Importance Of Reflecting In Social Work

Before beginning the Master of Social Work program at Laurier I figured I had a strong understanding of what social work was. However, I quickly learned that I had only scratched the surface. I knew oppression existed, but I never understood the depth of it. I now know that I was afraid of it. It was easy for me to stay silent, because it was such a comfortable position to be in. Doing nothing meant I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. This was influenced by the privilege I had.

Reflection is an everyday process and is very personal matter. Jasper (2003) suggests that reflection is one of the key ways in which we can learn from our experiences. Reflective practice can be defined as process of making sense of events, situations and actions that occur in the workplace (Oelofsen, 2012).

Reflective practice allows us to reflect on our actions and experiences so that we can learn from them and adapt our behaviour accordingly. Reflective practice can be uncomfortable as it challenges our own assumptions about ourselves however it is vital for improving the quality of the service we provide.

Reflecting, paraphrasing and clarifying are now almost a natural response to me when I’m talking to people. For me they are a real signal of empathy as the person who’s talking has a strong sense that they are being truly listened to and understood. With my sister I’ve learnt the importance of active listening and using reflecting and paraphrasing techniques in order to get her to open up more and focus more clearly on her concerns. It means I’m less likely to jump in and offer advice or take control of the situation. I’ve come to realise that, despite being incredibly close to her, I don’t always know best and so I shouldn’t be offering advice and solutions.

Reflecting entails hearing & picking up on what is not being said, this involves the helpee taking risks, in raising hunches they feel. An example of this is with a parent who shared an incident that occurred stating that she wasn’t bothered by it, however, the change in her countenance, voice and her onset of fidgeting made me feel this was not the case, taking this on board, I sensitively shared that whilst she was saying that the incident had not impacting on her, her countenance and tone became sombre and she had begun fidgeting, I asked if it was possible the incident had impacted on her more than she realised, by sharing what I felt I

What is reflection? Reflection is defined by Wilkinson (1996) as an active process whereby the professional gains an understanding of how historical, social, cultural, cognitive and personal experiences have contributed to professional knowledge and practice.

Reflecting – The counsellor mirrors or summarises the clients’ words, feelings or ideas she has expressed promoting a sense of acceptance and validation in the client as well as enabling the client to develop and consider these thoughts from a new perspective or at a distance.

This essay will look reflectively over my first year as a student social worker and will describe my personal and professional development over this time. I will also reflect upon the communication skills required in relationship based practice, as well as considering emotional resilience and its importance with service users and other professionals.

It breaks down the concept of their mixed emotion (Geldard & Geldard, 2001). I try not to repeat the same words but give empathy towards their circumstances. If they need a shoulder to cry on, I’m there. People will describe their frustration to a particular matter, which consist of deep underlying life experiences (Geldard & Geldard, 2001). The skill of reflection demonstrates my love, explores our values and goals in life and understanding deep wounds. I know a lot of people who overcame their self-reflection and grew as a person. It bridges the gaps and grants self-love in one’s life (Geldard & Geldard, 2001). This skill acquiesce a person to cry, laugh and scream; it connects all the missing pieces in people’s lives. In addition, I’ve realized that self-reflection makes you relax, breathe and exalt stress. It’s a good way to see that you can overcome an obstacle you

ffer and Rubenfeld (2000) define reflection as “ contemplation upon a subject, especially one’s assumptions and thinking for the purposes of deeper understanding and self-evaluation.”

Reflection is a process of learning from ones experience (Spalding, 1998). The objective of my experience is to show the positive effect of using therapeutic communication skills with patients. Therapeutic communication can be described as a face to face technique of

Kim & Loretta (2003), stated that Atkinson & Murphy (1993) identified the key skills needed for reflection as ‘self awareness, the ability to recollect and describe accurately key aspect of the situation, critical analysis of the situation and synthesis of new knowledge gained with the previous knowledge, in order to develop a new perspective’. I will discuss,

Reflection -this strategy involves the counsellor verbally reflecting back their understanding of what has been said and the feelings that have been displayed. This is a useful strategy as it supports the client to feel heard by identifying and validating the clients feelings it gives them the courage to discuss these and explore them in further detail.

Reflection in action happens whilst carrying out an action in a critical way. As a student, the vital part of Reflection-in-action is to notice when we are experiencing this and what is occurring. This then allows us to develop ourselves even better when faced with the same situation in future. (Plymouth University

According to Howston-Jones (2013) reflection is not something that is out of the ordinary for everyone to do in their everyday lives. Reflection is the act of looking back on a situation, event or incident critically and making sense of it to learn from it and alter our actions to gain better outcomes should the same incident arise again (Capelhow, Crouch, Fisher & Walsh, 2013). As new experiences happen to everyone, everyday; it would be right to consider reflection as an ongoing process within everyone’s life, a process that is repeated, honed and a skill to be developed (McKenna, 1998).