January 2nd, 2020 
Tools for Practice
As an intern, even in your concentration year, it is common and expected to be nervous and unsure when you begin to work with clients. Working one-on-one with a client requires many skills that take years to learn and a feeling of mastery over these skills is a misguided goal. As a social work professional, even after you graduate, you will learn many lessons from your clients. You will consistently be challenged to obtain new skills and knowledge to best assist your clientele. Further, you will constantly be asked to look at yourself and your own reactions when providing care to your clients. The use of self-reflection and self-awareness is required of a good social worker who recognizes his or her own potential biases and personal experiences in and out of the room. This week you will consider some potential barriers to successfully working with a client and some potential strategies to address them.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
- Explain the importance of identifying internal and external barriers
- Analyze barriers to a therapeutic relationship
- Apply self-disclosure as an intervention strategy
Learning Resources
Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.
Required Readings
Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen, S. M. (Eds.). (2014a). Sessions: case histories. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader].
The Petrakis Family (pp. 20–22)
Required Media
Laureate Education (Producer). (2013c). Petrakis family: Episode 3 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Accessible player –Downloads–Download Video w/CCDownload AudioDownload TranscriptCredit: Provided courtesy of the Laureate International Network of Universities.
Optional Resources
Use this link to access the MSW home page, which provides resources for your social work program.
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.
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.
Support your responses with specific references to the Learning Resources. Be sure to provide full APA citations for your references.
Submission and Grading Information
Grading Criteria
To access your rubric:
Week 7 Discussion 1 Rubric
Post by Day 3 and Respond by Day 5
To participate in this Discussion:
Week 7 Discussion 1
Discussion 2: Self-Disclosure
Knowing that clients might react negatively to your work with them may cause anxiety, frustration, and even anger. It is inevitable that you will work with a client who expresses anger or disappointment over working with you. This does happen in the social work field and is to be expected over time. Understanding how you might react to allegations of incompetence or anger over incomplete goals is essential to managing this type of exchange. While a negative interaction may be justified if either person did not fulfill responsibilities, often it is a result of the client’s personal reaction to the situation. The best response is to use these interactions to build the therapeutic bond and to assist clients in learning more about themselves. Stepping back to analyze why the client is reacting and addressing the concern will help you and the client learn from the experience.
For this Discussion, review the program case study for the Petrakis family.
By Day 4
Post a description of ways, as Helen’s social worker, you might address Helen’s anger and accusations against you. How might you feel at that moment, and how would you maintain a professional demeanor? Finally, how might you use self-disclosure as a strategy in working with Helen?
Support your posts with specific references to the Learning Resources. Be sure to provide full APA citations for your references.
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