Coming Home to Yourself | Reiki • Sound Healing • Stillness with Patti Block

What does it mean to come home to yourself?

In this episode of the Goddesses of Social Work Podcast, I welcome Patti Block, Reiki Master, Vibrational Sound Therapist, and founder of Zen Body Waves in Montgomery, Alabama.

Patti is also my Reiki teacher, so this conversation holds a special place in my heart.

Together, we explore Reiki, sound healing, the importance of stillness, and the ways we can reconnect with ourselves amid the demands of everyday life.

For social workers and other helping professionals who spend so much time holding space for others, this conversation offers an invitation to consider what it means to create that same space for ourselves.

Whether you're familiar with energy healing or simply curious, I invite you to listen with an open mind and consider what coming home to yourself might mean in your own life.

✨ Explore Reiki Level I & II Training

Patti and I are coming together in January 2027 to offer Reiki Level I and II training through Illuminated Expressions, LLC, an approved Alabama Board of Social Work continuing education provider.

Alabama social workers can earn continuing education credit through this training.

Learn more and register: https://www.zenbodywaves.com/zen-body-waves-upcoming-events/reiki-level-1-2

Connect with Patti Block

Zen Body Waves — hello@zenbodywaves.com

About the Goddesses of Social Work Podcast

A space for authentic conversations about social work, healing, creativity, identity, personal growth, and the experiences that shape our lives.

Thank you for listening, and remember that there is room for all of who you are.

In Part Two of my conversation with Mary Clark, LCSW, we continue our discussion of healing by exploring the complementary and holistic practices that have become part of both Mary’s personal journey and her work as a social worker.

Mary shares how practices such as movement, time in nature, meditation, yoga, massage, and other mind-body approaches have expanded the way she thinks about healing and wellness. We talk about what it can look like to care for the whole person, the relationship between our bodies and our emotional lives, and the ways Mary’s own experiences continue to shape the social worker she is becoming.

Mary is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Alabama and Florida, a Licensed Massage Therapist, and is currently training to become a yoga instructor. She is also a former member of the Goddesses of Social Work supervision community.

If you haven’t listened to Part One, “PTSD, Recovery & Healing,” I encourage you to begin there to hear Mary share more about her experience with PTSD, recovery, spirituality, and the ongoing work of healing.

Thank you, Mary, for trusting me with your story and for coming back to the Goddess community to share where your journey has taken you.

Goddesses of Social Work Podcast Hosted by Renita Ray Davis, LCSW-S/PIP

What happens when the social worker becomes the person who needs support?

In Part One of this conversation, I sit down with former Goddess supervisee Mary Clark, LICSW, to talk about her journey into social work and the personal healing journey that changed the way she understands herself, her profession, and the meaning of recovery.

Mary shares openly about her experience with PTSD, seeking treatment, and learning that healing is not necessarily about arriving neatly on the “other side.” We talk about the ongoing and intentional work of recovery, the role of spirituality after trauma, and what it means to be a mental health professional who also needs, and deserves, care.

Our conversation also explores something we don't always talk about enough in this profession: social workers are human, too. We can have training, clinical knowledge, and experience supporting others and still encounter moments in our own lives that require us to reach for support.

This is Part One of my conversation with Mary. In Part Two, we continue by exploring the complementary and holistic practices that have become part of her healing and professional journey, including movement, meditation, yoga, massage, and her growing vision for women's wellness.

🎙️ Goddesses of Social Work Podcast Hosted by Renita Ray Davis

✨Contact Mary Clark Here:

👉mkclark8@crimson.ua.edu

✨Find more of Renita's offerings here:

👉 https://linktr.ee/illuminatedexpressions

✨Artistic Pathways to Clarity Journal

👉https://artisticpathwaystoclarity.my.canva.site/clarity

Interested in Mastering Your Therapeutic Techniques for Dementia Caregivers?

👉 https://gamma.app/docs/Interested-in-Mastering-Your-Therapeutic-Techniques-for-Dementia--7fnyf5ydeq70qd5

✨ Goddess of Social Work Earrings – Etsy:

👉 https://www.etsy.com/listing/1183285270/goddess-of-social-work-earrings

Nearly ten years ago, I first knew Dr. Mary Sewell as my social work student. Today, I have the privilege of sitting across from her as a fellow social worker, doctoral scholar, researcher, and creator of the R.I.C.K.Y. Framework.

In this deeply personal conversation, Dr. Sewell shares the experiences that shaped her journey from social work practitioner to Doctor of Social Work, including the loss of her son, Ricky, to suicide and her decision to make sure that his life and his name continued to count.

That commitment eventually became scholarship. Dr. Sewell's doctoral research explored culturally responsive suicide assessment among African American adolescents and led to the development of the R.I.C.K.Y. Framework: Relational Connection, Identity Affirmation, Culturally Attuned Communication, Knowledge and Awareness, and Youth Empowerment.

We talk about the limitations of relying on standardized suicide assessment tools alone, the importance of listening to the language young people actually use, and what culturally responsive practice can look like when social workers make room for culture, identity, relationships, context, and lived experience.

Mary also reflects on her work with Indigenous communities, including the Lakota Nation and the Havasupai Tribe, and what those experiences taught her about cultural humility, relationship, and the danger of assuming that we already understand another person's experience.

This is a conversation about grief, purpose, scholarship, culture, social work, and what can happen when a social worker asks, “What do I do next?”

Content note: This episode includes discussion of suicide, suicidal ideation, suicide assessment, and the death of a child by suicide. Please listen with care.

✨Contact Dr. Mary Sewell Here:

👉marysewell0214@gmail.com

✨Find more of Renita's offerings here:

👉 https://linktr.ee/illuminatedexpressions

✨Artistic Pathways to Clarity Journal

👉https://artisticpathwaystoclarity.my.canva.site/clarity

Interested in Mastering Your Therapeutic Techniques for Dementia Caregivers?

👉 https://gamma.app/docs/Interested-in-Mastering-Your-Therapeutic-Techniques-for-Dementia--7fnyf5ydeq70qd5

✨ Goddess of Social Work Earrings – Etsy:

👉 https://www.etsy.com/listing/1183285270/goddess-of-social-work-earrings

What does it look like to care for the whole person, not simply respond to a diagnosis?

In Part Two of Renita's conversation with Christine Richmond, we pick up exactly where we left off: Christine said yes to an unexpected opportunity. Now we get to hear what she helped build.

Christine introduces us to the Care Collective and the world of geriatric care management, sharing how care managers help older adults and families navigate the often complicated realities of aging, healthcare, resources, and changing care needs.

The conversation moves into dementia care and some of the things families may misunderstand when a loved one is experiencing cognitive changes. Christine discusses the role social workers can play in supporting older adults and their families and explores what person-centered dementia care looks like when we see the individual beyond the disease.

Along the way, Renita and Christine talk about the knowledge, advocacy, creativity, and human connection social workers bring to this work, and why understanding the person behind the diagnosis matters.

If you haven't listened to Part One, “Say Yes: Social Work, Opportunity & the Unexpected Path with Christine Richmond,” start there to hear the story of the professional journey that brought Christine to this work.

✨ Goddesses of Social Work Podcast Conversations about social work, the people who do it, and the many ways this profession can take shape.

✨Find Christine Richmond Here:

👉christine@carecollectivehealth.org

👉https://www.carecollectivehealth.org/

✨Find more of Renita's offerings here:

👉 https://linktr.ee/illuminatedexpressions

✨Artistic Pathways to Clarity Journal

👉https://artisticpathwaystoclarity.my.canva.site/clarity

Interested in Mastering Your Therapeutic Techniques for Dementia Caregivers?

👉 https://gamma.app/docs/Interested-in-Mastering-Your-Therapeutic-Techniques-for-Dementia--7fnyf5ydeq70qd5

✨ Goddess of Social Work Earrings – Etsy:

👉 https://www.etsy.com/listing/1183285270/goddess-of-social-work-earrings

What happens when you stop limiting what social work is supposed to look like and start saying yes to the opportunities in front of you?

In Part One of this conversation, Renita sits down with Christine Richmond, a social worker whose career has taken her through geriatric social work, leadership, entrepreneurship, and paths she never necessarily planned for.

Christine shares how she found her way into social work, the opportunities that shaped her career, and what she learned about recognizing her own value along the way. They also talk about the limiting phrase “I’m just a social worker,” the many directions a social work career can take, and what it means to become willing to leave the security of what you know when something new is calling.

And then Christine reaches a moment that beautifully captures her journey:

Here’s the opportunity. Say yes.

That’s where we’ll leave you, for now.

Join us for Part Two, when the conversation continues with what happened after Christine said yes and the story of the Care Collective.

✨ Goddesses of Social Work Podcast Conversations about social work, the people who do it, and the many ways this profession can take shape.

✨Find Christine Richmond Here:

👉christine@carecollectivehealth.org

👉https://www.carecollectivehealth.org/

✨Find more of Renita's offerings here:

👉 https://linktr.ee/illuminatedexpressions

✨Artistic Pathways to Clarity Journal

👉https://artisticpathwaystoclarity.my.canva.site/clarity

Interested in Mastering Your Therapeutic Techniques for Dementia Caregivers?

👉 https://gamma.app/docs/Interested-in-Mastering-Your-Therapeutic-Techniques-for-Dementia--7fnyf5ydeq70qd5

✨ Goddess of Social Work Earrings – Etsy:

👉 https://www.etsy.com/listing/1183285270/goddess-of-social-work-earrings

In this episode of the Goddesses of Social Work Podcast, Renita sits down with Morgan Overton, MSW, a social worker and multidisciplinary visual artist whose work explores Black interiority, ancestral memory, and the fullness of Black life beyond narratives of struggle.

Their conversation began after meeting at the Harlem Fine Arts Show in the Hamptons, where Morgan was a featured artist and speaker. When Renita discovered that the artist whose work had captured her attention was also a social worker, there was immediately more to explore.

Together, they talk about the threads connecting Morgan's experiences in psychology, social work, politics, community organizing, and visual art; what Black interiority means in her work; and what becomes possible when struggle is no longer the center of how we understand Black life, or the social work profession itself.

Morgan also reflects on the social work values present in her art, the experience of bringing her identities as artist and social worker together, and what creativity and imagination can offer a profession that is often understood primarily through problems, needs, and struggle.

This is a conversation about art, social work, identity, imagination, and giving ourselves permission to recognize just how expansive this profession, and the people within it, can be.

✨Find Morgan Overton Here:

👉HOME | Morgan Overton

✨Find more of Renita's offerings here:

👉 https://linktr.ee/illuminatedexpressions

✨Artistic Pathways to Clarity Journal

👉https://artisticpathwaystoclarity.my.canva.site/clarity

Interested in Mastering Your Therapeutic Techniques for Dementia Caregivers?

👉 https://gamma.app/docs/Interested-in-Mastering-Your-Therapeutic-Techniques-for-Dementia--7fnyf5ydeq70qd5

✨ Goddess of Social Work Earrings – Etsy:

👉 https://www.etsy.com/listing/1183285270/goddess-of-social-work-earrings

Goddess alum Tori Helm, LICSW, returns to the Goddesses of Social Work Podcast for a conversation about growth, courage, and becoming more of yourself.

Tori reflects on what has changed since her time in supervision, what she is building in this season of her life, the risks that have stretched her, and what she knows about herself today that she couldn't have known five years ago.

Along the way, Renita discovers an unexpected part of Tori's journey: she's now a CrossFit coach. With encouragement from the medical director at the substance use treatment center where she works, who is also a coach, Tori pursued coaching herself and now has the opportunity to incorporate it into her professional work by providing CrossFit coaching to outpatient clients as part of their programming.

It's a conversation about social work, movement, personal evolution, and what becomes possible when we allow our lives and our careers to expand beyond the boxes we once imagined for them.

Find Tori Here:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/tori-helm-salt-lake-city-ut/1576995

https://care.headway.co/providers/tori-helm?utm_source=pem&utm_medium=direct_link&utm_campaign=147958

https://mrhmoab.org/recovery-center/

✨Find more of Renita's offerings here:

👉 https://linktr.ee/illuminatedexpressions

✨Artistic Pathways to Clarity Journal

👉https://artisticpathwaystoclarity.my.canva.site/clarity

Interested in Mastering Your Therapeutic Techniques for Dementia Caregivers?

👉 https://gamma.app/docs/Interested-in-Mastering-Your-Therapeutic-Techniques-for-Dementia--7fnyf5ydeq70qd5

✨ Goddess of Social Work Earrings – Etsy:

👉 https://www.etsy.com/listing/1183285270/goddess-of-social-work-earrings