44. Salary Series: Making $75k as a School Social Worker with Lillie, LCSW

In this episode, we talk with Taylor St. Onge, MSW, a veterinary social worker at an animal specialty hospital in Los Angeles. We chat about what her job looks like day to day, with most of her work being grief support, including euthanasia, quality of life conversations and pet loss support. She also supports veterinary staff navigating moral injury, compassion fatigue, and burnout. Taylor shares some of the other settings where veterinary social workers can work and offers advice for social workers interested in getting started in the field. We also talk about the connection between animal cruelty and human violence and why asking about pets can be an important part of a social work assessment. This episode is for anyone interested in animals, the human-animal bond, grief and bereavement, end-of-life support, or finding a unique way to bring their social work skills into the veterinary world. We chat about: What veterinary social work looks like day to day How social workers support families through euthanasia, quality-of-life decisions, and pet loss Ways veterinary social workers support veterinary professionals Where veterinary social workers can work The connection between animal cruelty and human violence Why asking about pets can be an important part of a social work assessment Tips for social workers interested in getting started in veterinary social work

CE Info: This episode is approved for 1 CE credit through the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) ACE Program (#2807) and the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) Provider Program (#8078). To receive CE credit, you must pay, register, and complete the required post-test and evaluation. Listening alone does not guarantee credit. It is your responsibility to verify that this course meets your licensing board's requirements. Click here to purchase the course! In this episode, we are joined by Lindsay Bryan-Podvin, LMSW, a certified financial therapist, to talk about the intersection of money and mental health. She shares what financial therapy actually is and why you don’t have to be a financial expert to start talking about money with your clients. Lindsay shares practical ways clinicians can start uncovering these patterns with clients and reminds us that you don't need to have your own finances perfectly figured out or become a financial therapist to create space for these conversations. If you've ever had a client bring up money and weren't sure what to say, this episode is a good place to start! We chat about: What financial therapy is and how the field has evolved The difference between financial therapy and financial planning or advising How financial stress can affect mental health and overall well-being How money beliefs and early experiences can influence financial behaviors Ways money can affect friendships, romantic relationships, families, and workplace dynamics Why money remains such a taboo topic Resources for clinicians interested in training in financial therapy

We've got big news to share!!! Your Social Work Job, our new job board built just for social workers, is officially live! In this episode, we get into how it came together, why we built it, and what makes it different from just scrolling Indeed or LinkedIn for the hundredth time. So many social work jobs don't have "social worker" anywhere in the title, which means a basic keyword search misses most of them. We built this board to address that, using job titles we have been collecting from social workers across different industries. We also chat about how to use the board and the various features, and what's next, including a newsletter and more resources on the way. We are so excited to finally share it with you! We chat about: Why searching "social worker" alone makes you miss good job opportunities How years of researching job titles for social workers turned into this board What filters are built in: education level, location, job type, and remote options How to read a job posting without talking yourself out of applying What's next, including a career-focused newsletter and more resources

In this episode, we are joined by Shimon Cohen, founder of Doin’ The Work, a podcast, continuing education platform, and practitioner community for justice-centered social workers. Shimon shares his path from street outreach and community organizing into clinical social work, faculty life, and eventually building Doin’ The Work. He shares how he sees anti-oppressive practice and what it actually means using Donna Baines’ framework. We get into how oppression shows up at both the structural and interpersonal level, and how social work is never really neutral. We chat about: Shimon’s path from community organizing to street outreach to clinical social work Why social work is always political, even when it doesn’t feel that way Balancing immediate client needs with the push for systemic change How to tell the difference between a diagnosis and a response to oppression Why naming white supremacy in social work matters What keeps Shimon hopeful and has shaped his outlook on the field

Monae Dale is a program officer at a community foundation in LA, and in this episode she talks about how she moved from direct practice into philanthropy. She started her MSW at USC already wanting to work in macro social work, but found that her program mostly pointed students toward clinical roles. She ended up spending years in a micro/macro hybrid role at a drop-in center for unhoused young adults, then moved into management, before finally making the leap into philanthropy! We talk about the specifics of that transition, including working with a career coach to get clarity on her interests, learning to translate her clinical experience into language macro employers actually look for, and rewriting her resume and cover letter. We also get into the details about what she does day to day as a program officer. This episode is for anyone who has been curious about philanthropy or how to transition from clinical to macro! We chat about: Why a macro concentration in grad school didn't automatically translate to macro job opportunities Monae's take on why management roles often get mislabeled as macro work How to translate clinical experience into language macro employers are actually searching for The value of tailoring your resume and cover letter to every single job What the job looks like as a program officer at a community foundation Why looking at who funds an organization you admire can open up job leads you wouldn't find otherwise Working through the confidence shift that comes with stepping away from clinical work