour.