Engagement With Clients: A Case Study

Two Perspectives of Engagement with Clients One thing that makes social work stand out from other professions is the relationship that a social worker builds with their client. It is an important factor but can also be very challenging at times. There are several stages to the social work treatment process. Those stages include; engagement, assessment, intervention, and termination (USC VAC, 2013). It is vital that a social worker begin to develop a relationship with their client during their first session and build on that relationship over time. The treatment stage in which a social worker can initiate the development of a relationship with their client is in the engagement stage, which serves as the foundation for the rest of the sessions
I need to my social worker to work with me in finding solutions to the problems I am facing. Utilizing the ecological perspective during my treatment would be very beneficial to getting the root of the problem. I would feel that my social worker does not only care about my treatment but is an advocate in helping to achieve that change. According to McKay et al (1996), the ecological perspective consists of four critical elements; (1) clarifying the helping process, which is the social worker introducing themselves to me and explaining the treatment process and making sure I understand exactly what the process is, (McKay et al (1996) p. 465). (2) Developing the foundation for a collaborative working environment which would include finding a balance between the information needed to obtain the appropriate intake information and allowing me, the client, to tell my story of why I am there in the first place, (McKay et al (1996) p. 465). (3) Focus on immediate, practical concerns; this would mean that my social worker is prepared to respond to crisis situations, negotiate with other systems that may be a barrier of some kind to my treatment and be able to respond to any presenting concerns, (McKay et al (1996) p. 465). I need to feel as though my
One way to do that would the social workers ability to empathize with me. Empathy “is the act of perceiving, understanding, experiencing, and responding to the emotional state and ideas of another person,” (Gerdes & Segal, 2011, p. 141). Even if my social worker does not share the same views as me, being able to see things from my perspective and genuinely understand where I come from is the most important quality my social worker can bring to the table when working with me. According to Gerdes & Segal (2011), there are two main components to empathy; emotional empathy and expressed cognitive empathy. Emotional empathy is “the ability to be affected by the clients’ emotions,” (Gerdes & Segal, 2011, p. 141). Although I do not want my social worker to be as distressed as I am, I need to know that they are not an emotional robot and they can see why I am experiencing the emotions I am experiencing. Expressed cognitive empathy is “the translation of such feelings into words,” (Gerdes & Segal, 2011, p. 141). By my social worker being able to verbalize with me that they comprehend my emotional state of mind, that would relieve a lot of anxiety for me just knowing that what I am feeling is not so far-fetched and that it can be understood by a complete