Social work interviews are purposeful conversations between practitioners and clients designed to facilitate cooperative working relationships by focusing on needs, wants, problems, resources, and solutions. They include attention to both verbal and nonverbal expression (listening, responding, body positioning, facial expressions, and gestures). Skills utilized are also influenced by setting and purpose. (Bibliographies, 2015) Preparing for this interview with a client who was 59 years old and having problems coping with her very young daughter I had to think about the comfort of the environment that I was preparing the interview. I had to do this in order to make her want to open up to me in the right way. Social workers conduct interviews with their clients to help gather information and establish …show more content…
According to author Barry R. Cournoyer in his book "The Social Work Skills Workbook," active listening involves the combination of talking and listening skills to show clients that you are an active and collaborative participant in treatment and helps convey empathy for your client's problem or situation. During active listening, you use mirroring techniques to paraphrase and reflect back to a client what he or she has just said. . (Miller, 2015) Before I did the interview I usually cut into someone’s statement and then they could not complete what they were saying. Some of this was evident in my interview and so next time I will have to try and ensure that the client is finish speaking or ask if they were finish speaking so has to show that I was actively listen. The client demonstrate interest not only by my verbal responses, but also by her own non-verbal expressions such as leaning forward, nodding, maintaining appropriate eye contact, and your facial expressions. All of these considerations make for effective communication in you’re an interview
For this assignment, I received the opportunity to interview a clinical social worker. Jeny Thomas, LMSW and she works at Lifeline Center for Child Development, which is located in Queens. Ms. Thomas received her MSW from NYU Silver School of Social Work The purpose, history, and mission of the agency The Lifeline Center for Child Development P23Q is a school age program. It is a non-profit day treatment center for children who are mentally or emotionally disturbed.
Also, communication is very important because it is through effective communication skills that social workers are able to gather information about service users, undertake assessments, interviews, engaged in problem solving and decision making (Trevithick, 2012). I was able to communicate with Peter in an anti-oppressive manner and make him feel relaxed and at ease to open up and talk to
The social work practice skills I have achieved to date include a wide range of communication and interpersonal skills that have been developed through writing up case notes after meetings with clients, as well as debriefing with other social workers. Advocacy skills have been developed through liaising with other services and speaking with supervisors to extend clients financial and casework support. Further, active listening skills have been developed through listening to the client’s needs and asking important follow up questions; this has allowed me to establish trust with my clients and obtain a better understanding of their circumstances. Moreover, I have obtained a greater self-awareness through reflecting in supervision and regular debriefing with peers in my PSAG group. Self-awareness has also been developed through my previous placement where I had the opportunity to observe a Family and Community Services (FACS)
In addition, challenges can arise when there is no commonality in identities or when identities between myself and a client are radically different. In these times, as a social worker who has a degree of power in a relationship with people seeking help, that I must acknowledge to myself that my power can impede on inclusively practicing and remain self-aware (Gelfand, Sullivan, & Steinhouse,
In P6 of my work I am going to explain the role of supportive relationships to reduce the risk of abuse and neglect. If a person is interested in a career in health and social care is important you develop the skills needed to form professional supportive relationship with individuals and their families. So you need a basic understanding of the elements that make up a relationship.
After this assignment I have learned that Department of Social Services provides a lot of different services to those in need. Just from hearing and reading stories those who work in the field of Social Services aren’t always given a good rep, especially those who work in Child Protective Services. From doing this interview I was pleasantly surprised as to how much work Social Workers do to provide children with a safe and stable environment. There is a lot that goes into what they do every day. I have always known I want to work with children.
First of all, I had the opportunity to interview Kim Bartells who’s a Licensed Social Worker (LSW) in Michealsen Health Center and learn more about her role as a social work. Before I started interviewing Kim, I asked her if it was alright with her if I recorded the conversation and she said it was fine with it. I started the interview with asking what type of population Michealsen Health Center serves and she told me it was mostly elderly people. Kim works in a “Microlevel intervention involves working with individuals--- separately, in families, or in small groups---to facilitate change in individual behavior or in relationship” (DuBois and Miley 69). This types of individuals she is working with are elderly residents “who utilize long-term care experience a combination of physical or cognitive limitation that require some level of assistance in activities of daily living” (DuBois and Miley 314-315) and their families as well.
For our court observation assignment, I was really excited about this project. I couldn’t wait to see what it was like going to court. I have never been in a court room and therefore, this was my chance to see what it was like entering a courtroom, and listening to the many different cases. Depending on the case, social workers play a critical role in our nation’s criminal justice system. This can be a large or small part of a social workers job.
Minimal encourager that I used help client reach certain levels of insight such tiredness largely because of over responsible attitude and not assertive enough to reject unnecessary jobs. Client also realizes that he like to avoid conflict. Listening is an active process which involves being both physically and psychologically present (McLeod, 2007), as with Egan (2010) who directs a counsellor to listen not just to verbal experiences and words but to their feelings and non-verbal messages. An example I used with listening to non-verbal messages was when client laughed a few times when talking about his working condition which was a tense laugh and clearly not funny.
In the reading, the author discusses throughout the chapter skills and techniques in the middle phase of working with a service user. Honesty is a value that is highly respected in the social work profession because it creates authenticity and trust in the therapeutic alliance. I agree with the statement completely, as I believe that being honest in regards to what one is feeling as a social worker allows the service user to be honest with how they are feeling as well. Further, it is explained that empathy is of vast importance when working with a service user in order to connect, help them uncover what they are feeling, and find specific approaches and techniques that would be beneficial to the service user. Although I agree that empathy is an important skill for a social worker to have when working with a service user, I feel that at times it can be an issue.
Building rapport may not as easy if we did not apply any values that are suitable or accepted by our clients. Cynthia (2014) agreed that knowledge and skills are not enough if there are no values and moral as those three elements are crucial for the profession itself. There are many values that social worker could
A social work interview should consist primarily of open-ended questions as it encourages clients to elaborate on their responses. Social workers should also establish they understand the client 's replies by asking follow-up questions to acknowledge the client 's comments and encourage them to continue (Williams, n.d.). Upon reflecting on the interview process, I felt that I failed to achieve this. Because I realised that some parts of my interview lack the depth that I was hoping to achieve. I think that the main reason would be that I was impatient as my concern was to finish the interview
Maintenance of Clients’ Dignity in the Practice of Social Work The person is always a central axis in the process of social work. A person who becomes a client of the social worker is unique, his life history is unrepeatable. When a professional social worker affiliates a relationship with his client, he knows that his personality is violated, so they together have to try to restore a mutual beneficiary interaction between this person and the society. A social worker can accomplish this purpose just if his activity is conducted by highest values.
In this assignment the author is going to be speaking about active listening and the components of active listening. Active listening is a skill that is very important when it comes to communication and the author will discuss its importance and also how it can be achieved. The author will talk about the differences between listening and active listening and why it is important to take on an active listening role. The author will lastly look at how active listening is vital for any health care professionals but yet how it is seen as not being that important of a skill to have.
Reflection on the 5-Days Journey to Become a Better Listener Throughout the 5-days practice of active listening and basic attending skills in daily conversations, it was easiest for me to practice empathy. I found it easy to perceive the situation through others’ eyes and perspectives in order to capture the accurate meaning when I was nonjudgemental and listened attentively to others. As a result, I was able to develop empathic rapport in which I accurately sensed and understood others’ concerns as well as feelings as compared to when I conversed without empathy, allowing my presumptions to affect my interpretation of others’ meaning due to the need for others to agree with my worldview. Besides that, I was able to practice basic empathy, which is the second level of empathy where I paraphrased