Social Work Practice Theory

Answer

Applying Client-centered Theory as a Personal Practice Framework when working with the Youths

During my initial social work education, developing a personal practice framework is a major task that we are assigned with the objective of bettering our understanding and reflection of ‘use of self’. Prior to my social work course, frameworks for living have been a central guidance to my walk through life which reflects my enthusiasm to developing this particular personal framework for social work practice. As a social worker, understanding the use of self is a vital consideration that helps me develop awareness of how I interact or communicate with others and how it impacts on my relationship with others. While social work practice major tool is communication through socio-networking, the use of self becomes an important concept that requires in-depth understanding. According to Chenoweth and McAuliffe (2017), the use of self is associated with one’s face-to-face interaction with others as well as how one express himself or herself in phone calls, letters, or emails. I believe that the use of self is a primary element to consider when developing my framework for practice. In achieving this, I consider the key aspects about myself namely: who I am, why I am the way I am and how this impacts on my practice. This paper thus presents my personal reflection of my understanding of social practice framework, social theory and social context. Empowering the young people through personal centered approaches helps them become resilient which in turn promotes their well-being in their everyday lives. 

 I am well aware that achieving this will require a comprehensive reflection of my beliefs, core values, behavior and attitude. Hence, my personal practice framework model involves four levels namely: ‘You’, ‘Theory ‘, ‘Practice’ and ‘Context’. Each level is articulated by a core principle question as follows:

You: who are you as a professional?

Theory: what knowledge, cultural understanding or research do you require?

Practice: what skills do you require to be able to do?

Context: what does it appear like on-the-ground?

Figure 1. Mutual relationship among the four levels (You’, ‘Theory ‘, ‘Practice’ and ‘Context’)

The diagram above indicates a mutual relationship among the four levels articulated by the nature of the circles flowing ‘inside-out’ as well as ‘outside-in’. Therefore, this model proposes that our core values, believes and principles impacts on our practice and context and our practice and context impacts on our core values, believes and principles. It is important to acknowledge that this particular model was inspired by the “Heart, Head, Hand and Feet model” adopted from Thompson (2015) and recently mentioned in our group discussion. As this models suggests, the heart represents our core values and beliefs; the head represents our knowledge and theories, the hand represents our skills while the feet represent the context we are grounded that influences what, why and how we do what we do.

The ‘You’ level focuses on assisting social workers to gain consciousness into their ‘use of self’ in a social context by evaluating on ‘who they are”? and what they offer?” Knott (2016) claims that it is important for social practitioners to reflect into their core values, beliefs, passions, assumptions, and their general worldview and how they influence their ability to work in such an aiding profession. This model recognizes the influence that context has in shaping the personal framework, hence the application of an empirical, reflective approach to analyze both the ‘theory’ and ‘Practice’ level. As the model suggests, a practice framework is applied in a real-world context that features cultural perceptions, policies, laws, research understanding and professional standards.

My Personal Framework

‘YOU’

At the center of my personal framework is the Chinese idea of ‘Confucianism’ that believes in achieving happiness through expressing utmost empathy, being kind to others and giving back to society. In other words, Confucianism believes that happiness of individuals is established on expressing concern about the world. A major context of Confucianism lies on the word “Le” that carries multiple meanings revolving around a psychological experience or inner experience of feelings.  The term “Le” may be used to mean expression of happiness, well-being, optimism or harmony (Lu, 2018). In Confucianism, achieving “Le” or happiness requires one to practice benevolence towards self and the society. In my understanding, I believe that the road towards well-being requires one to seek virtue by being kind to others, creating harmony and seeking knowledge of the world we live in. Developing a feeling of social value is a fundamental belief that has grown within me which inspires my career goal in the social work.  In my college life, “Le” has been a fundamental concept of my transformed personal worldview and developing professional framework.

A key social work principle that guides my practice is the empowering of individuals, communities and societies in my surroundings. Empowerment has always been my core value in performing tasks which is best achieved through establishing respectful relationships, productive associations and acute reflection. Additionally, embracing an engaging process suffused with innovation, creativity and sense of humor has enabled me to achieve empowerment destinations.

‘Theory’/ ‘Practice’

My recent engagement in under-graduate social work study is an expression of my thorough efforts to advance theory facets of my framework. The rate at which the world is evolving in relation to globalization, technology and public management calls for development of more innovative and advanced theories. Further, the recently developed practice approaches such as narrative therapy, visual art therapy and Strengths are vital theories that demand attention. As I engage in my current social work study, my major concerned is on how these advanced developments will influence change in my framework which I would pronounce as centered on a developmentally appropriate, and elementary model of wellbeing that pursues to promote individual and community wellbeing. This may be achieved through enhancing protective aspects as well as addressing the risk factors. In other words, I look upon identifying an empowering, engaging process that promotes wellness to everyday people in everyday life.

‘Context’

My personal contexts, which has gradually transitioned following the steady change in the world’s context, are guided by a common theme that expresses my commitment into promoting well-being among everyday people in everyday sceneries. Further, I have learned to regularly reflect on my framework and make necessary adjustments attributed to the requirements portrayed by emerging contexts. I have had to ask myself on what new knowledge I need to acquire to be able to do what is required of me.

Client-centered Theory and how it aligns with my Practical Framework

The Carl Roger’s client-centered theory of counselling has emerged to being a key influence to social work practices. Rogers argues that a therapist’s attitude towards a client is a key determinant of the success of the therapy administered. Hence, in his theory, Rogers provides three major conditions engrossed on the therapist namely: Congruence, meaning the willingness to demonstrate utmost honesty; Unconditional positive regard, meaning not being biased or prejudice and Empathy (Greene, 2017). Also known as person-centered theory, the client-centered approach does not demand for change of a client’s behavior, but rather, encourages acceptance and self-reliance. Rogers application of the theory involved an experimentation approach to resolve intergroup conflicts through workshops whereby he verified on how congruence, empathy and positive regard can be used to promote understanding, communication and good relations among antagonistic groups (Greene, 2017). As a result, the person centered approach has largely impacted on education and has facilitated better therapy and social work practices.

In social work practice, the client-centered theory allows a social worker to view the service user as a human being of great value and potential. The client-based theory as an approach separates the individual from their behavior. In other words, a social worker applying the person-centered theory will initially seek to understand and accept their client before administering any solutions. Rowe (2017) argues that the key concept behind client-centered theory is that an individual does not become bad simply because they have engaged in immoral behaviors.

Therefore, when using the client-centered theory in social work practice, the initial step is to view the service user a human being. Portraying an equal value of all human beings is key when applying this approach. Murphy (2016) argues that the person that has assaulted another individual is not of less worth than the individual he has assaulted, hence they both have equal needs to seek social services and be treated as human beings. From a person centered perspective, its normal for a social worker to hold strong feelings against immoral behaviors which needs to be approached in a high degree of honesty. However, these strong feeling should not be presence when administering services to clients. Hence, the way that you communicate to the client needs to demonstrate integrity and empathy and prove your genuine belief that all human beings are worthy and should not be judged by their behavior. According to Murphy (2016), the use of self to model respectful reception is a key tool in the client-centered theory. Consequently, a social worker applying the person-centered approach needs to keenly seek to place himself or herself the clients place without losing one’s worldview.

As I mentioned earlier, I look upon identifying an empowering, engaging process that promotes wellness to everyday people in everyday life. I believe that the personal-centered theory will help me achieve my objective in social work practice. Greene (2017) confirms that a person centered approach required a therapist to act as an empathetic facilitator who listen without judgment and accepts the clients experience without making any suggestions or providing advice. Hence, by using the person-centered approach, my role will be to encourage, empower and guide a client’s towards re-discovering themselves. As Rogers suggest, the person centered approach helps clients regain self-confidence, build a stronger sense of identity as well as establish healthy interpersonal relations (Greene, 2017). I believe that assisting an individual to regain self- confidence and self-reliance empowers them with in turn promotes their well-being. 

The Context of Youth Work in Social Work Practice

In social practice, youth work is a context that focuses on addressing social problems affecting the young people in the society. The term youth work is described using five key elements namely: focusing on the needs of young people; applies a voluntary-approach of participation; promoting relationships by inspiring all to join in friendship; demonstrating integrity as well as approachability and educating the young people (Andersson, 2018). Youth work can be carried out in multiple settings such as youth clubs, faith groups, music clubs, art clubs among others. Approaching the young people may be a challenge as it requires to one to educate or administer knowledge in a creative and fun manner to encourage full participation. According to Andersson (2018), in a sociology perspective, youth workers are required to create multiple frameworks to help them understand the young people’s world view. Research studies confirm that youth work has proved to be the most empowering approach and has resulted to more powerful relationships compared to other youth mentoring approaches.

Youth work approach is an effective approach for promoting individual and social development which results to molding the young people as they transit to adulthood. For instance, effective youth work can assist young people to make realistic career choices, build stronger family relationships and appreciate social care services. The youth workforce comprises of volunteering, part-time and full time workers pertaining a wide range of professional qualifications such as the social workers. In social work, mentoring is a key youth development strategy that aims at guiding and empowering young people to apply effective approaches towards life challenges and experiences.  As a social worker in the youth work context, my main task is to guide children through their development stages such as adolescence and help them acquire a set of personal assets that will make them resilient. Further, my role as a youth worker is to prepare and assist young people in becoming responsible and health adults and active members of the community.

According to Lerner (2017), youth development model requires support from the entire social system including the family, school, friends and community members which has become a major challenge in today’s society. Hence, the social work services provide children who lack this support system with services, opportunities and support (SOS) that improve their environments hence nurturing positive development outcomes. According to Mercier et al. (2018), the Five Cs model of positive youth development help young people acquire assets that help them build self-confidence, competence, character, connection and self-care. Social workers in the youth work have an obligation to guide and support young people by equipping them with skills that will enable them to build character and become resilient. Today, a major risk factor challenging youth development is cyberbullying attributed to the diverse use of technology and social media platforms. Most often social workers deal with young people whose self-confidence and identity has been wrecked by an incident of cyberbullying. Hence, as a social worker, you have a role of developing a professional framework and apply a theory that is appropriate to solve social issues impacting on the young people.

A reflection of my personal framework above shows that I focus on identifying an empowering, engaging process that promotes wellness to everyday people in everyday life.  I believe that young people are vulnerable to social challenges and their development highly depends on how they are mentored as they grow. Therefore, youth work may provide an active platform for me to implement my empowering and engaging skills that will promote the well-being of the young populations. Further, the person centered approach may be an effective approach in promoting healthy youth development in the community as it is based on what works for the client. While the younger generation might be difficult to convince, the person centered approach allows me to adopt a model that is client-driven which encourages participations and promotes good relations. Empowering the young people through personal centered approaches helps them become resilient which in turn promotes their well-being in their everyday lives.

Conclusion

As a social worker, understanding the use of self is a vital consideration that helps me develop awareness of how I interact or communicate with others. As I engage in my current social work study, I look upon identifying an empowering, engaging process that promotes wellness to everyday people in everyday lives. The client-centered approach does not demand for change of a client’s behavior, but rather, encourages acceptance and self-reliance. In order to succeed in social work therapy, at no circumstance should a social worker be in position of power, nonetheless, be a tool for empowerment. Client centered therapy in social work is highly effective because it is based on what works for the client. Social workers in the youth work have an obligation to guide and support young people by equipping them with skills that will enable them to build character and become resilient. I believe that the young people are vulnerable to social challenges and their development highly depends on how they are mentored as they grow. Empowering the young people through personal centered approaches helps them become resilient which in turn promotes their well-being in their everyday lives.