Social Work Skills

1
Social Work Skills

• First Meetings
• Reflection of Feelings
• Paraphrasing
• Questioning
• Clarification
• Partializing
• Summarizing
• Silence
• Prompts
• Sharing Information
• Confrontation
• Attending Behaviors

2
Preparing for Client Meetings

• Agency Decor
• Interviewing spaces should be welcoming
• Interviewing spaces should reflect the cultures
  of the clients served
• Organizing the physical environment
• First Impressions are Lasting

3
Interview Settings
4
Preparing

• Preparing Skills
• -Preparatory Reviewing
• -Preparatory Exploring
• -Preparatory Consulting
• -Preparatory Arranging
• -Preparatory Empathy
• -Preparatory Self-Exploration
• -Centering

5
Physical Proximity

• In what ways does physical proximity impact the
  client/SW communication ?

6
Prompts

• Encourages the client to say more
• Verbal and nonverbal tactics
• Not asking directly for more specific content
• Gesturing/Minimal utterances often picking up on
  the clients last remarks
• Signals the SWs close following of the story and
  interest in details

• NONVERBAL PROMPTS
• Leaning forward
• Maintaining eye contact
• Nodding of the head
• Hand Gestures
• VERBAL PROMPTS
• And then?
• Anything more.?
• Mm hmm.
• Uh huh

7
Skills in the Work Phase

• Contracting begins with
• Clarifying Purpose
• Clarifying Role
• Reaching for Client Feedback

8
First Meetings

• Identify yourself
• Invite client to introduce themselves
• Discuss time frame
• Explain the Limits of Confidentiality
• Discuss purpose/roles
• Opening Lines

9
Contracting/Developing a
Working Agreement

• Notice that the conversation appears relatively
  informal
• Does the SW clarify the issues for work?

10
Reflection of Feelings

• An exploration of clients affective (feeling)
  responses
• Capturing the emotion expressed and reflecting it
  back
• Restating and exploring client emotion
• Reflecting both verbal and non verbal messages

11
Conveying Empathy

• Putting Oneself in the Clients Shoes
• Understanding what the client is experiencing
• Experiencing what the client is feeling

• Conveying Empathy
• Postures
• Gestures
• Sounds/Words
• Behaviors

12
Exploration

• Engaging client in a mutual exploration of the
  person-situation situation
• Encouraging the client to share information,
  thoughts, and feelings about themselves
• Results in greater self-exploration on the part
  of the client
• Exploring the past, present, past status of the
  issue

• Skills for Exploration
• Asking questions
• Seeking clarification
• Reflecting content
• Reflecting Feelings Meanings
• Partializing
• Going beyond what is said

13
Exploration in Action

• Observe the manner in which the SW gets Lily to
  offer more detail about her situation.
• Notice how the SW uses the skill of clarification
  
• What makes them perfect?
• Particular Imperfections?

14
Paraphrasing/Reflecting Content

• Rephrasing/restating clients message
• Communicating an understanding of the clients
  message
• Allows client to hear the essence of his/her
  statement
• Avoid repeated use of the same lead-in phrases
• Example Youre saying that..

15
Questioning

• Closed-Ended questions usually answered in a few
  short words
• Open-Ended questions invite exploration from
  clients perspective
• Avoid WHY questions and Double Questions

16
Clarification

• Used when SW is unclear about what client is
  saying
• Encourages client to be clear about what they are
  truly feeling and expressing
• Clarifying a value or incomplete client
  experiences, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors

17
Partializing

• A problem management skill
• Breaking down complex problems into smaller more
  manageable proportions in order to address one
  part at a time
• Conveys to the client that problems are
  manageable
• Accomplishing small step builds client confidence
• Focuses on the work, not on pathology that exists
  in the client

18
Summarizing

• Identifying ideas, themes, and patterns that have
  been addressed or learned and reflecting these
  back to the client
• A form of reflection in which the SW sums up what
  has been discussed and reflects these back to the
  client in a condensed form

19
NonVerbal Communication

• Up to 65 of communication is nonverbal
• Reading between the lines
• Putting into words what the client is
  Communicating but
• NOT saying

• Assessing the client emotion that is being
  communicated
  INDIRECTLY
• Observe
• Physical appearance
• Body posturing
• Gestures movements
• Facial expressions

20
NonVerbal Communication Sends Important Indirect
Messages

• Communication without using words
• Body language, behavior (failing to take next
  steps, missing appointments)
• How do you determine the meaning behind the
  indirect communication?

21
NonVerbal Communication

• Observe Lilys hand gestures
• Notice the change when she talks about a
  favorable experience
• What is Charles communicating with his crossed
  arms?
• Your thoughts about the SWs analysis?

22
Use of Silences

• The art of knowing when to be quiet/ when to
  break the silence
• The timing of being silent as an intentional
  response
• Identifying the meaning behind the silence

23
Attending Behaviors Physical
Psychological

• What do you notice about the SWs physical
  posturing?
• What is the client communicating with his
  physical behaviors?

24
Sharing Information

• Relevant to clients immediate needs
• Not intended to lead clients
• Client should be free to accept/reject the
  information
• Related to the working contract
• When sharing workers opinions, identify these as
  your own opinions, feelings, beliefs, values,
  rather than fact

25
Information Sharing and Rehearsing
Action Steps

• Providing advice/
• recommendations
• Empowering clients to act on their own behalf
• Rehearsing the steps

26
Disclosing Personal Information
to Clients

• Should the SW disclose personal information?
• Should the SW share personal feelings and
  thoughts with clients?
• Is revealing oneself unprofessional?

27
Self Disclosure

• When used properly, can strengthen worker/client
  relationship
• Boundaries for sharing workers feelings
• Spontaneous and unchecked expression of workers
  feeling should be avoided
• Some worker feelings should never be expressed

28
Encouraging Specific Behaviors

• Influencing the client to do things differently
• Balancing client self-determination against
  paternalism

29
Confrontation/Reflecting
Discrepancies or
Inconsistencies

• Effective within a trusting relationship
• Addresses the illusion of work
• Typical for client to be unaware of discrepancies
  until brought to their attention

30
Challenging clients patterns of
inconsistent thinking and
behaving

• What was the benefit of confronting Lily about
  her intentions vs. actual behavior?
• Observe how the SW manages Charles defensiveness
  and challenges

31
Indirect References/Moving from the
General to the Specific

• Issues raised indirectly may need to be directly
  discussed
• Reaching for specifics behind general client
  statements
• Making the connection that the client alludes
  to-- but is unable to express directly

32
Affirming Client Strengths
33
Resistance

• Communicated verbally nonverbally
• Reading exploring the resistance
• Resistance to being helped
• Resistance to changing old habits/holding on to
  what is comfortable known
• Can be a sign that the work is going well
• Resistance to ending the relationship

34
Termination and Endings

• Can be both Client initiated and/or Worker
  initiated

• Reasons for Terminating
• Work completed
• Worker leaving agency
• Client moving
• Death of client/worker
• Lack of progress
• Financial reasons