RE: SOCW6111 Discussion 1 Response to 2 Students

Respond to at least two colleagues and suggest alternate ways the intern might overcome barriers. from discussion 1 intial post

Support your responses with specific references to the Learning Resources. Be sure to provide full APA citations for your references.

Response to Cindy

Being self-aware is a key component in everything we as social workers do while working with clients. Being aware that we ourselves are human and feel pain the same way our clients do and being aware that we have fears and unknowns that scare us, is a insightful tool. An internal barrier would be not being able to handle the uncertainties that come with working with our clients. Another internal barrier would be that of our own stress which can cause the client to detect and the patient client relationship will be out of sync. Remember always that we do not need to rush towards an intervention or to fix the clients problem, if this occurs true healing will not occur. An external barrier is the therapist is not present when working with their clients. This inability to be present can cause a barrier as clients will not feel like they are being heard and is a crucial part of therapy for a client who has experienced trauma. Making sure that all of the social workers mental health has been taken care of prior to counseling clients who have experienced trauma (Geller & Greenberg, 2012).
In the situation with Helen and her case worker, the case worker lost her herself when she was responded to Helen’s frustration and blaming the result of her potential recommendations in regards to Helen’s son living with his grandmother. Now Helen is anger that her son will go to prison so she wants to cover up his faults and even blame her decision to follow through with having her son stay with her mother in law. The case worker, became very defensive regarding her recommendations which did not leave the session with any openness, receptiveness, or being present with the client (Plummer, Makris, & Brocksen, 2014).
An ultimate recommendation in the way the case worker should have conducted herself would be to be open and receptive, allowing Helen to express her pain and anger with only sincerely staying focused on the letting the client know her pain is being heard. The case worker needed to not rush to fix the discourse Helen was expressing but just let her talk and then using skills that show attentive listening will go further than developing barrier to the clients therapy and true healing (Geller & Greenberg, 2012).

References:

Geller, S. M., & Greenberg, L. S. (2012). Challenges to therapeutic presence. In Therapeutic presence: A mindful approach to effective therapy (pp. 143–159). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen, S. M. (Eds.). (2014a). Sessions: case histories. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader].

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Response to Noryn

Post your explanation of the importance of identifying internal and external barriers of the client and social worker. Then describe the barriers experienced by Helen and the social work intern. Finally, suggest ways the intern could overcome these barriers.

It is important to identify internal and external barriers for both the client and social worker because it helps to understand the situation of the client as well as the biases of the social worker so that everything can be addressed properly including social work ethical issues and client’s social/biological/physical history.

Internal barriers of the client Helen are her desire to conform to a traditional Greek Orthodox conceptions of a good woman of her culture and her desire to be self-sufficient even when she needs help. External barriers of the client are her lack of support in the form of family who can help with her duties and the fact that she cannot rely on her mother-in-law Magda to help herself or even reliably tell her what she needs (i.e. medicine or food).

Internal barriers of the intern are her inexperience with complex cases due to her student status and her desire to give what she believes is helpful advice to make a meaningful impact. External barriers of the social work intern are her lack of authority in her field experience and her inability to predict the behavior of individuals in their social environments.

The intern can overcome the barriers by making sure to ask for help from her field instructor with complex cases she is not familiar with as well as to make sure to always ask for advice when giving possibly unethical advice to clients due to her own inexperience.

References

Gutiérrez, L. M. (1990). Working with women of color: An empowerment perspective. Social Work, 35(2), 149–153.

Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen, S. M. (Eds.). (2014a). Sessions: case histories. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader].