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Project Paper Assignment

Paper must be 4-5 pages with references. Interview a social worker and give a written report. In the paper, address each of the following areas and support your ideas with evidence from course reading resources and additional research. Details are given below.

I have already done the interview and I have provided the questions and responses. Please include interview responses and references provided into a 4-5 page paper. Also please include references into paper with each given outline and the importance of practice in the social work field. Overall in the conclusion how it has helped me view the social work field and what I learned from the interview.

If there are any additional questions please let me know. Thank you!

Interviewed name of social worker:

Name of agency:

1. Tell me about yourself
I’ve been in the field for over 21 years and I’m originally from New York and worked for a few years and then opened up my private practice 8 years ago in Florida. I got my undergraduate degree and graduate degree in social work.

A lot of the work that I’ve done has been working with my specialty with families and children. Over the years that has changed and I’ve been in every type of social work position and now practice. I’ve been in the practice now for 8 years.

2. When did you see yourself as a social worker?

I saw myself as serving and supporting others I would have to say probably in my childhood years because of the role that I took on as a caretaker.

3. What do you like about your job?

That I can do it on my own terms and that there are no constrictions or restrictions around the way that I offer my services and because I’m in private practice and I do not take insurance.

4. When did you open your own practice? About 8 years ago

5. What is your work style like?

Well a lot of my work is transpersonal so that focuses on spirit, mind, and body and so you know I really look to integrate the whole person you know vs. the techniques I use and not necessarily just founded in one type of methodology. I usually do a lot of ego work and a lot of clinical hard sensitive therapy and traumatic experiencing you know as ways to work with people who have sustain trauma

6. Tell me a time when you juggle your regular responsibilities and deal with a sudden priority.

I would say that’s when I did a lot of at risk work with children and families and I was on call. You know because I was on call for clients and there was always a crisis, that was a crisis driven environment and so you know having a small child at that time was very difficult to juggle because that would mean that I would need to leave home in order to take care of or provide service to somebody’s crisis.

7. What has been your experience with your practice and agency paperwork and how do you feel?

I can’t stand paperwork which is one of the reasons why I do not like paper trail and you know I do not take a chance anymore because you know the deal with insurance is that in order to get paid you have to diagnose and that’s very limiting that it follows people. I don’t believe in HIPPA and I don’t think it’s 100 percent full proof and I don’t want to document anything that’s going to put somebody in a bad light or continue to create a label you know because that’s what we’re trying to misidentify right, all the labels that we’ve taken on in our lives in terms in the way we see ourselves so I don’t want to add to that so my paperwork is very simple at this point and I keep the diagnoses in my own mind in terms in what their projecting with but also remembering that all diagnoses is found in a trauma and that’s really important because you know it’s just what its appealing as but it’s because at the root something traumatic has happened whether it’s a big T or small t compounding PTSD whatever it is that created the symptoms that you’re seeing and at any given moment its situational you know so I don’t like to document. I document for myself but as far as somebody else doing the documentation just so much there’s litigation it’s very simplistic and I like it that wa

8. Tell me about a time you were in a disagreement over a treatment plan.

Yea I mean the thing that comes to mind right off the jump is one of the reasons why I don’t work with children anymore even though that’s my love you. You know when there litigation evolve because when you have a parent who is narcissistic and you know they only see their own perspective and are not looking at the actually child’s needs that’s when the disagreement comes up because it looks as though they are part of the problem; the parent, they disagree with the type of treatment that the child would need so it causes a problem right off the bat and then you have to justify why you’re the professional and you know why this child could benefit from treatment and you’re going up against the parent who has a different agenda all together.

9. What is your understanding of service delivery in the social work field?

Service delivery is really to be collaborative and come into a relationship and engage with somebody recognizing that you are just the facilitator. You do not have the answers for that person, that person has the answer to have all the answers that they need. Your goal is just to help them awaken to what it is that they know but aren’t conscious of yet.

10 .How will you deal with the dual-relationship issues of working in a small community?

You know I always, when I talk to my clients I always check with them if I see them out in public how would they like to be addressed, would they liked to be addressed, you know do they want me to interact with them and for the most part I have to say there’s not a problem because I have a very deep and very caring relationship with my clients and even though I’m in private practice I’m acceptable to my clients so you know they can only sight me. It’s not a problem when we’re in the community, you know there’s no shame there.

11. What are the agency’s service delivery strengths and weaknesses?

The strengths is that I have to foresight to be able to really work with people and see people in a way that I can put together a plan of action that will ultimately support their well being and the difficulty with that is that even though I have the foresight I can see what it is that’s helpful in getting them to where it is that they’re desiring to be they may not be ready for certain steps that would get them there so its about really being patient and being in tuned with the client meeting them exactly where they’re at so that they can see the benefit of wanting to take the next step.

12. What do you think would be the most challenging experiences for a social work intern in your practice?

Working with an agency because there’s so much bureaucracy the real learning doesn’t start until you’re on your own. All the stuff that you learn in school and all the stuff that you learn with an agency helps to provide a foundation but it theory vs practice and the reality is that theory to me doesn’t hold as much strength as practice does and you know through your practice you start to evolve your own style and start to look at all the things that you’ve learned and delivered in a way that feels authentic to you, you know because you’re empathetic, you have the ability to do that and really integrate that into your own authentic way of delivering service once you’re outside of the imposition of agencies because they have rules to follow and things need to be done and that kind of restrict your ability to be your own person and provide service in a way that really engages a client in real significant way you know because coming into that type of environment people don’t really see themselves as individuals and you’re so overworked in that environment as clinician that its hard for you to see them as an individual you know so I just don’t like those types of settings which is why I left.

13. What do you think would be the most rewarding experiences for a social work intern in your practice?

Feel free enough to practice ways of delivering service and to recognize that honestly there are no mistakes because the only way that you learn is through practice but I think it would need to be important for them to feel free enough to come to the table being themselves without any constraints which really helps them to learn because of experiential vs rule driven not to say that there’s not guidelines around certain things but to allow them to just be themselves and not need to perform with an expectation that it needs to look this way because that when you get jammed up so that’s theory again and not practice.

Do you take time for yourself when you get overwhelmed?

Well because I’m in private practice I structure things to take time for myself vs working all the time in an agency and that’s the benefit you know because I schedule by appointments which means I’m not working crazy hours all the time. I have my own life and you know if there is a time I do feel like I need to take time for myself that time is spent in my own counseling, that time is spent in my routine even before I get to work which is going to the gym, engaging with colleagues everything is set up and structured for me in a way that really benefits me because I am in private practice. You know I’ve seen people who have enough ego strength that it’s not a constant crisis. I have my space and you know that boundaries are the most important thing. No boundaries, no life.

· Describe your practice and Services offered-

I do a lot of ego work with individuals and in order to get deeper and understand the self conscious mind and going into consciousness what a person is not aware of in terms of patterns and behaviors in conclusions and beliefs we do hypnotherapeutic techniques which allows them to bypass the conscious mind going to the self conscious in all though the agreements we made in terms of whether they remain in childhood and what has come up and help them get to a space where they can see why those patterns are in place and how its carried forth in their lives and focus on what needs to be done now because that’s no longer a strain so that they can change that pattern so it’s really changing the contract with themselves through hypnotherapy and understanding why that contract was necessary as a survival base skill going on but no longer serves them.

Another thing is working with the body because the body carries all traumatic memory, not the mind so when we can release those memories from the body they can move on and start changing the perspective that they hold in their mind and address situations in a different way because that charge is not so strong anymore it dimishes.

o Mission of the agency- My ultimate mission is to be of service and help people come into their own awakening for the best life that they’re deserving of and desiring for themselves.

o Clientele or population served- serving various cultures of people over the age of 18 to help people from that age up until the age of 72

· Describe the social worker’s job activities and professional roles

My responsibility is to save the world within me because I am the world working on myself then I project that outwards and make a difference with the people that I’m serving. Recognizing the limitations and what you don’t want to take away from the client in terms of their own self efficacy because that is part of their learning process to go through the challenges and nobody’s broken it’s not about fixing anything or anybody. It’s about helping people discover the strengths within themselves and in order to do that they have to come up against their own beliefs which is keeping them doing the things that they do which are maladaptive or abnormal.

· Explain what brought the social worker to the field and their work history

Working in New York as a caretaker before earning my degrees and always wanted to serve others and make a difference

· Explain opportunities for advancement and what the social worker does for professional development

· Describe the social worker’s overall job satisfaction and strategies they use for self-care

You have to be doing your own work and that’s an ongoing process. If you are involved in something that allows you to continue to do your own personal work so that you can be highly effective with the people that you’re servicing and that means however you see fit therapeutically how to do that.

· Analyze your experience. Specifically,

o Discuss your thoughts and feelings related to the agency, clientele, and type of work.

o Reflect on why you may have experienced these reactions to the agency, clientele, and type of work.

· Explain which social work values and ethics were evident (or not evident) during the interview. https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English

· Explain how social and economic justice relates to the services provided or population served by this agency.

Center for Economic and Social Justice. (n.d.). Defining economic justice and social justice. Retrieved from June 11, 2013, from http://www.cesj.org/thirdway/economicjustice-defined.htm

· Explain how cultural competence was demonstrated (or not demonstrated) within the agency or by the social worker.

· Reamer, F. G. (2010). The limits of professional competence. Social Work Today. Retrieved from: https://www.socialworktoday.com/news/eoe_041410.shtml

· Social Work Policy Institute. (2010). Evidence-based practice. Retrieved from: http://www.socialworkpolicy.org/research/evidence-based-practice-2.html

References are provided for each outlined area. Add any additional references if possible. Follow the rubric for a good scoring grade.