Reference no: EM133281229
Discussion - Your Personal Communication Style
Description - Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Do you talk more with your words or with your body? Do you generally rely on knowledge or perceptions to form your views? Overall, are you an optimist or a realist? Social workers are a diverse group of professionals, each with their own personality. These personalities show up in the way that they conduct interviews and how they relate to their clients. For example, a social worker who prefers processing might use more pauses in their interviews in order to think through the information presented.
In this Discussion, you examine your own personal style of communication and how well that style may translate to a social work context.
Post - Identify two ways your family and/or friends would describe your personal style of communication.
Identify two ways you would describe your own personal style of communication.
Explain the similarities and differences in the descriptions by your family and by you.
Describe how a client may respond to your personal style of communication.
What do you believe are the strengths and weaknesses in your personal style when working with a client?
Relating to the Client - As you have learned in previous weeks, in building the relationship with the client, the social worker seeks to use empathy, understanding, and unconditional positive regard. In addition to these social work skills, you will bring your own unique personality to each client interaction. Through self-awareness of your personality, you can develop your personal style of communicating to best serve your clients.
During sessions, you will regularly discuss the client's life situation. That life situation might include similar experiences to those in your background, or it might include activities that do not represent your personal values. Even in these instances, the client-social worker relationship requires that you take a step back and acknowledge the client's experiences without judgment or advice. This week, you explore the personal style you bring to the profession, as well as common problems social workers experience in their interactions with clients.Learning ObjectivesStudents will:
Analyze perceptions of personal communication style
Analyze the concepts of countertransference and transference
Required Readings - Cummins, L., K., & Sevel, J., A. (2017). Social work skills for beginning direct practice: Text, workbook, and interactive web based case studies (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Chapter 8, "Intake and Engagement" (pp. 163-194)
Giamportone, K. E. (2015). Counter transference in the face of compassionate care. Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life & Palliative Care, 11(3-4), 220-223.
Mirsky, J. (2011). Working through countertransference blocks in cultural-competence training. Psychoanalytic Social Work, 18(2), 136-148.