Last week

These 16 weeks past faster than I could ever imagine. When I came to Toronto it seemed like I would be here forever and now I can hardly believe that I am leaving soon. Yes, this is my last Thursday at Warden office and tomorrow is the last day of the whole placement. Even though I look forward to some free time, it feels very sad to leave FSAT.

Those last few days I have gotten a lot of feed-back from the staff members I have been working with. They are much encouraging and make me look back at these weeks from a very positive perspective. I have learned a lot from them and they have given me good guidance when I have taken on new tasks. And perhaps most important, they have been very pleasant to be around and have created a warm environment to work in. I have definitely enjoyed my time and I am so grateful that I found this placement.

Who knows, maybe I find my way back to Toronto someday. I feel much welcome, that is for sure. But til then;

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!

Finding Me

For the last seven weeks I have facilitated a group program together with two other counsellors within the Violence Against Women team. The group is now coming to an end and as I look back I realize this work has given me a lot of experience to bring into my future practice. The program is called Finding Me and expressive art is the method that we have been using. The participants are women who have experienced abuse in the past and is now trying to orient towards a life on their own and heal from the trauma; finding themselves. Every session has been focusing on various artistic ways to express feelings and thoughts, such as painting, writing, dancing, acting etc. The participants are not requested to have any artistic qualities and the work they do is not to be judged. There where some women who had worries in the beginning, but the creativity we have seen these weeks is astonishing. I am very glad to see alternative methods being used in social work, because I believe it is essential for a social worker to have a range of tools to work with. The diversity among people must be reflected in the social services we offer.