210 - Loretta Pyles - Radical Self-Care and Rewilding in Everyday Practice
“That need to feel alive and really present and awake is gonna come out sideways unless we really attend to it.” - Loretta Pyles
True confession time. I have, on occasion, found myself getting comfy with a rote response to the world’s -isms (capitalism, racism, ableism) and villainous influences (patriarchy and white supremacy). "I know" these ills deeply affect me, personally and professionally. "I know" what my responsibility is in challenging those forces and creating an equitable world.
“I know” is a sign that I’ve grown too accustomed to my own answers. You know? Hurrah for Loretta Pyles, Ph.D! Her writing forced a hard reboot of my "I know" attitude, flipping what had become automatic over to active and embodied.
Loretta is a professor at the School of Social Welfare, University at Albany, SUNY. Her work centers on environmental disasters, racial, economic, and gender justice, integrative healing, and human rewilding. Loretta’s journey begins with an abandoned second Master's degree ("I always say that working on a second Master's is a cry for help.") followed by roles in therapeutic environments. Along the way, she discovered that, in order for practitioners to become more effective in their client care, they need to cultivate a practice of learning, listening, and leaning into self-work. Refreshing!
As much contact as I have with other social workers and therapists, the leading voice in our profession is NOT the one shouting "you need to do your own work!” Loretta is my people. She advocates for continual self-inquiry as critical to professional growth. She’s dedicated her career to helping folks resuscitate the connections they’ve been conditioned to ignore: heart-mind, community, and nature. “I wrote “Healing Justice” (her latest book) as a way to integrate that, to be a voice for my social work students, activists, and healers who are out there doing the work, who haven't really had a voice to express this kind of dissonance and moral injury that they're experiencing on the front lines.”
So, what’s this human rewilding? It’s the process of restoring our ancestral relationship with nature. While Loretta acknowledges the term itself is problematic (think: colonizer language), she heartily endorses the practice as an option for self-reclamation. Ultimately, though, whatever healing path we pursue, Loretta urges us to fully commit to it before we consider accompanying our clients on their transformational journeys. "If we want this paradigm shift to happen, then we have to be intentional about it." Yasss!
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
Healing Justice: Holistic Self-Care for Changemakers
Progressive Community Organizing Transformative Practice In A Globalizing World
CWH150 – Mishara Winston – A Model for Communal Mental Wellness
CWH124 – Mishara Winston – Eat Snacks / Take Naps
Resmaa Menakem - Somatic Abolitionism
GUEST CONTACT INFO & BIO
Loretta Pyles, Ph.D., is Professor at the School of Social Welfare, University at Albany, SUNY. Her work centers on environmental disasters, racial/economic/gender justice, integrative healing, and human rewilding. She is the author of Progressive Community Organizing: Transformative Practice in a Globalizing World, 3rd ed. and Healing Justice: Holistic Self-Care for Change Makers. When she's not teaching or working on her new book on rewilding, she can be found playing outside or camping in her Volkswagen van.
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