We know ourselves only as far as we've been tested.
I tell you this from my unknown heart. W I S L A W A S Z M B O R S K A
W I S L A W A S Z M B O R S K A
Therapist
For over twenty-five years I’ve counseled couples and families with big, complicated challenges. I have steady nerves, clear vision, unrelenting optimism that people can grow through their worst crises, and heart.
Teacher
My passion for helping, counseling, and social work is so great, I teach others about it. For over a decade I’ve taught counseling to students at local universities. Alongside that, I work with professional folks in non-profit and healthcare settings, training on vicarious trauma, trauma-informed care, supervision practices, and the ethics of helping.
Writer
I write essays, memoir, and the occasional piece of fiction. For many years I wrote copiously and forgettably for newspapers, but now I write the kind of stories that I enjoy reading myself: authentic, intimate, complicated, unashamed grappling with what makes us human.
When Suffering Ceases to be Suffering: Endurance Strategies for the Long Pandemic
How have you grown during this period of darkness and global conflict? What are the lessons you can articulate to reclaim a sense of power and agency, and with whom are you sharing that wisdom? In this 2022 Keynote for National Social Work Month, I draw lessons from Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning and Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals.
Strong @ the Broken Places
Ernest Hemingway said, “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places.” I have a career-long passion for helping people in the helping professions explore the impact of vicarious trauma, the cumulative, transformative impact of working with people facing extreme adversities, and ways to expand professional insight and resilience.