effective helping in a diverse world

• Identifying why you want to be a social worker


  The need to make an impact<|>The need to reciprocate<|>The need to care for others and be needed<|>The need for self-help<|>The need for recognition<|>The need to provide answers and be in control
• What makes an effective social worker

  • Committed to an honest assessment of your own strengths and weaknesses
  • Recognize that the quality of the therapeutic relationship is more predictive of success than any particular theory, intervention, or technique
  • Have a basic curiosity and are open to learning
  • Have the interpersonal skills needed to establish good contact with other people, and you can apply these skills in the helping relationship
  • Genuinely care for the people you help, and this caring is expressed by doing what is in their best interest
  • Able to deal with a wide range of clients' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
  • Realize that change is typically hard work, and you are willing to stay with clients as they go through with difficult process
  • Able to enter the world of your clients and to see it through their eyes rather than imposing your own vision of reality on them
  • Realize that clients often limit themselves through a restricted imagination of possibilities for your future
  • Willing to draw on a number of resources to enable clients to fulfill their goals
  • Flexible in applying strategies for change, and you are willing to adapt your techniques to the unique situation of each client
  • Show respect for clients whose ethnic or cultural background is different from your own by not fitting them into a preconceived mold
  • Challenge the biases and assumptions that you hold about individuals from particular groups and are committed to broadening your view and learning more about different cultural perspectives
  • Remain respectfully curious about all the clients you meet, and you actively engage with those who differ from you on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, ability/disability, socioeconomic status, and religious background
  • Willing to speak up about the inequities that exist in society as they have negative impacts on your clients
  • Embrace your obligation as a social justice advocate to fight for the needs of those who are marginalized and oppressed and to empower them
  • Take care of yourself physically, mentally, psychologically, socially, and spiritually
  • Realize that personal growth is a lifelong journey, and you are committed to engaging in the self-reflection necessary to make changes in your personal life
  • Question life and engage in critical self-examination of your beliefs and values
  • Aware of your needs and motivations, and you make choices that are congruent with your life goals
  • Have established meaningful relationships with at least a few significant people
• Roles and careers in social work


  Advantages of social work compared to other helping professions<|>Roles in child welfare, schools, medical settings, mental health, juvenile justice, working with older adults, specializing in issues like substance abuse, crisis, criminal justice, or military social work<|>Macro social work roles working with communities and systems, including public welfare, housing, job training, community organizing, legislation, and social policy
• Knowing your strengths and limitations

  Self-assessment is an important part of the helping profession<|>Identifying your beliefs, attitudes, and values<|>Reflecting on your strengths and skills that need development<|>Addressing challenges in the field of social work
• Self-exploration


  Importance of knowing yourself as a social worker<|>Understanding countertransference and transference<|>Exploring your family of origin, including family structure, relationships, significant events, and personal struggles and strengths
• Family dynamics


  Understanding family rules and messages<|>Identifying key transitions and significant developments in your family
• Human development theories

  Erikson's theory of psychosocial development<|>Armstrong's gifts<|>Self-in-context perspective
• Erikson's Theory of Psycho-social Development


  Identifies eight stages in which a healthy individual should pass through from birth to death
• Stage 1 "Basic Trust vs. Mistrust"


  1. Infancy (1-2 years)

  2. As infants, we ask ourselves if we can trust the world, and we wonder if it's safe

  3. We learn that if we can trust someone now, we can also trust others in the future

  4. If we experience fear, we develop doubt and mistrust

  5. The key to our development is our mother
• Stage 2 "Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt"


  1. Early childhood (2-4 years)

  2. In our early childhood, we experience ourselves and discover our body

  3. We ask: is it okay to be me?

  4. If we are allowed to discover ourselves, then we develop self-confidence

  5. If we are not, we can develop shame and self-doubt

  6. Both parents now play a major role
• Stage 3 "Initiative vs. Guilt"


  1. Preschool Age (4-5 years)

  2. In preschool, we take the initiative, try out new things, and learn basic principles like how round things roll

  3. We ask: Is it okay for me to do what I do?

  4. If we are encouraged, we can follow our interests

  5. If we are held back or told that what we do is silly, we can develop guilt

  6. We are now learning from the entire family
• Stage 4 "Industry vs. Inferiority"

  1. School Age (5-12 years)

  2. Now we discover our own interests and realize that we are different from others

  3. We want to show that we can do things right

  4. We ask if we can make it in this world?

  5. If we receive recognition from our teachers or peers we become industrious, which is another word for hard-working

  6. If we get too much negative feedback, we start to feel inferior and lose motivation

  7. Our neighbors and schools now influence us the most
• Stage 5 "Identity vs. Role Confusion"


  1. Adolescence (13–19 years)

  2. During adolescence, we learn that we have different social roles

  3. We are friends, students, children and citizens

  4. Many experience an identity crisis

  5. If our parents now allow us to go out and explore, we can find identity

  6. If they push us to conform to their views, we can face role confusion and feel lost

  7. Key to our learning are our peers and role models
• Stage 6 "Intimacy vs. Isolation"

  1. Early Adulthood (20-40 years)

  2. As young adults we slowly understand who we are and we start to let go of the relationships we had built earlier in order to fit in

  3. We ask ourselves if we can love?

  4. If we can make a long-term commitment, we are confident and happy

  5. If we cannot form intimate relationships, we might end up feeling isolated and lonely

  6. Our friends and partners are now the center of our development
• Stage 7 "Generativity vs. Stagnation"

  1. Adulthood (40-65)

  2. When we reach our forties we become comfortable, use our leisure time creatively and maybe begin contributing to society

  3. Our concern is Generativity

  4. If we think that we are able to lead the next generation into this world, we are happy

  5. If we did not resolve some conflicts earlier, we can become pessimistic and experience stagnation

  6. People at home and at work are now who influence us most
• Stage 8 "Ego Integrity vs. Despair"

  1. Maturity (65-death)

  2. As we grow older we tend to slow down and begin to look back over our lives

  3. We ask: how have I done?

  4. If we think we did well, we develop feelings of contentment and integrity

  5. If not, we can experience despair and become grumpy and bitter

  6. Time to compare us with mankind
• Erik Erikson was a German-American psychologist who together with his wife Joan, became known for his work on psychosocial development
• Erikson lacked even a bachelor's degree, but served as a professor at Harvard and Yale
• Self-in-context perspective


  A perspective that takes a more static view of who you are and how life develops, popularized by McHoldrick, Carter, and Garcia-Preto
• The self-in-context perspective has taken off as a component of acceptance and commitment therapy
• Empowering persons with disabilities


  Interventions based on the assumption that these individuals have the right to control their own lives
• Organizations to learn about history and issues within the disability community

  • "The ADA at 30: Looking Back and Ahead"
  • "Celebrating the Americans with Disabilities Act"
  • "Welcome to Ability 360"
• End-of-life issues


  Challenges faced by older adults, such as employment discrimination; topics social workers are involved in like advanced care planning, financial interests, and funeral arrangements
• Physician-assisted suicide


  An ethically and legally challenging situation for social workers as it intersects areas like respecting client autonomy, assessing capacity, honoring advance directives, respecting cultural values, maintaining confidentiality, dealing with medical futility, establishing boundaries, and including families
• Organizations related to end-of-life issues

  • Compassion and Choices
  • Death With Dignity
  • National Association of Social Workers - Aging
• Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI)


  A tool to obtain information in a culturally skilled way as a social worker
• Motivational interviewing


  A humanistic, client-centered, directive counseling approach where the therapeutic relationship is central to understanding the change process; the goal is to create and amplify discrepancy between present behavior and broader goals, and create cognitive dissonance between where one is now and where one wants to be
• Motivational interviewing


  • Expresses empathy, develops discrepancies, rolls with resistance, and supports self-efficacy
• Transference


  A process where clients project onto the social worker past feelings or attitudes they had toward significant people in their lives
• Countertransference


  When the social worker imposes feelings or has reactions to their clients that can interfere with their objectivity
• Boundaries


  Essential practice for being in the field long-term and dealing with transference and countertransference
• Brene Brown's research on shame led to powerful literature on boundaries, empathy, and compassion
• Challenging clients can force social workers to reflect on and explore their own unresolved problems
• Borderline personality disorder is characterized by severe mood swings, impulsive behavior, and difficulty forming relationships, making it challenging to create connections and lasting change
• Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT)


  An effective treatment for borderline personality disorder, which teaches people how to live in the moment, develop healthy coping strategies, regulate emotions, and improve relationships
• If a social worker is not trained or equipped to deliver the appropriate intervention, they should refer the client to another clinician
• Concerns social workers may have

  • Afraid of making mistakes and clients suffering
  • Feel they should know more than they do
  • Uncomfortable with silence in counseling
  • Want clients to make continuous improvements
  • Trouble with overly demanding clients
  • Difficulty with unmotivated or mandated clients
  • Unsure of responsibility division between social worker and client
  • Feel very responsible for clients
  • Trouble being themselves and trusting intuition
  • Afraid of conflict and confrontation
  • Worry clients will think they are incompetent
  • Unsure how much personal reactions to reveal
  • Tendency to want to give advice
  • Afraid of greatly disturbing a client
  • Lack knowledge/skills for different cultures
  • Apprehensive about clients liking/approving them
  • Nervous about recording sessions
  • Concerned about ending counseling
  • Worried about being an effective advocate
  • Nervous about challenging inequities
  • Afraid of becoming overwhelmed and burning out
  • Concerned about juggling clinical and administrative tasks
  • Worried personal growth will uncover personal issues
• Assessing one's own competence is important for social workers to identify areas for growth and development
• Beliefs about people's capacity for change


  • People need direction to resolve problems
  • People have capacity to find answers within themselves
  • People create their own unhappiness
  • People are victims of outside circumstances
  • People are basically good and trustworthy
  • People are architects of their lives
  • People are shaped by fate
  • People won't change unless in pain
  • People are motivated by their goals
• Immediacy


  Calling into the space what is going on between the client and social worker in the session, to keep the conversation in the moment and move forward