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Katherine Watt's avatar

Back in 2001, I was in a social work masters program at NYU, assigned to an adolescent ward at a mental hospital for my field training.

My placement did not go well, because after a few weeks of listening to the teenage girl to whom I was assigned - diagnosed as oppositional-defiant and other things — and also listening to my social worker supervisor, I though the girl’s aggressive responses to the threatening world in which she actually lived when outside the hospital (and possibly when inside it) made a lot more sense than the social worker’s efforts to get her to stop fighting.

I thought it would be useful to provide kids with more effective tools to fight back against their abusers and escape, and harmful to teach them to suppress their self-protective responses altogether.

Only lasted that one semester in the program, but learned a lot about social control mechanisms.

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Margaret Anna Alice's avatar

I was thrilled to see the Corona Investigative Committee *finally* interviewed you as I recommended you to them when they invited me several months ago. I love that you and Catherine did this together and am looking forward to listening to what is sure to be an engaging discussion.

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