Casey Bohrman, MSW, PhD

Casey Bohrman Headshot

Associate Professor, CESW Special Assistant to the Dean for Social Work
Anderson Hall 436
CBohrman@wcupa.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Degrees

  • PhD: University of Pennsylvania
  • MSW: University of Pennsylvania
  • BS, Rehabilitation and Human Services: Boston University

Main areas of interest

  • Intersections between the criminal justice and mental health systems
  • Motivational interviewing
  • Use of social media to influence social change

Inspiration

At a young age I began volunteering in nursing homes, homeless shelters, the Special Olympics - basically any organization that would take me as a teenager.  I never thought I could save the world, but I was operating under the misguided idea that I could rescue individuals in need of help. My undergraduate education in Rehabilitation Counseling introduced me to the Recovery Framework, which taught me that everyone is capable of change and that I could best help people make those changes through working in partnership with them. I learned that people are the experts of their own lives and that I could actually do more harm than good with my attempts at rescuing them.

I moved from Rehabilitation Counseling to Social Work because I was interested in learning more about neighborhoods and communities.  My direct practice experience and my research have both focused on how individuals are impacted by their communities as well as institutional and governmental policies. What I love most about social work is that we work at all levels: micro, mezzo and macro.  We promote structural change, while simultaneously working with vulnerable individuals, families and communities. What I love most about being a social work educator is that I never stop learning.  My students constantly inspire me.  Together we learn constantly new things from each other.

Presentations & Publications

Presentations

  • Bohrman, C. Interactions with people with mental illnesses: Why cultural context matters. Chester County, Pennsylvania Crisis Intervention Team Training, April 26, 2017.
  • Bohrman, C., Watson, A., and Draine, J. How police officers assess for mental illness. International Congress on Law and Mental Health, Vienna, Austria, July 2015.
  • Bohrman, C., Golden, T., Johnson, D., Lassiter, C., Thame-Taylor, L.  “The Color of Justice: A conversation about the Ferguson case and the intersection of race and social and economic inequalities.” A panel discussion for MLK Celebration Day, January 22, 2015.
  • Bohrman, C., & Barrenger. Structural barriers to critical participatory action research with returning citizens. Society for the Study of Social Problems. Philadelphia, Pa August 2018
  • Bohrman, C., & Tennille, J. Everything falls on me: Motherhood, heavy drinking and intimate partner violence.  Council on Social Work Education Annual Program Meeting, Atlanta, GA. November 2016.
  • Bohrman, C., & Tennille, J. Being superwoman: Balancing motherhood, problem drinking and intimate partner violence. Society for Social Work Research Conference, Washington D.C., January 2016
  • Bohrman, C. , & Flynn, K.  Whose social justice prevails.  Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Association for Multi-Cultural Education Conference.  Philadelphia, PA March 2018
  • Bohrman, C., Wysor-Nguema, S., Linares, R., Lewis, L. Twitter for Social Policy Classes: Feel the fear and do it anyway. Council on Social Work Education Annual Program Meeting, Dallas, Tx, October 2017.
  • Bohrman, C., & Brown, A. When a white woman facilitates discussions of race with a predominantly black group of students. International Association of Social Work Group Work Conference. New York City, NY. June 2017
  • Bohrman, C., Fields-Woodson, Y., Combs-Harris, R. Tweeting towards social justice.  Pennsylvania Association of Undergraduate Social Work Education Conference, Valley Forge, PA October 2016
  • Bohrman, C. and Feldman, B.  Social media in the classroom: It’s not always a bad thing. Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Annual Conference, Kansas City, Missouri, March 2015.
  • Tennille, J., & Bohrman, C. Let’s talk about sex: Using Motivational Interviewing for conversations about intimacy and sexuality.  Coalition for Behavioral Health, Inc., 1-day training, June 7 and 21, 2018
  • Tenille, J., & Bohrman, C. Introduction to Motivational Interviewing, Wellspan Philhaven, 1-day training, September 15, 2017.
  • Tennille, J. & Bohrman, C. Introduction to Motivational Interviewing, Saint Gabriel’s Hall, 1-day training, October 14th, 2016
  • Tennille, J. & Bohrman, C. Motivational Interviewing in Homeless Services. Bethesda Project, speakers during annual retreat, September 21, 2016
  • Tennille, J. & Bohrman, C. Motivational Interviewing in HIV Prevention, Philadelphia AIDS Activities Coordinating Office, 2-day long workshop for prevention specialists in Club 1216 pilot program, August 2016
  • Tennille, J. & Bohrman, C. Motivational Interviewing in Social Work. Tristate Consortium of Field Directors, Eastern University, June 3rd, 2016
  • Stanhope, V, Tennille, J., Bohrman, C., Motivational interviewing: Creating a leadership role for social work in the era of health reform, Council on Social Work Education Annual Program Meeting,  Denver, Co, October 2015.
  • Tennille, J & Bohrman, C.  Inspiring Change: Motivational Interviewing for Trauma and PTSD. NASW-Brandywine Continuing Education Event, November 3, 2015
  • Bohrman, C. “Motivational Interviewing with Challenging Populations” Action Wellness clinical supervision, August 2015
  • Tennille, J., & Bohrman, C. “Introduction to Motivational Interviewing Techniques.” University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing, 3 day-long workshops for entire undergraduate student body during psychiatric rotation, January and February 2015.
  • Bohrman, C., Tennille, J. “Motivational Interviewing: An Evidence-based Practice with Broad Applicability.”  Crossing the Boundaries of Health Disciplines: Promoting Recovery and Resiliency Conference, October 1, 2014

Publications

  • Bohrman, C., Wilson, A.B., Watson, A.C., Draine, J.D. (accepted) How police officers assess for mental illnesses. Victims and Offenders
  • Bohrman, C. (2014 August, 17). Societal connection between blackness and criminality leads to violence against innocent. Philadelphia Inquirer.
  • Bohrman, C., Tennille, J., Levin, K., Rodgers, M., & Rhodes, K. (2017).  Balancing motherhood and intimate partner violence: Superwomen driven to drink. Journal of Family Violence, 32(7), 699-709.
  • Bohrman, C. (2018, in production). Legal systems and violence. In C. L. Dente (Ed.), Social work practice with LGBTQIA clients (pages TBA). New York: Taylor & Francis/Routledge.
  • Lane, T. Y., Chiarelli-Helminiak, C., Bohrman, C., & Lewis, T. (2017). The teachable moment: engaging students in social justice movements. Social Work Education, 1-14.
  • Bohrman, C. (2015, May 1). Making social policy relevant through social media. Teaching and Learning in Social Work Website: http://www.laureliversonhitchcock.org/2015/05/01/making-social-policy-relevant-through-social-media/.
  • Stanhope, V., Tennille, J., Bohrman, C., & Hamovitch, E. (2016). Motivational Interviewing: Creating a Leadership Role for Social Work in the Era of Healthcare Reform. Social Work in Public Health, 31(6) 1-7.
  • Tennille, J., Solomon, P., & Bohrman, C. (2014) Using the FIELD Model to prepare social work students and field instructors on sexuality and intimacy for persons with psychiatric disabilities. Sexuality and Disability, 32(4), 1-15.
  • Tennille, J. & Bohrman, C. (2017). Conversations about Intimacy and Sexuality: A Training Toolkit Using Motivational Interviewing. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Collaborative on Community Inclusion for Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities. Available at: www.tucollaborative.org.

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