SOCW 6111 Post Responses - Self-Reflection and Awareness – Post Responses

Self-Reflection and Awareness – Post Responses

Exploring the reasons for wanting to be in social work and examining your motives for choosing a career of helping others is very important. Your background, including childhood experiences, may be instrumental in bringing you into the field of social work. Understanding the possible connection and working to resolve any underlying unresolved issues is essential to becoming an effective social worker. While working with a client, you must strive to be objective, but in the end we are all human with past hurtful experiences that can impact our ability to effectively work with clients. While complete objectivity is impossible and not expected, it is necessary to self-reflect and become aware of when a situation or a certain personality type causes you to react in an unprofessional manner. Understanding potential internal and external barriers you and your client bring to the room will assist you in balancing an appropriate empathetic response with proper objectivity.

For this Discussion, review the Geller & Greenberg (2012) article and the program case study for the Petrakis family, and view the corresponding video.

Respond to the colleagues and suggest alternate ways the intern might overcome barriers:

Kel Ba 

RE: Discussion 1 - Week 7

COLLAPSE

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Hello Class,

Identifying the internal and external barriers of a client and social workers are important because they help recognize and manage reactions during sessions. It also provides pre-conditions that help to connect the social worker’s experience to that of the client. Notably, information about the internal and external elements helps social workers to understand their preference and challenges, particularly when dealing with a client that has diverse needs. Self-awareness is an important skill that provides insight on the cultivating presence which in most cases is used to determine receptive openness to facilitate an effective intervention towards a client’s healing (Geller & Greenberg, 2012). In addition, it helps social workers to understand their feelings in cases where they do not know what is interfering with their ability to help. First of all, a social worker ought to get over his/her own internal and external challenges before solving those faced by the client. Even when a social worker might be faced with frustration, it is often important to have agility to recognize the source of challenges.   

Both Helen and the social worker intern experienced the barrier of age differences. However, the social worker must always be aware of his or her interactions with a client; body language, voice tone, emotion awareness, biases, and so on. Clients do not respect boundaries. Helen faced many external barriers. These barriers are things that cause the client to be defensive and lost trust in the therapist. They may arise from trauma, being overwhelmed and/or disorders that they client face (Geller& Greenberg, 2012). Helen had a challenge in maintaining a good self-care while at the same time taking the role of the second breadwinner of the family. It is also worth noting that the risky behavior depicted by her eldest son is some of the barriers that prevented Helen from overcoming her shortcomings (Plummer & Makris & Brocksen, 2014). Helen is also finding it difficult to balance between her activities and taking care of the frail and sick mother-in-law Magda. She is engaged throughout the day and cannot find time to go out with friends; Helen is enraged because she has insufficient money that can pay a caregiver to take care of her old mother-in-law. This fact actually gets Helen think that she has failed as a wife and a mother (Plummer & Makris & Brocksen, 2014). On the other hand, the intern had difficult differentiating between her views and understanding the actual case at hand. She let her own views of family or client in need of help out because Helen was overwhelmed verses truly understanding the issues at hand; she admitted pushing for Helen’s son to move in with Magda. Other internal factors that could be a challenge to the intern would be personal stress, lack of experience, workplace stress from multiple clients etc.

            It would be prudent if the intern calls Aging and Adult services to find out on possible ways to report in cases like this. The agency will then provide the intern with adequate information surrounding the ethical and legal obligations that ought to be followed. The social work intern had difficulty interpreting Helen’s emotions hence pushed the client beyond her instincts.  Advising Helen was also a bad option considering the ethical and legal considerations involved in the case. In order to combat some of the barriers also, a positive rapport must also be established, leading to trust between the intern and Helen.

References

Geller, S. M., & Greenberg, L. S. (2012). Challenges to therapeutic presence. In Therapeutic        presence: A mindful approach to effective therapy (pp. 143–159). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Retrieved from Walden Library databases.

Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen, S. M. (Eds.). (2014a). Sessions: case histories.   Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader]. The Petrakis Family (pp. 20–22)

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Olivia L 

RE: Discussion 1 - Week 7

COLLAPSE

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     Everyone personal barriers and these can come in the form of biases, fears, judgments etc.  All of us have issues we are dealing with and to have the optimal client/social worker relationship, its imperative that social workers become aware of these barriers (Geller &Greenberg, 2012. Potential barriers can come from the social worker, client and or their relationship (Geller &Greenberg, 2012) It is imperative for social workers to have insight to their own biases, fears and judgments as this can help manage unnecessary and unproductive reactions to clients.  Currently, I work with the homeless as a case manager.  Many clients I work with are determined to find housing and I often spend hours with them only to have them disappear and turn up months later. I found myself becoming cynical and felt that they truly did not want help.  I realized, through a training at work, that I was often reacting to clients with my own internal fears and judgments.  The training provided a great reminder that my job requires I help them, regardless of how many times we’ve worked with them.  Frequent trainings are excellent tools to help manage personal barriers.  Furthermore, the clients I work with have their own biases.  Many of them are elderly and can have negative reactions to me as I am mixed race.  I would classify these clients as having narcissistic tendencies (McTighe, 2011). These clients often leaving me feeling drained as I am often in a state of protective reactiveness (McTighe, 2011). If I feel that I we both are not benefitting from our meetings, I will ask another case manager to take over.  I think of this as an act of self care as I cannot care for other clients if I am in a state of anger and hopelessness (McTighe, 2011)

     In the case of Helen and her social worker, it seems as though Helen is operating from a place of fear.  She is clearly in a stressful situation and feels her social worker is not qualified to assist her. The lack of trust from Helen is obvious and the intern can attempt to calm her worries by explaining that she is qualified and that her job is to make sure Helen received the best treatment, care and solutions.  The intern should definitely contact her supervisor and inform her of Helens comments.  If the issue to not resolved, Helen could eventually over step her boundaries with the intern and view her as an outlet to take her aggression out on.  It is important the intern take time after their session and reflect on what she enjoys about being a social worker and remember that she is still providing a much needed service to Helen.  In addition, I found that my regular weekly meeting with my field supervisor and other students is highly beneficial to gain insight and as an outlet when I’ve had a negative interaction with a client. 

 

McTighe, J. (2011). Teaching the Use of Self Through the Process of Clinical Supervision. Clinical Social Work Journal, 39(3), 301–307. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1007/s10615-010-0304-3

 

Geller, S. M., & Greenberg, L. S. (2012). Challenges to therapeutic presence. In Therapeutic presence: A mindful approach to effective therapy. (pp. 143–159). American Psychological Association. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1037/13485-

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Kevin  

RE: Discussion 1 - Week 7

COLLAPSE

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Hello Class

Explanation of the importance of identifying internal and external barriers of the client and social worker.

Therapists are taking in the depth of the client’s experience and accessing and attending to their own internal experience as a key indicator in understanding and responding or offering an intervention from moment to moment. No matter how great the intention to clear and manage the therapist’s own issues outside of session, therapists are human beings, and even resolved issues could rise to the surface in session (Geller & Greenberg, 2012).

Describe the barriers experienced by Helen and the social work intern. 

The intern did not really try to understand what Helen’s family dynamics really were. This could be due to inexperience. She saw that there was a son living in the home with nothing to do. She did not attempt to inquire why the son was unemployed, she just accepted Helen’s first answer. Helen did not want to allow Alec to help with the care of Magda when Alec first offered and proposed moving in with Magda,  but when he offered again she reluctantly gave in (Plummer, Makris, & Brocksen, 2014)

Suggest ways the intern could overcome these barriers.

The intern could have consulted her supervisor first before making a decision on what to tell Helen. She could have also completed a more thorough assessment during their first session. If she had done this, she would have known about Alec’s prior issues with drug addiction.

 

Reference

Geller, S. M., & Greenberg, L. S. (2012). Challenges to therapeutic presence. In Therapeutic presence: A mindful approach to effective therapy (pp. 143-159). American Psychological Association.

Plummer, S. -B., Makris, S., & Brocksen, S. M. (Eds.). (2014). Sessions: case histories. Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader]. The Petrakis Family (pp. 20-22).  

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