1. Social Work Skills Workbook Indiana University School of Social Work
Exploring Chapter 9
Social Work Skills Workbook
Barry Cournoyer
Indiana University School of Social Work
Supplements Developed by Patricia Clark, Northwestern State University of Louisiana
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Introduction
As the beginning phase ends, the worker and client engage in a mutual exploration of the person-issue-situation.
The worker uses exploring skills to encourage the client to share information, thoughts, and feelings about himself, the problem, the social context, and the environment.
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Skills most applicable to the exploration phase are:
Asking questions
Seeking clarification
Reflecting content
Reflecting feelings
Reflecting feeling and meaning
Partializing
Going beyond what is said
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Social workers adopt a person-and-situation perspective and attempt to identify client strengths and assets as well as challenges and obstacles in the client’s biopsychosocial life spheres and physical environment.
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Biopsychosocial life spheres:
Biological dimensions include genetic factors, health or illness, injury, alcohol and drugs, and environmental chemicals such as lead, pesticides, air and water pollution.
Psychological dimensions include perceptions, cognitive beliefs, attitudes, and expectations.
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Social dimensions include relationships within families, households, organizations, neighborhoods, communities, cultures, and societies as well as practices and traditions common within this environment.
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Physical environment
Problems and goals within the physical environment include housing, air and water quality, noise levels, access to food and clothing, personal privacy, and physical safety.
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Once the beginning phase is over, clients often wish to discuss their most pressing problems. This involves four area of exploration.
1. Exploring the issue involves examining the
present status of the problem or issue of
concern—its intensity, frequency, and
duration—and the context in which it tends to happen.
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2. Exploring the person involves encouraging clients to explore aspects of themselves as individual human beings. 3. Exploring the situation involves examining current and, when applicable, past circumstances. 4. Exploring the future involves examining the issue, person, and situation as they may emerge in the future.
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Ensure that treatment focuses on strengths and resources as well as on problems and issues.
Social workers seek to help clients identify and explore strengths in two dimensions--beliefs and realities.
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By looking for competencies clients may discover useful traits and attributes associated with their sense of efficacy.
By looking for social supports, clients are encouraged to identify and reflect on individuals and groups within the social environment that have been or could be resources.
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Looking for success involves specific recognition of experiences of accomplishment and achievement that tend to contribute to feelings of competency and optimism.
By looking for life lessons clients are encouraged to consider what they have learned and to acknowledge their own wisdom.
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Asking Questions
Social workers hope to foster a good working relationship where the client is a full participant in the process.
Asking questions in the right way encourages client participation, whereas poor questioning technique can cause clients to become defensive and uncooperative.
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Two types of questions
Closed ended questions are phrased to elicit short answers.
Open ended questions are phrased in a manner than encourages people to express themselves expansively and extensively.
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16. Seeking Clarification
Seeking clarification is an attempt to elicit more information from the client so that the meaning of the client’s words or gestures become clear.
It is done by asking the client to expand on what he said.
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Clients do not always clearly express themselves because:
They are uncertain about what they think or feel.
They are reluctant to ask directly for help because of a cultural or other reason.
They are embarrassed.
Words, phrases and gestures commonly used in one culture may be nonexistent in another.
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Reflecting Content
Reflecting content is the empathic skill of communicating understanding of the factual or informational part of a message.
Restate the client’s words to demonstrate understanding.
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Accurate reflections of content:
Contribute to the development of a positive working relationship
Promote a sense of collaborative partnership between client and social worker
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Reflecting Feelings
Usually consists of a brief response that communicates understanding of the feelings expressed by a client
At first reflect only those feelings that are verbally expressed.
After a foundation of accurate reflections is established or when the nonverbal, emotional message is very clear, reflect the unspoken feeling.
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21. Reflecting Meaning and Feeling
Reflect both the clients’ emotions and the facts or beliefs associated with them
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Partializing
The partializing skill is used to help clients break down several aspects and dimensions of the person-issue-situation into more manageable units so they can be addressed more easily.
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Going Beyond
Going beyond occurs when empathic understanding is used to extend slightly what was expressed.
The worker uses knowledge, experience, and intuition to add to the feelings and meanings actually communicated.
What clients say verbally is combined with what they express nonverbally.
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Going beyond involves putting into words those thoughts and feelings that a person probably thinks or feels but which he has not yet expressed verbally.
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