Name: Noelle Raffo

Social Justice Group: Women in the Media

Date of Fieldwork: December 6, 2018

Name of Organization: MindWell NYC

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Dr. Rebecca Skolnick, Dr. Rachel Hutt, Dr. Jessica Renz

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

We went to the MindWell offices in NYC. MindWell is a group psychologist office and they meet with all kinds of people to help them with different issues. We interviewed Dr. Skolnick, Dr. Hutt, and Dr. Renz. They gave us some great insight on some techniques that they give to their clients.

What I learned:

I learned a few techniques that teens can use. One of the most interesting ones was to make a positive following list. This techniques involves the person going through their Instagram feed and asking themselves honestly “does this make me feel worse about myself?”. If it does, then the person should unfollow them. Another technique was to look in the mirror with no judgment and seeing the beautiful things about them. If somebody doesn’t like their legs, for example, they should think about all that their legs do for them and appreciate their body and what it does.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

I learned about how social justice work is not always public. It can be an individual practice or a practice with only a few people. This way, it can be tailored to each person and can help them. When people think of social justice work, they think of protests, but social justice work can be a more private thing.