RESPONSE 1

Respond to at least two colleagues and suggest alternate ways the intern might overcome barriers.

Colleague 1: Tiffany

Geller, and Greenberg, write about how therapist and clients should have a working relationship to  successfully help social workers connect with their clients,  in their article Challenges to Therapeutic Presence Geller and Greenbery claim “therapists must be aware of and work through the potential barriers to relational therapeutic presence. A level of intimacy with the moment is needed for therapists to go deeper through the levels of therapeutic presence, which can be scary and make one feel vulnerable”(Geller, Greenberg, 2012).

It is important to identify the internal and external barriers of social worker and client so a more trusting and strong relationship can form between social worker and client. A client needs to feel comfortable with his/her social worker so they can open up to the client more and will more in likely tell more about their troubles and life. A barrier could be dual relationships. Social worker could be sending off bad vibes by her body language, expressions she is making on her face as client is talking or telling their story. Social worker may have a different belief on a topic her client is having trouble with, social worker could be prejudice to certain aspects of the clients problems.

Some barriers between the social worker and client in the Petrakis family case was culture, ethics, religion, and values. The age differences between social worker and client. The intern needs to learn as much about her clients culture as she can. Social worker needs to find out what barriers not to cross with her client. Client needs to only suggest and make it clear she is not informing client what she needs to do but only giving a suggestion. Social worker should never use a tone other than a soft tone with her clients. Social worker needs the support of a supervisor when issues like age come up so she can address this concern of the clients better. Social workers can only suggest a plan of action for their clients they can’t tell the client what to do that is an ethical issue. Social workers have to be cautious how they approach clients in these areas because you can shut down the trust of your clients.

References 

Geller, S. M., & Greenberg, L. S. (2012). Challenges to therapeutic presence. In S. M. Geller & L. S. Greenberg, Therapeutic presence: A mindful approach to effective therapy (pp. 143-159).

http://dx.doi.org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1037/13485-008

Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen, S. M. (Eds.). (2014a). Sessions: case histories. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader].

The Petrakis Family (pp. 20–22)

Colleague 2: Tina

elf-Reflection and Awareness

           As social workers, we learn from the beginning that rapport is the most important thing in the first stages of engagement.  Social workers must be in tune with their internal and external barriers to meet their standards and the client’s standards in the engagement, intervention, and evaluation process with the client.  Having our barriers intact it helps us reframe from any setbacks of miscommunication or misinterpretation that the client may feel.

           In the case of Helen, she asks the intern how old she is, this to me is that Helen is questioning if the intern can handle all of this information that Helen is discussing with her, meaning is the intern intelligent enough or emotionally enough to handle this situation because she seems young.  The intern struggles with this engagement process with Helen, as it is can be countertransference’s, trust issues, that Helen is feeling (Geller, 2012).  Helen shared with the intern that it was the intern’s idea for Helen son Alec to move into his grandmother’s home, and saying it is the interns fault for telling her to have Alec move in there ( Laureate Education (Producer),, 2013c).  Now Helen is upset because Alec has stooled from his grandmother and she doesn’t want the police involved (Plummer, 1204a).   According to the NASW (2016) that social workers are required to report issues to authorities when it is in harms of another, therefor the intern ethically should report these issues of Alec steeling from Magda to the correct authorizes (NASW, 2016).

           The intern is defensive toward Helen saying she didn’t tell her to have Alec move in with Magda.  What the intern should have done was trusted in the system and shared with Helen that sorry that she feels that way and that this is a challenging time for her and her family and begin to work through those challenges.  The intern should or could have also turned to the supervisor staff because of being a student and had the supervisor sit in on the conversation with her and Helen to help guide the session and treatment plan along (Geller, 2012).  I feel that the intern could have empowered Helen more in this situation, feeling that Helen and the intern didn’t start off on a good rapport that this is a challenging case, finding those boundaries and overcoming them barriers will help build a better rapport with the intern and Helen (McTighe, 2011).

References

Laureate Education (Producer),. (2013c). Petrakis family: Episode 3 [Video file].Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Geller, S. M. (2012). Challenges to therapeutic presence. In Therapeutic presence: A mindful approach to effective therapy . Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 143-159.

RESPONSE 2

Respond to at least two colleagues who suggested a different strategy and suggest different approaches to working with Helen.

Colleague 1: Tiffany

As Helen’s social worker I would remind Helen that I am here to help her and try to change her quality of life to be better. I would ask Helen how could I assist her better and reassure Helen I am not in anyway informing her what to do but only suggesting ideas that may help her. I would advise Helen she is in control of what decisions she makes and I will support her decision. I would also talk with my supervisor to get her advice on how to handle this case and get reassured for my own well-being since I am an intern.

The accusations Helen is making towards her social worker would make me feel uncomfortable and I would be upset. I would feel I was to blame for things not working out with the grandmother and grandson. I would be very careful what I suggested in the future with this client. I would explain to her I can only suggest or present ideas and share them with you, an idea would be to brainstorm together for ideas and let Helen pick the idea she likes best to try. I would support her decision and assit her as much as possible with the idea she chooses. I think brain storming would work good with Helen that way there can be a lot of ideas presented and Helen can be in control of picking the solution that best works for her. That way she can’t get angry at the social worker if the idea does not work, because she choose the idea out of other ideas presented in the brainstorming. I would maintain a professional manner by not arguing with the client and not jump into a defensive mode towards the client. I would keep my tone level and at a non threating level. 

I have always learned the less you share of your personal life with your clients the better off you are. No one experiences problems the same in life. A good outcome for one does not mean it will be for another person, all individuals are different and we experience things different and cope different. Working with Helen I would find out her boundaries, I would ask Helen her thoughts on different topics and how she feels about certain topics or ideas. I would ask her about her fears, her goals what she wants to accomplish by a certain length of time. I would respect her boundaries and I would let her know I will respect them. Helen distributes a type A personality which means she wants to be in charge or feels she has to be in charge. I would work a plan out that would let Helen feel she is in charge of her decisions or choices, but assist her by brainstorming together ideas about to come up with a solution to her problems. 

References 

Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen, S. M. (Eds.). (2014a). Sessions: case histories. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader].

The Petrakis Family (pp. 20–22)

Colleague 2: Christine

As Helen’s social worker I would remind Helen that I am here to help her and try to change her quality of life to be better. I would ask Helen how could I assist her better and reassure Helen I am not in anyway informing her what to do but only suggesting ideas that may help her. I would advise Helen she is in control of what decisions she makes and I will support her decision. I would also talk with my supervisor to get her advice on how to handle this case and get reassured for my own well-being since I am an intern.

The accusations Helen is making towards her social worker would make me feel uncomfortable and I would be upset. I would feel I was to blame for things not working out with the grandmother and grandson. I would be very careful what I suggested in the future with this client. I would explain to her I can only suggest or present ideas and share them with you, an idea would be to brainstorm together for ideas and let Helen pick the idea she likes best to try. I would support her decision and assit her as much as possible with the idea she chooses. I think brain storming would work good with Helen that way there can be a lot of ideas presented and Helen can be in control of picking the solution that best works for her. That way she can’t get angry at the social worker if the idea does not work, because she choose the idea out of other ideas presented in the brainstorming. I would maintain a professional manner by not arguing with the client and not jump into a defensive mode towards the client. I would keep my tone level and at a non threating level. 

I have always learned the less you share of your personal life with your clients the better off you are. No one experiences problems the same in life. A good outcome for one does not mean it will be for another person, all individuals are different and we experience things different and cope different. Working with Helen I would find out her boundaries, I would ask Helen her thoughts on different topics and how she feels about certain topics or ideas. I would ask her about her fears, her goals what she wants to accomplish by a certain length of time. I would respect her boundaries and I would let her know I will respect them. Helen distributes a type A personality which means she wants to be in charge or feels she has to be in charge. I would work a plan out that would let Helen feel she is in charge of her decisions or choices, but assist her by brainstorming together ideas about to come up with a solution to her problems. 

References 

Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen, S. M. (Eds.). (2014a). Sessions: case histories. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader].

The Petrakis Family (pp. 20–22)

***Each response needs to be ½ page or more***

***Please write the response as if you are talking to the colleague***