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Biopsychosocial Spiritual Framework

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In the profession of social work, a social worker will encounter numerous clients who all have unique and varying degrees of experiences and problems that they either actively are choosing to work on or are being mandated by a third party to seek help. Because each new client presents different challenges and issues for the social worker, they must have a foundation on which to rely to better understand where their client is coming from and what factors may be playing a role in that client’s life. Theory provides frameworks for social workers to begin to understand the depth of their client’s needs. These frameworks help provide a foundation for social work practice.
How Theory Plays a Role in Social Work Practice Theory helps explain …show more content…

This framework helps define what social work practice is because it addresses how social workers view people. Social workers are trained to look at the whole person and how every aspect of that individual’s life has been influenced by a variety of factors. The feminist term “intersectionality” assumes “there is no unidimensional aspect of identity, but that all identities intersect in powerful and compelling ways” (Berzoff, 2011, p.157-158). The intersection of each of the elements in the biopsychosocial framework impacts how that individual sees the world and perceives their reality. For example, combining biopsychosocial spiritual framework with feminist theory enables the social worker to see how problems presented are “grounded in the lived experiences of multiple and intersecting oppressions” (C. Cook as cited in Anastas, 2014, …show more content…

This is vitally important when working with victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). Many times, intervention is associated with getting the victim out of the abusive situation, but those who aim to help often fail to see the multiple factors that may prevent the victim from leaving. By looking at clients affected by intimate partner violence through a biopsychosocial spiritual framework, social workers acknowledge and address multiple aspects of the individual’s life that are influencing whether they stay or go. Research by Nurius and Macy shows that “each individual appraises and copes with the threat of IPV in a unique biopsychosocial [spiritual] context” (2010, p. 1068). Their research with female victims of IPV in Washington shows that women who are presented with same or similar stressors may react in a different manner based on their interpretation of said stressor (Nurius and Macy, 2010, p. 1068). Using this framework, they found that women who claimed to have strong social support systems showed less incidents of depression than those who reported having poor social support systems (Nurius and Macy, 2010, p. 1080). The levels and types of violence experienced by these women varied, but the strong social support was one piece that linked these women together. Similarly, in a study conducted by Drumm et al (2013), the researchers found that

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