Social Work and Reflective Communication

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Social Work and Reflective Communication

• LECTURE 6 - PART ONE
• Basic interpersonal communication skills (Part
  Two)
• Making sense of whats happening
• Slides prepared by Dr Trish McNamara

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Summarising

• Linking together the islands of information

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Islands of information

• Experience
• Behaviour
• Feelings

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Summarising often links a series of paraphrases
connecting the content and the feelings behind
the words.
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Example of summarising at conclusion of an
initial interview

• Practitioner I think thats all we can cover
  today. Weve looked at your childhood, your going
  in and out of hospital, your current living
  situation and how you are coping right now. We
  can talk more when we meet again next week. Does
  that sound all right?
• Service user Yes thats fine.
• Trevithick (2000) p. 97

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Reflection versus interpretation

• Both aim to help the service user make sense of
  what is happening
• Both aim to move things forward
• Reflection tends to stay tentative, neutral and
  curious to what is perceived
• An interpretation is usually a direct expression
  of professional opinion

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Reflection of feeling

• Service user I need to work to support myself
  through this course but Im just not keeping up
  with the workload.
• .

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Reflection of feeling

• Service user I need to work to support myself
  through this course but Im just not keeping up
  with the workload.
• Worker It sounds as though your competing
  commitments have become quite a burden so much
  so that youre feeling overwhelmed.

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Interpretation/opinion

• Service user Ive been living with my housemate
  for two years now and weve become very close .
  Weve shared a lot together but now Im feeling
  just so frustrated with her untidiness! I know I
  need to talk with her about this but Im scared
  Ill hurt her feelings and spoil our
  relationship

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Interpretation/opinion

• Service user Ive been living with my housemate
  for two years now and weve become very close .
  Weve shared a lot together but now Im feeling
  just so frustrated with her untidiness! I know I
  need to talk with her about this but Im scared
  Ill hurt her feelings and spoil our
  relationship
• Worker Your fear of losing this special
  relationship with your housemate is so powerful
  that it gets in the way of your expressing your
  need for an ordered living space.

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Focusing

• Sticking to the point and purpose of the
  interview
• Prompting
• Probing
• Allowing and using silence
• Self disclosure
• Trevithick (2000) pp.99-107

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Distractions

• Expressions of intense emotion
• Sidetracking
• Competing real needs
• Moving too fast
• No time for reflection
• Worker overload
• Worker uncertainty

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Probing

• Minimal encouragers to talk Mmm/Nods etc
• Open question as probe
• Can you tell me a little more about that?
• Paraphrasing with open question attached
• You seem to be very angry with your Dad. Can
  you tell me what thats about?
• Summarising with open question attached
• We seem to have covered a lot of ground today but
  I get the feeling that theres still more on
  your mind
• Asking more in depth questions

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Immediacy

• Being in the moment with the client
• Staying in the clients tense (past, present ,
  future
• Moving more into the present
• Moving more into the you-I zone

Ivey and Ivey, 2003, p.189
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Self disclosure in personal relationships

• Catharsis getting it off my chest
• Self-clarification dealing with personal
  confusion
• Self-validation I think I did the right thing
• Reciprocity - I really like you
• Impression management trying to build trust
• Relationship maintenance and enhancement
  -intimacy
• Control Ive been head-hunted
• Adler and Rodman (2003) p. 205

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Self disclosure in professional relationships

• Usually only used when service user and worker
  have an established relationship
• Must relate directly to the meeting the needs of
  the service user not the workers need to
  ventilate
• Is a strategic and minimalist skill
• Can be empowering and normalising

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Challenge

• Earn the right to challenge with reflective
  responding
• Help service users to confront themselves
• Dont talk down
• Use minimal muscle
• Avoid threatening voice and body language
• Leave the ultimate responsibility with the
  service user
• Do not overdo it
• Nelson-Jones (1990) pp135-136

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Confrontation

• Different behaviours that my warrant
  challenging
• Failure to own own problems
• Failure to define problems in solvable terms
• Faulty interpretations of critical experiences,
  behaviours and feelings
• Evasion distortions and game playing
• Failure to identify or understand the
  consequences of behaviour
• Hesitance or unwillingness ot act on new
  perspectives
• Egan 1990187

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Use of authority

• Core social work skill
• Manifests the power differential in helping
  relationships
• Is needed in areas such as child protection,
  family law, criminality, mental health risk etc.
• Duty of care can involve departure from usual
  rules of confidentiality

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Information giving

• A core social work skill
• Needs careful preparation and research
• Must be accurate
• Must fit the persons specific situation
• Must be congruent with context gender, class,
  race, ethnicity, culture, subculture

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Examples

• Professional knowledge base conceptual,
  research, practice wisdom etc.
• Agency programs own or in network
• Resource specific financial aid, housing,
  foster care, home help, rehabilitation etc.
• Legal issues child protection, family law,
  criminality etc.