Reflection On 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.

I was thirteen, and I had just come home from a school softball game. My friend Dalton had invited my sister and I to come and swim at the neighborhood pond. My sister stayed home, but I got permission to go. After a while of swimming, Dalton looks at me claims that he’ll jump out of a tree near the bank if I jump out. Of course, I accepted my friend’s little dare and climbed into the tree, focusing on the seven-foot-deep drop-off off of the bank. Regrettably, I didn’t jump far enough. My right leg landed in the drop-off, but my left leg hit the clay, which caused all of my weight to shift to my left foot. I felt an immense pain in my ankle and started screaming while crawling over to the bank as Dalton ran to get my mom. After I finally made it to the emergency room, I found that I had broken my fibula at an upward slant, which caused the upper part of the bone to slam down into my ankle.I had completely blown out every ligament and tendon on the left side of my ankle. I had to have a plate and four screws implanted into my fibula along with the surgical repair of all of my ligaments and tendons. The entire ordeal left me extremely interested in the human body, and this interest was heightened when I had to get my appendix removed a few months later and again when I took Anatomy and

The class SW 6030 Human Development and the Social Environment has brought new insights and makes me see some topics in a different perspective. The critical reflection paper number one will integrate different concepts that I learned so far in this class.

Setting a boundary is an important core value in the field of social work. According to the Social Work Code of Ethics, “social workers should provide and represent themselves as competent only within the boundaries of their education, training, license, certification, consultation received, supervised experience, or other relevant professional experience” (Code of Ethics of the NASW). Professional helpers are generally compassionate people, but they also need to recognize the value of setting limits. This was the case when I worked as an adjunct instructor, which included providing individual tutoring. Sara Towns (name changed), a student and distant cousin, evoked the possible clouding of boundaries. For new social workers, this kind of reflection may be helpful as they define their roles. Through a series of professional and personal experiences with Sara, I learned that boundaries must be maintained to foster a positive relationship and prevent potential conflicts.

PER REPORTER: Kathy said one of her students by the name of (Shadavious) went to visit her father (David Lee) this weekend when she was told some disturbing information. According to Shandavious, there are four children living in the home with David Lee and one of them by the name of Staciera told her that David Lee makes her do things they should not be doing. Shandavious said Staciera told her David Lee threatened to taker her phone and tell her mother on her if she did not do what he told her to do. She also told her that at night David Lee comes and gets in the bed with her and makes her do unknown things to him. Shandavious said one of the other children (Kishona) living in the home told her that she sleeps on the top bump bed above Staciera,

When the therapist checked in regards the client's symptoms and behaviors during the last week, the client reported that she felt happy because she is almost done with her assignments and homework for this year as well as her grades are As, Bs, and has one C- which she is happy that she achieved comparing to last year. Client reported that she is excited that she is going to Six Flags as a prize for the school party that she helped her colleagues and teacher to get it done. The client reported that she feels proud as she finished most of her assignments and projects for this semester as well as most of her tests as she has a goal to get straights As for this semester and she does not feel tired and overwhelmed anymore. When the therapist asked the client about her plans during the summer, the client reported that she will be in the summer program at school to finish as much as she can during the summer to be able to graduate next year, the client added that she is motivated to achieve more progress to build her future career, the client also mentioned that she will go to Florida on a trip with her grandfather because of the 18th birthday present.

This assignment afforded me an opportunity to view myself in action in a social worker position. It clearly revealed where I correctly inserted and omitted implementing many of the skills that were introduced and reiterated during this course. As a result, I was able to identify some of my current strengths and weaknesses in the context of a helping relationship. Because I am critical of myself, I easily discovered my mistakes before realizing my competencies. Overall, I was pleased to see myself applying some the skills that professional social workers currently use, and I believe with more practice, I will develop into a proficient social worker.

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.

In this reflection essay, I will demonstrate my learning experience in this counseling session. I will talk about my strength, weakness, verbal, nonverbal expression, including improvements needed to become more efficient in the social work profession. I will also speak about a learning tool called process recording in Social work profession. This process recording was done with the help, with my fantastic Daughter Kendra Shelton as the client and my incredible husband Michael McVay as Video Recorder /producer.

We are all members of the social work with the group class, which is a close co-ed group composed by Simmons social work students between the ages of 23 to 40. We engage int eh group as part of our requirement of the social work master curriculum. Individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds, gender, and race formed the group. We have two goals as a group, which are to complete the requirement and pass the class, and the purpose we later create while in class. Also, we are a close group with open communication; we also are allowed to communicate while in the class and outside of the classroom. We, the members, interact appropriately and respect one another ideas. We have adapted to the group structure and have been able to follow the established guidelines. We have to experience cohesion through expressing our thoughts and somehow exposing our emotions.

Arman was able to give us an in-depth perspective on how to be a good social worker as he worked for Child Protective Services for eight years and was able to bring home fifty children. That alone is a good career, yet Arman continues to keep on helping. He is a prime example of what a good social worker is. The main lesson he pushed is to always help the child first and to never feel like the bad guy. In the Indigenous social work 377 classes, Arman stated “As social workers it is our job to put ourselves in the shoes of the person we are helping” (personal communication, Arman Kitchemonia, October 2nd, 2017). This means that we must also help the family of the child too. It will also help if we get to know the community and Elders. He also told the class that when an Elder corrects you to always take it as a lesson. We will never know everything, so we have to respect each other’s ways of doing things. The biggest lesson I learned from that presentation was that in life if you do not pray, you will not receive any blessings. Since that class I started praying and it helps a lot with easing the mind.

In the social work field, one comes across many kinds of people all the time. It is crucial that all social workers are intact with their biases and understand their competency. When a social worker starts in the field it is important for them to come to realize that everyone has biases they may or may not be aware of, as well as knowing their limitations when working with different kinds of cultures.

During this research course, I learned a lot about conducting social work research. In the past, I have taken a research course for psychology. I learned this semester there are different restrictions and requirements when conducting research as a Social Worker. Along with that, I gained a refresher on topics I was familiar with in Psychology Research Methods. I also had the opportunity to create a full research report and carry out research.

Introduction to Social Work and Social Welfare provided me with opportunities to learn by using a varities of learning syles. This course offered many readings, groupwork, discussions and presentations to learn the content needed to be successful in this class. Through this course I learned about the history of social work profession, the code of ethics and how a social worker needs to follow the core values and ethical standards and the roles of a social worker. I also learned about the the theories of social work practice that allowed me to become more aware of the needs of social work profession in diverse areas. Overall, this class has helped me understand the responsibilities a social worker has to the profession and their clients.

I met Christine over a year ago in dingy old Olive Garden where we both worked at the time. Christine was among the many servers at Olive Garden that were working their way through school, but that wasn’t all she was doing, she was also raising 4 children on her own. Due to our vastly different ages and places in life, Christine and I’s relationship never surpassed work place acquaintances, but I always had a lot of respect for what she was doing. This last spring Christine finally graduated with her BSW and left Olive Garden for social work and hasn’t looked back.