Personal Reflections on Becoming a Social Worker
Personal reflections on becoming a social worker
This essay will be reflective in nature and therefore in the first person, the main body will commence by giving a brief personal history in that it will give context to a number of discussions in this piece. This will lead to a brief description of placement setting, giving room for the primary focus, a conversation with a service user. The conversation will be referred to throughout; labelling theory will be drawn on first to give a possible explanation of what transpired, thus setting the tone for a psychosocial explanation of the same event. This will be done by drawing from object relations theory enabling concepts of internal defence mechanisms such has splitting, transference and counter transference to emerge. By doing so, the importance of understanding these concepts will be demonstrated by highlighting the positions taken during the conversation. Supervision will be then discussed in a brief discussion on personal emotions and thus highlight the importance of supervision. This knowledge is related back to conversation to highlight an understanding of transference and counter transference. As a natural progression the influence of placement setting will be discussed highlighting issues of social exclusion and power imbalances while highlighting how these influences interpenetrate those involved. The final section of this piece will discuss aspects of managerialism in social work practice. This will enable a view on the strengths and weakness of psychosocial theory. The conclusion will be a discussion of how learning outcomes have been achieved.
Why do I want to be a social worker? On reflection there is no single defining moment, more a combination of experiences and life events, for I am and have always been a firm believer that who we are as individuals, is based on our lived experience. From this perspective then I would have to say my upbringing as the starting point, my experience as a father
This essay will be reflective in nature and therefore in the first person, the main body will commence by giving a brief personal history in that it will give context to a number of discussions in this piece. This will lead to a brief description of placement setting, giving room for the primary focus, a conversation with a service user. The conversation will be referred to throughout; labelling theory will be drawn on first to give a possible explanation of what transpired, thus setting the tone for a psychosocial explanation of the same event. This will be done by drawing from object relations theory enabling concepts of internal defence mechanisms such has splitting, transference and counter transference to emerge. By doing so, the importance of understanding these concepts will be demonstrated by highlighting the positions taken during the conversation. Supervision will be then discussed in a brief discussion on personal emotions and thus highlight the importance of supervision. This knowledge is related back to conversation to highlight an understanding of transference and counter transference. As a natural progression the influence of placement setting will be discussed highlighting issues of social exclusion and power imbalances while highlighting how these influences interpenetrate those involved. The final section of this piece will discuss aspects of managerialism in social work practice. This will enable a view on the strengths and weakness of psychosocial theory. The conclusion will be a discussion of how learning outcomes have been achieved.
Why do I want to be a social worker? On reflection there is no single defining moment, more a combination of experiences and life events, for I am and have always been a firm believer that who we are as individuals, is based on our lived experience. From this perspective then I would have to say my upbringing as the starting point, my experience as a father