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.

Throughout the semester, we learned about the different aspects one goes through while studying social work; family, poverty, mental health, drugs, education, and the list goes on. I was able to connect well with the different content we were learning because of what I had experience during the service learning I had chosen. My service learning allowed me not only more of an understanding, but personal growth and a bigger connection to this social work course.

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.

I have been productive. My first couple of weeks during my intern, my supervisor gave me a list of social work duties and I have been following that list. In the morning, I check on my clients that are on my case load and I read the dorm log to be aware of what happened during the hours I was not present. Those are only a few things on the list. I think it is important to put my best foot forward not only for the intern but for the people I am serving.

In this reflection my partner and myself attempted to apply cognitive-behavioral theory in practicing social skills, playing scenario with the roles of social worker and client. We had chosen for a client a teen, who is switching from her childhood to adulthood and trying her best to succeed in new high school.

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.

I had a great pleasure being in this class to learn the different stages of social work process, while reading the books, taking the quiz and in class activities has made it easy for me to understand and try to apply them to my everyday lifestyle. Social work practice has helped me develop the knowledge of the principles, values, and methods of becoming a social work. The first important process of a social worker is the engagement stage, this is when the social worker and the client have their first interaction. As a social worker you need to build the connection with your client to show them that you are here to help them. It is critical for social worker to be open to the client and establish a level of trust, active listening to ensure the clients is heard, and note taking notes. The second process is the assessment stage, this is when the social worker and client come to an agreement to the information shared by the client to develop strategies. Social worker uses this time to clarify with their client about the problematic they have, and work through the problem so they can work together to come up with an action plan. The third one is the intervention stage this point of the process is when you begin to planning. The social worker works with their client, begins to develop a plan with the client in order to accomplish goals that work targeting the issues. To ensure that the goals and objectives are clear to the client and the social worker, that nothing is misunderstood. At this stage the social work and the client execute to ensure their goals are being met. The evaluation is the last stage when the social worker receives feedback from the client about the process, and goal they set together to see if their goals were met. This stage is when social workers help their client independently continue to work on the issues on their own. If client feels that specific issues were not satisfied or addressed correctly than it is necessary to begin the assessment and implementation stage again.

Setting boundaries 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 social workers 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. My relationship with 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.

This report contains the information collected from a client meeting. This meeting consisted of myself as a social worker employed by SANITI at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) and four year 2 social work students. These students express concerns around the cost of their Noho Marae trip. They stated that half the students in their class were apprehensive that the costs were doubling.

This autobiography was written in first person where she gave an insight of how she spoke with those she was communicating with, whether it was a family member, a friend or a colleague. It varied from using slang to communicating formally. When she spoke informally this was able to give a true feeling of what she went through.

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.

It is pertinent to be aware of the disturbing and heartbreaking reality of the cases that we as social workers would come across. I have been working in social services for about a year and a half, and I work with some severe cases that I have had a reaction too but never to a point I am crying after reading my clients backgrounds. This class load of case studies has elicited emotions from me especially the Geraldine case. This is my first time dissecting a case where I have to understand more of the client background to make decisions for what is best for her. Furthermore, reading into the case and learning the details of Geraldine having to be in the house when her mother is killed and how she vividly describes the setting and sounds, of the scene sends chills through my body. I could only empathize with how she feels losing a mother. I could only imagine how lost and empty I will feel if not only I lost my mother but I was there when it happens. Additionally, it saddens me when she makes the statement that God will protect her and she believes her mom would yet again survive the abuse. I personally am a strong believer in God and I count on him to guide me in the direction he wants me to follow. I constantly tell myself when negative problems occur that it is all in God hands but there has been instances that has made me question why he have inflicted pain on me by the causes of situations in my life. In like manner, I could feel Geraldine pain as I am reading the

My first few days at Bethel Home have been nothing like sitting in the classroom, but I absolutely love it. I have learned that everything that I had been learning in the classroom had been preparing me for the first moments of my internship. I have been able to shadow the many responsibilities of a skilled nursing home social worker. I have experienced meeting individually with residents to establish a relationship, I also experienced meeting a multidisciplinary team who I can work alongside for nine months. I enjoy the experience of working with other professionals so that I can understand their viewpoints on situations. I find it interesting how I am recognizing things I’ve learned in classes that I am now experiencing in field such as dynamics between different professionals. After my first week, I am also realizing how important self-care is.

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).

To be honest I was quite shocked that around 87% of “the variability in therapeutic outcomes is associated with client and external or situational factors” (Cournoyer, 2017, p.32). After reflecting on this I realized how embarrassed I was of my ignorance, for I feel as though it implies that I thought, albeit unconsciously, that I inherently had more power than my future clients. This conflicts with my enduring stance against the word “helping” when it comes to social work practice, because I feel as though this word implies that the social worker is better than the client, that the social worker is doing the client a favor. I prefer the words “working with” the client, because I believe this establishes a mutual, respectful relationship between the social worker and client, which in turn will provide better outcomes for both individuals involved. Therefore, I vow from this moment on to never ignore the person-in-environment principle when working with and on behalf of clients. Acknowledging and understanding the external environmental, both physical and social, that the client operates in is essential if we wish to bring about positive social change.