Self Reflection In Social Work

The social worker in this story had many different responsibilities and roles while working in the ER at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. His responsibilities include having to put the puzzle pieces together of who the victim is as they are being treated. This is often a taunting task because the staff is in a rush. The Social worker has to find clues like driver listens or anything else that will allow them to better understand who they are working with. Her responsibilities don't stop there. He was also responsible for working with the victims family to ensure that they were informed and comfortable.

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.

This was a very eye opening class for me. Coming from a mental health counselling background I have to admit it is a major difference in how social workers operate versus therapist. In this essay I will reflected on how this social work class has genuinely affected me, my strengths and weaknesses, and what I have taken away from this class. I always gain a great deal of satisfaction from helping others. I remember from middle school on through adulthood I was the go to person. If a person had an issue or needed to talk. I was the voice of reasoning. I was the one able to grab hold of certain resources if someone was in need

Throughout the class, many aspects of the curriculum were seen as useful in future social work practice. Before this course, in other course work, treatment planning and goal setting was often something that was reviewed briefly, yet within the coursework of the capstone seminar this matter had been gone over in more detail. Within this course, it was possible to gain more insight into a more balanced way of setting treatment goals that included conversations with the client concerning what they desired out of treatment in addition to what was needed. This aspect of the course was particularly useful when it came to working towards the development of the treatment plan with the client who was presented during the case presentation, Sarah.

According to Duffy (2016), there are two different types of social work practice when it comes to working alongside a disadvantaged population. The first kind, is used more often and is called conventional social work approach, which focuses its attention on undertaking assessment and ensuring that individuals are families are received the correct support through organised services and support. On the other hand, critical social work, the less utilized approach aims to challenge the inequalities and oppression in society, by targeting the societal structure via activism and research, in order to bring forth criticism and questions on discourses attached to particular marginalised groups. The author proposes that both social work practices are important, however, critical social work should be emphasized on more frequently, especially with groups such as the ageing population as it targets the stubborn discourses (Duffy, 2016). Mattsson broadens critical social work, by relating it to critical reflection. Critical theorists have proposed critical reflection as a method to understand how social work practices can uphold oppression due to seemingly everyday actions, words and attitudes. Therefore, this can have an implication on how social workers execute their practice, as ordinary and structural features of bureaucratic hierarchies may senselessly abide social workers to uphold and reproduce social oppression, even though they might be well-intentioned. Critical reflection

Human service professionals work with diverse populations, and in order to do so it is important for a person to understand their own beliefs, values, backgrounds, and biases. This allows a person to “recognize the potential impact of their backgrounds on their relationship with others and work diligently to provide culturally competent service to all of their clients” (Wood 2015). In other words, by understanding my background I can see how it has shaped my beliefs and values, as well as how I understand other people and their differing backgrounds. I grew up in a very small, religious community, and understanding the role that community has played in my life has allowed me to better understand my own values and provides me with a unique sensation of double consciousness. Double consciousness is an experience which allows us as human service professionals to see ourselves through the eyes of others, like our clients (Bu Dois 1903). This is important because understanding ourselves

Reflection at its most basic principle "provides us with an opportunity to review our decisions and decision-making processes" however, in practice, reflection is a far broader and contextual concept, it is about understanding a person’s life and the actions they have taken throughout their lives. (Nussbaum 1997).Reflective practice first emerged from the work of a man called Donald Schon, having found that there appeared to be a gap between theory and putting it into practice (Fook 2006a: 441). He went on to state that reflective practice is a way of improving professional practice, through critically evaluating how we respond to practice situations and being self-aware (Mezirow 1991). Whereas reflection is applicable in all aspects of living (Fook 2006a).

Self-awareness and the use of self is a key component in social work practice. Depending upon how one integrates their personal being and accompanying thoughts, experiences, emotions, and consciousness into the helping profession has a profound impact on whether that integration is positive or negative, particularly when it comes to that of one’s relationships with their clients. While remaining impartial is often critical to effective social work practice, the complete separation of self from one’s professional practice is not only impossible to realize, but would arguably have less of a meaningful impact with one’s relations with clients as well as self. Understanding the use of self and the importance of self-awareness in the social work profession is the first step in establishing a healthy means of practicing and the impact that our own individuality has when interacting with clients. In this paper I will analyze, and further critically reflect upon, four academic journals on the topic of the use of self in social work; later applying this learning to an experience from my field placement.

As social workers we are taught the importance of reflective practice. Equally, reflecting in a conversation is very important. Reflecting is the process of feeding-back to another person your understanding of what has been said. Although reflecting is a specialised skill used within counselling, it can also be applied to a wide range of communication contexts and is a useful skill to have.

My interest in the social work profession became apparent during the fall semester of my junior year when I was enrolled in Social Work 205 and sociology. I had finally found subjects that I thoroughly enjoyed and academically excelled in. The events and experiences in my past and the current activities in which I am involved, have helped me narrow my studies to solely social work and has took part in shaping my hopes and plans for my first entry-level position in my chosen career after receiving my degree from WKU.

Critical reflection is both a theory and a process that involves engaging and understanding the interconnections between assumptions, emotions, thoughts, reactions, meanings and values (Fook & Garnder, 2007). Critical reflection in social work can challenge assumptions, values and beliefs either from our own upbringing or stemmed from societal attitudes and perceptions (Agglias et al., 2010).

This weeks structured journal also was also like reflective journal because I felt like I had to take a step back and really analyze my session with my clients to explore if I have carried out any of the social work pitfalls that were mentioned in the work sheet. One of the pitfalls that I have learned in multiple sessions to draw back from and also realize when I’m performing it is the advice-giving vs the information giving. In being a social work it comes easy to tell a client what to do based on our own perception of the situation. But when a client is seeking advice I have discovered that it is better to explore with the client solutions and possible outcomes that they come up with on their own through my help. There was a moment

Self-reflection and correction in social work practice is important for continued learning and professional development. Without self-awareness, social workers cannot separate their personal feelings, values, and attitudes from their professional. This is important because we need to focus on the needs of the client, not what we think they need. Knowing how to separate our personal feelings and values from our professional feelings and values will prevent us from getting burnout and help us maintain professional boundaries.

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.

This paper will reflect on my motivations and the life experiences, that have influenced my decision to work in the Human services profession, as a Woman’s Domestic/Family violence social worker. According to the Australian Association of Social Workers (p12, 2010), social work is committed to three core values; respect for the person, social justice, and professional integrity. I strongly believe that I possess these core values and I will endeavor to use these in my profession. Good values are essential in the Human services industry thus I intend to uphold these values.