Field Placement Reflection

In this paper, I discuss my experience with observing a group counseling session with the purpose of evaluating it in terms of how it is set up, how it is run, interventions used, culturally sensitivity, and the contribution toward my professional development as a social worker. The group setting plays a critical role in social work outside of the individual session and can be largely beneficial for clients in the forms of therapy, counseling, self-help, and support. By attempting to better understand group interventions, I will learn how to apply this strategy in aiding clients for whom this method is appropriate by increasing their social supports.

Thanks Vanessa, you did a great job defining the role and use of supervision. I did not know if you noticed that Our Lady of the Lake mission’s statement is in perfect line with the social worker code of ethics. I would like to share what I found in similarity with our mission statement. According to the National Association of Social Work (2010), the mission of the social work profession is rooted in a set of core values. These core values, embraced by social workers throughout the professions’ history, are foundation of social work’s unique purpose and perspective. Service, Social justice, Dignity, Dignity and worth of the person, Importance of human relationships, Integrity, and Competence. This constellation of core values reflects what is unique to the social work profession. According to Kiser (2012) the field supervisor is key to student learning in any human services internship. Ideally, supervisory relationships are based on trust and mutual understanding. Great job and good luck.

Part I (Autobiographical Essay):  What were the significant factors that influenced your choice of social work? What skills and experiences do you have that will contribute to your success as a graduate student and social work professional? How is the GCSW a good place for you to build on those skills? 2 pages, double spaced, 12 point font

These teams include professionals from different realms of the health field and the use of their combined knowledge to best assist patients and/or clients in need. This type of teamwork and form of practice has a profound impact on my career goals because I am interested in working within the hospital setting. As a practitioner, I will use the skills acquired from my studies/experience and apply them to the health field/aspect of social work practice. As a Graduate Research Assistant, I have had the opportunity to work within the hospital/healthcare setting and the experience I gained from this opportunity has solidified my goal to work not only in this profession, but with children and families in need. To continue practicing social work within the health field, I am currently interning at the McGuire VA Medical Center in the Mental Health Primary Care unit, working with Veterans and their families through crisis and allocating services to better serve the patients and their families. With this placement, I plan to make myself available for any learning opportunities that will be vital to my role within the health field and continue to explore the vast possibilities offered by this complex, yet rewarding profession known as Social

My current field placement as a social work intern is at the Family Assessment Program (FAP). FAP is a voluntary program that aims to strengthen families and help them stay together. FAP seeks to reduce youth’s future involvement with the juvenile justice and the child welfare system. The clienteles that FAP deals with, are parents who are having difficulties with their teenage children and want assistance and guidance with changing the children’s behavior and developing a positive relationship. In addition, FAP is the last step before parent files for a Person In Need of Supervision (PINS). FAP would assess the family situation by interviewing parents and children individually and together, they determine the best suitable intervention for the family. If the intervention does not solve the issue or the child refuses to participate, then the alternative is to file a PINS to control the child’s behavior. Engaging with some families, I was able to apply four concepts; empathy, boundaries, social taboo and focused listening. In applying these concepts, I was able to identify my obstacles, weaknesses, strengths and develop my social work skills. The following scenarios will focus on my strategies with applying the concepts, the obstacles I encountered and ways in which I could have improved the concepts. Through self-reflection, I was able to select four cases where I was able to apply the above-mentioned concepts.

As social workers, we want to learn about how to develop a mutual aid group together. Our group chose to do this in a mutual aid group focused on managing stress, as well as recording group process and development. This group analysis and reflection paper will be based on the description of the participants as well as identifying, describing, and explaining the analyzing of the group processes and key concepts. Included will also be a facilitator’s reflection from my behalf of the third session of the mutual aid group.

Completing group projects within an academic setting requires the possession of many components of participation. The Master of Social Work program at Fayetteville State University has afforded students the opportunity to work within group settings throughout the trajectory of their academic tenure. Having the capability to work within group settings is imperative because social workers and substance abuse counselors continuously work within group environments throughout their careers. These groups can include, but are not limited to a social worker, substance abuse counselor, physician, therapist, psychologist, support group and case manager. Completing the abuse and addiction to hallucinogens research project was an experience

Young (2014) provided personal insight from her own experiences from a social work intern student to a coordinator. The article examined some tips and guidelines for new social worker intern students before beginning at their first field placement. The author identified that new interns are going to be nervous and unsure in the beginning. It is important for the student to take their time and ask questions to become more knowledgeable at their agency. She advised the student to have a positive learning attitude when observing the social worker. The article stated that the internship gives the student the opportunity to be expose to the field and is the best opportunity for the student to develop skills. Young expressed the internship should be taking seriously by the student. This article conveyed valuable learning opportunities and challenges that the student will be expose to in their

Lawrence Shulman’s article, Johnathon Singer’s podcast, and Kentucky Law and Regulation booklet discussed several important topics regarding supervision. These topics includes; supervision as a key concept in social work, four main areas of supervision, laws governing social work, impact of supervision on social work, models of social work supervision,

Group work has been a cornerstone of the social work profession and requires a variety of facilitator skills and awareness of group processes. The SSLDTM Group Program for People with Difficulties in Social Situations (Socialwork1914, 2017) provides an excellent example of a psycho-educational group co-facilitated by two female social workers, Jane and Karen. After viewing the 6th session of this 8-week program, I began to understand how the concepts of group formation/development, interpersonal dynamics, and leadership styles contribute to successful group work outcomes.

Although I was exposed to many procedures and techniques of direct social work practice, there is always room for improvement. During my time at SOAR Fox Cities, I worked with in a macro level of social work practice. This organization may not work with their participants’ on a micro level because they focus more on this target population as a whole group. A professional challenge I encountered while at my internship, was being exposed to social work at the micro and mezzo level of practice. During the assessment process, I learned that challenges in a client’s environment must be identified in order for the social worker to have a successful working relationship with them. While at SOAR Fox Cities, I did not have an opportunity to do case

Going to the University of Michigan Biological Station for the Biology 173 two week lab extension after the spring semester was a great decision and experience overall. This class opened my eyes to the myriad of perspective of what field experiments, lab, and research are like. At first, I was hesitant to go because I disliked the idea of going out into the forests and the countryside. I also thought that I could be having fun doing many other things in my free time, but I decided and earned that stepping out of my comfort zone to try new things is one of the best ways to experience a new perspective in life as well as learn. The Biology 173 lab class back at the Ann Arbor campus did not depict an accurate picture and perspective of what field research was like as a career path and an occupation.

Every worthwhile journey begins with one step. My social work journey began when I received my undergraduate degree from the University of Utah in 2003. I thought my next step would be to immediately pursue a graduate degree. In my undergraduate career I had taken numerous classes from the College of Social and Behavioral Science and had done well in those classes. In my Social Work as a Profession course I had an assignment to shadow a social worker and write a paper about my experience. I chose to shadow my father-in-law, a social worker with over 30 years of experience, and in my paper I expressed my desire to go into the social work field. I knew I liked helping people. I knew I liked problem solving and critical thinking. I thought my 22 year-old self was ready to embark on that journey, but I wasn’t. I realize now that what I lacked at graduation was one crucial step… perspective. Over the past twelve years I have gained that much needed perspective and have taken many steps forward in my journey, and with those steps and that increased perspective, I now feel more fully prepared to begin my social work career.

With the change in leadership, policies and structural changes, the counselors and myself, as an intern, have recently experienced a professional dissonance that is not in line with our values, morals, and code of ethics for our specific professional disciplines. The dissonance occurs when the staff members were informed that every individual seeking substance abuse treatment, whether the client is mandated or self -referred, must be attend group therapy. During this time, the client can have individual therapeutic counseling sessions. Upon successfully completing group treatment, the client may continue with

There were valuable thoughts I gleaned from these introductions that I can apply to any group or in therapy. One thought that resonated with me was when people are having fun and are engaged that are more likely to learn about themselves and also how they interact with those around them. Another thought that was helpful to remember when running groups is that individuals have a strong need to be heard, validated and be given positive compliments; when this happens these memories are held onto tighter and longer. As therapist we should remember this and help develop situations where this can naturally occur for youth. The author suggest this can be done by playing games. In the coping skills introduction I really like that it talked about giving youth the right to say yes to good activities. We teach them what not to do and what to “just say no” to, but we also need to teach them what to say yes to. All of these suggestions are very applicable to social workers working with youth. It is another way of looking at how to give clients learning experiences.