Brain Work and SOUL~cial Work

"However, when we shift our awareness or "frequency" from self-consciousness -- where fear, impossibility or feelings of separation reside -- to cosmic consciousness, which is in total harmony with the universe and where none of those feelings exist, then anything is possible." ~James Redfield.



I started this post with a James Redfield quote, because some of his lessons from The Celestine Prophecy has surfaced in my life. One of the powerful ideas surfacing for me suggests that a conscious awakening is occurring in the human culture. This heightened awareness is stimulated by one's curiosity and connection to the coincidences occurring in Life (Redfield, 1993). Well, I've had a few series of coincidences occurring in the past 3 months. On August 8th, 2009, my mother sent me one of her weekly emails, which I have labeled in my email account ~ Mom's Wisdom. This email entailed a small exercise called Brain Yoga. Check out this news clip from CBS2 News.





For more information on Super Brain yoga visit: http://pranichealing.com/

You might be asking, how does any of this connect to Social Work? Well, during my second class in Community Practice, Professor Yellow Bird discussed neuroplasticity and the power of this practice in social work. Neuroplasticity has been scientifically proven to enhance the brain. Rebuilding the brain helps people in their overall functioning and well being, which gives empowerment a whole new meaning. (Yellow Bird, Lecture 9/1/2008). I became very interested in Professor Yellow Bird's work in neuroplasticity after he had the class stand up and taught us a new brain exercise. He taught us super brain yoga. Coincidence?


Let's say it was one of those small coincidences in life and it had no meaning. I can live with this and go on not thinking twice about it. However, when I have a third or fourth coincidence, I think there's some thing going on. For example, I work as group facilitator in a domestic violence batterers intervention program in Humboldt County and Del Norte County. We were having a small discussion on the impact and consequences of domestic violence on brain development in children in one of the groups. This discussion led to other conversations about personal thought patterns and how they're connected to personal fears and past trauma. Fear became the topic of discussion and I started thinking about Professor Yellow Bird's lectures that refer back to human fears and the potential discourse it creates in the human experience. I was consumed in my thoughts during a break in group. I was thinking about the creation and culture of Fear. A group member snapped me out of my thoughts and handed me a video, The Celestine Prophecy. They told me, "I thought of you, when I watched this. Thought you might like it."


So, these thoughts and experiences with fear, neuroplasticity, and human consciousness seem to come in full circle. Does this mean neuroplasticity will free humans from the culture of fear and raise the global human consciousness? Science hasn't answered this question. However, science has proven that the brain can rebuild it structure, which can free people from their past limitations. Neuroplasticity seems like another powerful tool that empowers people with finding their true human potential on a mental, physical, emotional and spiritual level. I love this idea of empowerment, because it gives social work professionals the freedom to explore new and innovative ways to tap into our gifts and some of the deeper purposes of our lives. Our Soul Purpose.

Here's some more information on neuroplasticity if you're interested in this form of practice.

http://www.memoryzine.com/neuroplasticity.htm

What Am I Doing Here?

Some Personal History

My family history goes far back to Nippon (Japan), where I have blood ties to various types of farmers, a pearl diver, business owners and samurai. My grandparents came to America in the early 1900's to 1920's.

Both of my parents Kenneth Kenji Matsuura and Masako Nancy Konishi were born prisoners of war in the WWII Japanese internment camps. I was born the 2ND son of Ken and Nancy Matsuura, and my brother Darren Kenneth Matsuura is 2.5 years older.

I grew up in Almaden Valley of San Jose, CA and I have some amazing friends and fond memories from this area. I was fortunate to have a supportive community and have a lot of my father's family close by. My mother's family lives in Fresno, CA, and we mostly visited them for special occasions.

The technological boom really impacted this area and I started moving to areas like Lake Tahoe, CA and Santa Cruz, CA. Smaller communities and the preservation of a slow and simple lifestyle were appealing, so I ventured off to Utah. For about 4 years, I lived out of my truck and worked in the Utah desert and high mountains.

I decided to return to California to attend the MSW program at Humboldt State. I was drawn to school in Northern California, because I enjoy the rural life of California and there's a strong culture of community exchange and local support in the area.

Why Social Work?

Sociology

I really think it's been a calling for a long time, because I had a deep knowing that I wanted to work with the youth. I started to stray from this gut intuition, when I first attended community college at De Anza College. Still chasing a pipe dream in football, I was derailed, when I blew out my left knee and my inner knowings started to resurface. I stumbled across sociology at Lake Tahoe Community College and received a B.A. in Sociology at the University California Santa Cruz. I developed a strong interest in "social psychology," and enjoyed the study of personal and social identities.

Professional Background

At Santa Cruz, I volunteered at the Walnut Avenue Women's Center working in the Mom and Kid's Program. On top of this, I worked part time for a non-profit after school program at Santa Cruz Gardens Elementary. Observing children and their behaviors, I started forming some of my own beliefs around capitalism and how it was impacting family structures and children's development. Later in life, I worked in a group home serving adjudicated youth for a nonprofit organization Tahoe Turning Point (TTP). TTP was the gateway to one of the most impactful decisions in my life, where I decided to pack up a 2 bedroom home, donate most of my belongings and move into my truck. I traveled to Utah to attend a week long training for a therapeutic wilderness program, Second Nature Wilderness Program, where I ended started working. Visit http://snwp.com/ to learn more about the program. For almost four years, I lived outside with "at risk" (I call mis-guided) adolescents and other field instructors. I was amazed by the transformation I witnessed in others, the development of group culture and seeing the power of nature work it's way with humans. I believe getting back to the human basics and spending time outdoors is essential to our overall well being. I hope this becomes more widely accepted in this field.

MSW Program

I decided to attend a MSW program with the hope to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and continue serving youth. Currently, my field placement in the program is Men and Women Experiencing Non-Abusive Directions (MEND/WEND). MEND/WEND provides individual and group counseling, domestic violence prevention, child abuse prevention, and anger management. I help facilitate two of the men's groups and one of the women's group for the batterers intervention program. I also conduct intakes and assessments for MEND/WEND. I would like to work with youth again, and I'm in hopes of starting a program or group for adolescents.

Baby Steps in Community Work

Introduction to Community Work

I'm currently in my second year of the Masters in Social Work (MSW) program at Humbodlt State University, California. One of the courses I'm taking in the MSW "concentration year" is SW643 Community Work, instructed by Michael Yellow Bird Ph.D. Visit Michael's blogspot at http://arikaraconsciousness.blogspot.com/ , if you would like to learn more about our professor.

There are serveral goals and objectives to this course; which focus on, understanding a community on a individual to macro level, learning and developing knowledge about community work and social systems that help promote the overall well being of others, using ecological perspectives to develop and enhance appropriate interventions, engaging community systems and stimulating participation from community members, critical evaluation of social research in this field and how it relates to working with communities, and addressing social injustices from a multi-system perspective by identifying strategies for intervention that honor the cultural uniqueness and interdependence of all communities (Yellow Bird, 2009).

One of the assigments for this course is the Critical Reaction/Activist Internet Blogging. This assignment asks the students to start a personal blog to share some of our reflections and reactions to some of the course material. I will be using this blog, Finding Soul in Social Work to voice some of my thoughts and feelings. I'm in hopes they will all tie into the various topics of community and generate some stimulating ideas. And, I'm also hoping that others will discover this blog, browse through it, add a comment with their thoughts and feelings, and take a risk to express anything that stirs within. I invite you to express yourself freely, even if it might be hard for me or others to chew on.
~Domo Arigato Gozaimasu! (Thank you very much!)