dialogue
your interpretation of what occurred in the dialogue, including social work practice or theories, and how it might relate to engagement covered this week.
during your field education experience.
The dialogue was between me and the client who had a history of anxiety, auditory hallucinations, and relationship issues with his boyfriend. From the dialogue, I gathered the client was more intentional about resolving issues with her boyfriend techniques referred to her earlier. The client was experiencing anxiety about not being to see her friend. The client is also experiencing episodes where she feels like she must do things in a certain way at a particular time, and if she doesn’t, her thoughts get chaotic. The client also expressed experiencing financial anxiety as a result of unemployment caused by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some of the social work theories used in the dialogue were cognitive-behavioral theory, whereby I encouraged the client to identify their negative thought process and focus on something more peaceful instead of feeding the negative thought and energy. In the dialogue, I also encouraged the client to practice mindfulness, which is a technique that emphasizes on being more present and conscious of where we are and what we are doing this enhances self-care and self-awareness. Through process recording, I am was able to evaluate my dialogue with the client and understand her problems deeply. I can also review if the previous interventions and techniques I had recommended to the client were useful and could access the client’s general progress. Through process recording, I can review previous processes and identify areas that I need to improve.
Describe your reactions and or any issues related to your interaction with a client
The client may be experiencing obsessive-compulsive Disorder that why she feels the need to do things in a certain way. The disorder could be a result of anxiety and uncertainty about the future as a result of the impact of Covid-19. The client feels the need to do things in a certain way to control certain aspects of her life. The is also working very hard to resolve the relationship issues that she has with her boyfriend. She tries to communicate effectively, trying to grow their relationship by spending meaningful time together. The client is also experiencing financial crises, but she is coping quite well despite these challenges.
Explain how you applied social work practice skills when performing the activities during your process recording.
Some of the social work practice skills that I used during the process recording include empathy, which involves putting myself in the client situation to understand their condition and the pain that they are going through better (Segal, Gerdes, 2011). I was able to use empathy by giving the client insights on how to reduce their financial crisis by guiding them on the steps to enhance their financial stability. The use of understanding is an Important social work intervention that improves positive outcomes because it makes the client feel accepted.
The other social work practice skill that I employed is self-determination, which involves allowing the client to decide what is best for the
m (Murdach,2011). For example, I let the client determine which meaningful activity that she and her boyfriend would engage in to facilitate their reconnection and not to make a decision on behalf of the client on what will be appropriate for her.
The other social work practical skill that I used was active listening, whereby I listened keenly to what the client was saying and asking the client to clarify when I did not understand what she meant. For example, I asked the client meant when she told her brain was chaotic.
References
Segal, E. & Gerdes, K. E. (2011). Importance of empathy for social work practice: integrating New Science. ProQuest Central. 56(2) 141-148
Murdach, A. D. (2011). What Happened to Self-determination.