Discussion 1: Self-Reflection and Awareness

Exploring the reasons for wanting to be in social work and examining your motives for choosing a career of helping others is very important. Your background, including childhood experiences, may be instrumental in bringing you into the field of social work. Understanding the possible connection and working to resolve any underlying unresolved issues is essential to becoming an effective social worker. While working with a client, you must strive to be objective, but in the end we are all human with past hurtful experiences that can impact our ability to effectively work with clients. While complete objectivity is impossible and not expected, it is necessary to self-reflect and become aware of when a situation or a certain personality type causes you to react in an unprofessional manner. Understanding potential internal and external barriers you and your client bring to the room will assist you in balancing an appropriate empathetic response with proper objectivity.

For this Discussion, review the Geller & Greenberg (2012) article and the program case study for the Petrakis family, and view the corresponding video. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g2EEqrVap1LxVgqho…

By Day 3

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.

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

By Day 5

Respond to at least two colleagues and suggest alternate ways the intern might overcome barriers. 

Colleague 1: Melinda 

Being aware of your internal and external biases, judgements and even things you have an unfavorable view on is very important. “To optimize the moments of Kairos (opportunity) in the therapy relationship, in ourselves, and with our clients, therapists must be aware of and work through the potential barriers to relational therapeutic presence” (Geller, 2012). Many challenges will arise when working in this role within yourself that the client may bring up. A Client such as Helen may assume you and you as the social worker become defensive. “Countertransference is defined as “the therapist’s internal or external reactions that are shaped by the therapist’s past or present emotional conflicts and vulnerabilities” (Geller, 2012).

Within the case of Helen, she asks the social worker her age (Plummer, 2014). At this point the social worker becomes very defensive which give Helen a leg up for say (Plummer, 2014). In that moment, the social worker should stay calm and ask Helen why she is asking. Then when Helen comes at the social worker, with that she is unexperienced and blaming the social worker for doing this to her family. The social worker then should explain her role as an intern. Explaining that she explained this to Helen before and she had no issues with it. The barrier before Helen and the social worker is the blaming Helen is doing. The social worker however is becoming defensive about the age and unexperienced Helen is putting on the social worker. This is something the social worker must be self-conscious about.

As Geller, explains we must be aware of our barriers especially when a client has become angry (2012). “We believe that countertransference reactions, such as therapists’ emotional reactivity, are highly possible in present-centered work because therapists are open and in direct emotional, physical, cognitive, spiritual, and relational contact with their clients as well as present in these domains within their selves” (Geller, 2012). As the intern, I would ask my supervisor to join in on the next session. Also explain this to Helen, stating she understands Helen is upset and you as the social worker, want Helen to know that you do have a supervisor and that you consult with that supervisor regularly. Explaining to Helen, you are not blaming her however, you did not know that Alec had a substance abuse issue. Now knowing this, as the intern you have a better understanding of why Helen was worried about Alec moving in. Using these interventions to interview in this situation does not help the intern with her internal and external barriers though. What will help with that, is leaving the session knowing that this bothered you and work through the problem and explore why it is a problem with the supervisor, another therapist or even within yourself through self-care and self-development.

Geller, S. M., & Greenberg, L. S. (2012). Challenges to therapeutic presence. In Therapeutic presence: A mindful approach to effective therapy. (pp. 143–159). 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].

Colleague 2: Antoinette 

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.

As social workers, we have to be able to serve our clients the best we can and have to be able to balance personal and professional life. When we are working with a client, we have to fully focus on that client and their needs. We may be serving many clients but we have to be able to balance our time and attention. We must be able to also time take our own time and self-care. We have to have a clear head and when we have a clear head we are allowing ourselves to be fully present when we are working with a client. Helen starts talking in a very fast-paced speech, asking the social worker how old she is and blaming her for the actions of her family members. One barrier that I saw was when the client made judgments by the social worker’s age. Geller & Greenberg (2012) also explain that with countertransference it can happen even with a great intention for the therapist to keep their own issues outside of the session, or for example the social worker in the video who is a human being. When Helen asked her age ad stated she is too young to be doing the job, the social worker could have had that experience before and got offended by the comments and reacted.
For the counselor and the client to overcome this obstacle, I would suggest that they self-reflect so they can recognize their own countertransference. According to Geller & Greenberg (2012) attest that we need to get out of the way of our client’s therapy and resolve whatever the unresolved issue was. A social workers, we can not take it personally when the client is upset. In the scenario, the social worker was shocked by the statement and responded by emotion. I would suggest she end the session and speak with her supervisor about the session as a way to discuss what happened. Once her thoughts are clear and her emotions are in check, she could think of a way to address what happened in the session.

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].

Laureate Education (Producer). (2013c). Petrakis family: Episode 3 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu