Social Work Practice Reflection

I learned and saw first-hand what these mental illnesses looked like and developed patience to work with a population that I had no previous experience working with. I also learned to be conscientious and to take unique approaches to every client situation, ensuring both parties were left satisfied. I realized many people are quick to judge others just because they are different from the typical mold. I decided to never silently stand-by when I heard misconceptions of mental disorders, instead I would take those opportunities to educate others.

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 improved communication skill, from my perspective, is an essential and necessary benchmark for the establishment of an effective client/practitioner relationship. O’Keefe (2008) urges us to listen to the narrative, there’s a story to be heard, if only we adjust our philosophical positioning.

Social work practice works with many people in different situations, needing concise help from professionals. This assistance includes a range of skills such as; identifying the problem or problems, apply and use evidence based practice and theories and critical reflection. All these skills are integral parts of best practice in social work, and are needed by all service users.

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

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

The skills and experience I have gained over the past five years will assist me in my professional practice by giving me a clearer understanding of the struggles and challenges that

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).

My practice is driven by and laden with traces of the values of capacity for change and growth, the voice of the individual, and curiosity. The belief in the capacity for change and growth motivates me to sit with some clients that others consider difficult and attempt to assist them in seeing the prospect of change while maintaining a respect for their decision. The value of the voice of the individual drives me to open myself to the many possibilities that the client considers and hear things from their perspective. This value causes me to be invested in the client voicing whatever they deem necessary and working through what they voice to build the solutions they have created. The value of the voice of the individual also inspires me to

During my time there I learnt a variety of social care subjects, the most relevant being human development and behaviour and social influences. Human development and behaviour, has strengthened my analytical skills by helping me to develop my own conclusions and arguments based upon studies and theories I have learnt. It has also improved my ability to break down situations and look at them piece by piece. When studying social influences I developed my understanding of the importance to remain objective in my work. It has also heightened my knowledge of different cultures and the pressures people face in

Throughout the semester I have been working towards accomplishing some goals that I set out for interviewing. This essay will critically analyze the fourth session interview between myself and my client, Jessie. The session was about a 35-year-old woman who was feeling unhappy and lonely, after going through a separation with her husband of ten years. In this session, Jessie was feeling especially unhappy and confessed some suicidal thoughts. Throughout this interview, I used my learning goals, including focusing on the current situation, using appropriate body language, and focusing on client goals, which are all discussed in the Appendix. This essay will discuss how I was able to work on those learning goals, and whether or

I envision myself helping the clients through the process of recovery, to make things better than they were before. I envision helping clients to discover new ways and applications toward making the necessary adjustment in the client life. I envision helping clients to focus on their strengths and their abilities to overcome the obstacle and challenges.

“It is the client who knows what hurts, what directions to go, what problems are crucial, what experiences have been deeply buried.’ (Rogers, 2004, p11).

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.