Social Work and Reflective Communication SWP22REC

1
Social Work and Reflective Communication SWP22REC

• Lecture Three
• Part Two
• Psychological forces underpinning social work
  practice
• Slides prepared by
• Dr Trish McNamara

2
Overview of recent lectures

• The science of communication
• Some key models
• Perception sensory, social, cognitive
• Communication across the life course
• Communication in a context of social diversity
• Influential perspectives on contemporary social
  work communication especially radical, feminist
  and constructivist perspectives

3
Next step

• We look at the the primary psychological forces
  impacting on social work theory and practice
• We consider crisis intervention , psychodynamic,
  cognitive-behavioural, client centered practice
• We journey back in time to look at the roots of
  these conceptual frames of reference as
  illustrated in clinical practice undertaken by
  some important pioneers

4
Three psychological forces important to social
work practice

• Humanism
• Behaviourism
• Psychoanalysis
• Pamela Trevithick (2005) Ch. 3

5
Psychoanalysis

• Any line of investigation, no matter what its
  direction, which recognises transference and
  resistance and takes them as the starting point.
• Sigmund Freud 1914 3

6
Key concepts

• The unconscious mental processes of which the
  subject is not aware
• Defence mechanism avoidance strategies
  (knowingly or unknowingly employed)
• Resistance times when clients cannot or will
  not talk freely
• Transference emotional responses to current
  relationships which originate in earlier
  unresolved or unconscious experiences
• Trevithick (2005) Appendix 5

7
Client centred approaches

• Based on the humanist belief that people have
  the capacity to grow and develop (self actualize)
• Non-directive, non-judgemental, accepting,
  warm, caring
• Generally attributed to the clinical work and
  writings of Carl Rogers
• See Trevithick (2005) Appendix 4

8
Key concepts

• Empathy Entering the private perceptual world
  of the other and becoming at home in it Rogers
  19752
• Unconditional positive regard acceptance,
  non-possessive warmth, caring, non-judgementality
  even if the social worker does not approve
  of/condone the clients actions
• Congruence genuineness, acting in a human/real
  way rather than hiding behind the mask of the
  professional
• Trevithick (2005) Appendix 4

9
Cognitive behavioural approaches

• Approaches to treatment and to helping
  people resolve specific problems using selected
  concepts and techniques from behaviourism, social
  learning theory, action therapy, functional
  school in social work, task centred treatment,
  and therapies based on cognitive models.
• Barker (1995) cited in Trevithick (2005) Appendix
  2

10
Key Concepts

• Focuses on
• Activating event or situation
• Beliefs or thoughts about the event or situation
  often irrational
• Emotional consequences often irrational
• Disputation the service user is taught to
  replace irrational beliefs with rational beliefs
• Ellis and Greiger (1977)

11
Gestalt Therapy

• The fundamental "formula" of Gestalt theory
  might be expressed in this way. There are wholes,
  the behaviour of which is not determined by that
  of their individual elements, but where the
  part-processes are themselves determined by the
  intrinsic nature of the whole. It is the hope of
  Gestalt theory to determine the nature of such
  wholes.
• Max Wertheimer (1924)

12
Key Concepts

• Thinking and problem solving are characterized by
  appropriate substantive organization,
  restructuring, and centring of the given
  ('insight') in the direction of the desired
  solution.
• In memory, structures based on associative
  connections are elaborated and differentiated
  according to a tendency for optimal organization.
• Cognitions which an individual cannot integrate
  lead to an experience of dissonance and to
  cognitive processes directed at reducing this
  dissonance.
• In a supra-individual whole such as a group,
  there is a tendency toward specific relationships
  in the interaction of strengths and needs.
• The epistemological orientation of Gestalt theory
  tends to be a kind of critical realism.
  Methodologically, the attempt is to achieve a
  meaningful integration of experimental and
  phenomenological procedures (the
  experimental-phenomenological method). Crucial
  phenomena are examined without reduction of
  experimental precision. Gestalt theory is to be
  understood not as a static scientific position,
  but as a paradigm that is continuing to develop.
  Through developments such as the theory of the
  self-organization of systems, it attains major
  significance for many of the current concerns of
  psychology.
• International Society for Gestalt Theory and its
  Applications (GTA) website

13
The Gloria Tapes

• Carl Rogers Client- centred Therapy
• Frederick (Fritz) Perls Gestalt Therapy
• Albert Ellis Rational Emotive Therapy