“Quotes that Stuck”

Mike Bell

Client Determination

• “You’re the first person who’s asked Mike what he wants and not just come here and told us what to do” (Shulman, 2011, p. 251).

Changing negative stereotypes

• The first client I met with my placement supervisor on my first practicum thanked my supervisor after our two sessions and explained how she had envisioned this ‘fluffy’ social worker with her ‘head in the clouds’ who the client would not have been able to relate to. She was thankful that my supervisor was level-headed, grounded and “real” as she put it. I was pleased to hear this as I consider myself similarly level-headed!

“Getting in the Pit”• The second client I met with my supervisor in my first practicum had many

areas of her life that one could easily see could improve. My supervisor addressed each area and offered different potential solutions of the client. The client however was “sitting on the fence” and was not ready to make a decision. My supervisor respected this client’s right to self determination and informed her to contact her if she had come to a decision.

• After the meeting, I spoke to my supervisor and expressed how pleased I was to see that she didn’t fight tooth and nail to convince the client of an action or swoop in and just do what she felt was appropriate, as many social workers I had worked under did regularly. My supervisor referred to this as “getting into the pit” with the client, which she refuses to do as it disempowers the client, takes the client’s ownership or responsibility over their situation away as well often leads to burnout with the worker. I like this expression and will apply it to my practice.

Helping people help themselves

• “Counselors should not do for clients what clients can and should do for themselves” (Shebib, 2011, p. 222).

Genuineness

• “An essential skill relates to the group leader’s ability to present himself or herself to the member as a “real” human being” (Shulman, 2012, p. 461).

• This quote spoke to me as it is a trait I put lots of stock in and I think I have myself. Holding yourself as the higher than thou professional gets you no where with clients in my opinion.

Next Step

• “There is always a next step” (Shulman, 2012, p. 465).

• I like this quote as it has a very ‘can-do’ flavour to it and I think there is always a next step (even if the next step is acceptance).

Structure as Freedom

• “…a dichotomy often suggested between ‘structure’ versus ‘freedom’ is a false one and that, in fact, structure can create freedom” (Shulman, 2012, p. 389).

• This quote jumped out at me as I really agree with it. I like structure and find it does offer my client(s) and me the freedom to really focus on the task at hand.

Strengths-Based

• “The helping professions have become very good at recognizing the strengths in our clients; however, we are not quite as good at seeing them in colleagues and the systems we work in” (Shulman, 2012, p. 425).

• This quote resonated with me and, reviewing it now, I find myself thinking of Tzeporah Berman’s book and how I enjoyed it so much because she was able to see the positives and strengths even in her adversaries and problems.

Affect

• “Without affect there is no investment” (Shulman, 2012, p. 468).

• To me, this quote speaks to how you have to work with both your head and your heart. As Shulman (2012) points out here, one needs their heart and affect, but as Collier (2007) argues one must ensure they are not being a headless heart. It’s striking that balance.

‘Take what you like, leave the rest!’

• “A practitioner can use what he or she likes from a good theory without adopting it whole” (Shulman, 2012, p. 536).

• I spoke of this idea when reflecting on my models of practice papers and how I was slowly combining bites and pieces from each model that fit with me.

Mike’s Social Work Motto

“Seek to understand.”

This simple sentence is one that I constantly come back to when thinking about social problems, clinical problems or pretty well any problem involving humans. I feel that it encapsulates my social work practice.

Diagnosis / Classification

“While classification is generally regarded as a scientific and clinical tool, we should remember that all people continually use some form of classification in their daily lives. The people we meet, the day’s weather, and other everyday experiences are all put into groups on the basis of similarities to past experiences or other ways of classifying events. Classification is a way of trying to understand and to learn from experience. Without a classification system, everything that happens to us would be unique. We could not prepare for the future in any way” (Sarason & Sarason, 2002, p. 88).This quote really summed up what I think about diagnoses and how they can help us in clinical practice.

Therapeutic Relationship

“ I will always just come back to the relationship” (S. Kane, personal communication, September 10, 2013).

My clinical supervisor was describing to me how she will just attend to her client, actively listen and fall back on their relationship if and when her modality doesn’t fit the interview at any given moment. This really made sense to me and I have tried to adopt it into my practice.

Statement of Ethical Principles

• “Social workers have a responsibility to challenge negative discrimination on the basis of characteristics such as ability, age, culture, gender or sex, marital status, socio-economic status, political opinions, skin colour, racial or other physical characteristics, sexual orientation, or spiritual beliefs” (International Federation of Social Worker, 2014, para. 24).

Acknowledgement

• “It’s acknowledgement, that’s what it is! This is the first time that I’ve put my finger on it. It’s acknowledgement! It is Cheryl’s acknowledgement of me that’s been so bewildering! I’ve never had anything like this before, and I don’t know how to take it. I really don’t know how to take it” (White, 2007, p. 142).

• This excerpt is of a client explaining what was different about Cheryl (his therapist) compared to past therapists. To me this stands as an example of how often the most basic “tools” or “strategies” are all that is needed: basic human to human connection.

Western Social and Cultural Forces• “These contemporary Western social and cultural forces that promote

isolated, single-voiced identities actually provide the context that generates many of the problems for which people seek therapy” (White, 2007, p. 137).

• I feel there is a lot of truth to this. I am not saying that I totally discount the biomedical/pathological side of mental health issues and mental illness: it is definitely there and needs to be acknowledged and addressed.

• Still, I think with many milder mental health concerns , I do believe that often the origins of these problems come from the societies we create and live in.

• Certain people are more prone to these conditions based on their family history of mental health concerns and their mental fortitude and resilience, but I do not think we can discount the contextual influence .

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results” (Sir Winston Churchill as cited in Duncan, 2010, p. 65).

“We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems” (Mark Twain as cited in Duncan, 2010, p. 96).

“Forget about style; worry about results” (Bobby Orr as cited in Duncan, 2010, p. 116).

“The alliance is your craft” (Duncan, 2010, p. 132).

References• Duncan, B. L. (2010). On Becoming a Better Therapist. Washington,

DC: American Psychological Association.• International Federation of Social Workers. (2014). Statement of

Ethical Principles. Retrieved from http://ifsw.org/policies/statement-of-ethical-principles/

• Sarason, B. & Sarason, I. (2002). Abnormal Psychology: the Problem of Maladaptive Behaviour. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall.

• Shebib, B. (2011). Choices: Interviewing and Counselling Skills for Canadians. Toronto, ON: Pearson Prentice Hall.

• Shulman, L. (2012). The Skills of Helping Individuals, Families, Groups, and Communities. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole: Cengage Learning.

• White, M. (2007). Maps of Narrative Practice. New York, NY: Norton.