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.

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.

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,

Upon graduation from the University at Buffalo, there were several pictures painted in my mind about how hands on Social Work was carried out in the “real” world. Several family members warned me about high burnout and nearly discouraged the challenging journey I had worked so hard to begin. Fast forward several years and there has not been a more rewarding yet challenging experience in my life as waking up and going to work with those who sometimes are unable to help themselves or are in crisis. My experience in Social Work has been some of the most rewarding (and challenging) times in my life, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

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.

During my junior year of college, I secured an internship at a juvenile re-entry organization, A Better Way, Inc., located in Trenton, New Jersey, the town where I was born and raised. A Better Way, Inc. provides a range of resources to the surrounding community, such as support groups, community service opportunities, specialized job training, and referrals to other programs and resources. Clients varied in age and gender, but the majority were people of color. As an intern, I was supervised by a Licensed Social Worker and specialized in counseling and outreach. My position entailed assisting the organization with intake interviews and also co-facilitating several of their men’s discussion groups. While reflecting on this experience, I realized how much I valued the work I was doing because it positively impacted my community. These feelings confirmed that social work would be a fulfilling career path for me.

I asked him who else depended on him working, and he revealed that he had a wife and two small children. I then asked him to tell me about his wife. He told me how they met, when they married, and some fond memories of good times together. However, she has started “hassling” him about his drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana. She knew that he did that recreationally when they were dating, but now that they had children, she did not want him to do it anymore. She used to call into his job for him, when he was hung over and say that he was sick. I mainly listened to him and asked him if he thought his drinking and drug use were interfering in his marriage and work. He paused before responding and said, “I’m the only one working because our kids are still young. I don’t want her to work right now… After a hard day’s work, I don’t think it’s too much to expect for me to want to relax and have a few drinks.” I asked him, “When you drink and smoke, does it give you relief that you can count on every time…how do you feel when you plan to drink a certain amount, but don’t.” He responded by saying that he used to get relief but it seldom happened now. He did not feel good about overdoing it. Using empathy, I related to his situation, learned about his history, determined his support system, and continued assessing.

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.

Setting a boundary is an important core value in social work. Social workers are generally compassionate people, but they also need to recognize that they have to set limits. They need to accept that they cannot be available to serve everyone’s needs and wants. This was the case when I worked as an adjunct instructor and provided individual tutoring to a student who happened to be related to some of my family. For new social workers, this kind of reflection may be helpful as they define their roles professionally, as well as personally. During my experience with a student, who was connected to my family, I learned how important it was to set boundaries.

When speaking with Cindy, the first thing I wanted to know was what she had originally wanted to do as a career and what training she had received. As I am aspiring to work within the counseling field, I always find it interesting to learn about the different ways to achieve this. Cindy expressed to me she had always known she wanted to do something within the helping profession. When she found out blood was not for her, she discovered social work. During her undergraduate training, Cindy majored in psychology and human services. After she completed this, she continued for her master’s degree in social work. After Cindy acquired all her necessary training, she began her many different career aspirations.

Since I was 15 years old I knew that social work was the field that I wanted to pursue. As a lover of diversity, natural servant leader, and a caring person, this was the only career that fit my goals and values. Because of this, I always knew that I would be in contact with people from all walks of life. My college career definitely served as a time for me to develop relationships and understanding with individuals that I knew I would one day work with; interfaith dialogue, LGBTQ+ advocacy, internships, social justice clubs, and personal experiences as a minority served as a way for me to develop a foundation. However, as I reflect on what situations would be difficult for me to work with, I realize that working with mandated clients makes me the most apprehensive.

As a social worker, I am aware that though I may choose a particular field to work within, there are few instances when I may pick and choose the specific client population I work with. Since my social work journey began in 2008, a population that has been most difficult to serve objectively and without bias has been the subset of clients that purposefully vote in elections against their own self-interests, in particular, those that vote with the Republican Party. Raised in the evangelical South, the ideology of the Republican Party is not foreign to those of us that live here as, “The South has served as the ideological vanguard of Republicanism for decades” (Hood, 2015).

In the beginning of the semester we were given the task to complete 25 or more hours of community service. This task was given to be completed for my Social Work Ethics class. We were to volunteer at an organization that was associated with social work and would give us an experience. I was given the opportunity to work/volunteer along with Trio, a student support service at Fort Valley State University.

I met with the two participants individually for face-to-face interviews that lasted approximately 60 minutes each. Through a series of both open-ended and Likert scale questions, the semi-structured interviews focused on the participants’ chosen intentional learning activity. The interview included 19 statements that asked the participants to respond with a number valued 0 to 10; 0 meaning total disagreement and 10 was total agreement. The interviews were audio recorded on my laptop computer and I obtained consent from the participants.