Consider
for Just a Moment
“What
kind of Social Worker do I need to be for this client today?” 1,2
“Can I be the kind of Social
Worker this client needs?”
“Is this a person who really
needs me?”
“Why is this person really
here to see me today?”
“Can I help this person?
“How
far would I go to leverage this person into treatment?”
“How do
I get rid of the clutter in my mind?”
What you can now learn to process more consciously
before beginning your conversation with your client will help you be in a liminal state with this person. Liminal is that special place in which you can suspend judgment
just long enough to lean into a conversation with a client: to listen, and try
to understand and make sense of their problems through their cultural and
ethnic perceptions and world-view of their experiences (weltanschauung).
Think about what skills you will need to acquire in
order to not judge clients, assess, or diagnostically evaluate them prematurely. “The biggest mistake was of leaping to a
conclusion early and then seeing what I expected to see. Expectations can fog
your vision.”3
The task is to understand, which begins with listening, first and
foremost. We all tend to learn quickly
that this is a very formidable assignment.4
An objective is to seek that exponential place in which you can reduce your emotional defenses to
facilitate a move to a liminal state. This is an effort to
reduce personal “blind spots” of outdated beliefs and attitudes, stereotypes,
biases, misguided experiences, and parts of your world-view no longer necessary
to retain at this stage in your training, education, and personal life cycle.
The goal is to seek Being in the Moment through the Buddhist term Smriti;
the process in which
you can reduce the attention to details of the past yet undone, and to let go
of expectations of the future in order to become a mindful practitioner.5 A
major component of mindfulness is the need to understand and self- reflect in a
world often conflicted and difficult to predict or analyze.
“Mindful practitioners
attend in a nonjudgmental way to their own physical and mental processes during
ordinary, everyday tasks. This critical self-reflection enables us
to listen attentively to
clients distress, recognize our own errors, refine our technical skills, make
evidence-based decisions, and clarify our values so that we can act with
compassion, technical
competence, presence, and insight. Although mindfulness cannot be taught
explicitly, it can be modeled by mentors and cultivated in practitioners. As a
link between relationship-centered care and evidence-based practice,
mindfulness should be considered a characteristic of good clinical practice.” 6
It is helpful
to have experiences in your continuing education to help you more fully understand
yourself and your clients in order to take best care of them and yourself. These goals are not mutually exclusive. What may has been left out of your education
is the process for reaching these attainable goals. The programs we design are structured
for Social Workers such as you to engage deeply in this learning. We perceive
this as an important component of self-assessment.
To go from simple unawareness to recognition, from
uncertainty to options, from muddy waters to clear choices, are some of the
reflection-on-action skills that can be taught to and appreciated by Social
Workers at all degrees of experience.7 It is our intention to adhere
to the adult education principles of making your learning environment safe and
secure, your experiences with clients somewhat defused of the discomfort, anxiety,
and loss associated in their care, and providing mentors skilled in their craft
to facilitate your travel; a journey to be engaged in all of your days as
Social Workers.
Come, it is time to begin. Your client is waiting.
*Possible alternate questions to consider:
“Do I really want to see this person?”
"What is on my mind now?"
“How can I best attempt to understand my
client’s worries and concerns?
"How do I know I am ready to be fully
present with this client?"
"If not, what do I need to discover or
learn about myself so I can be there for the client?"
“What skills and knowledge am I lacking to be
the best Social Worker I can be right now?”
One can
visualize in this teaching exercise a wide variety of questions, in various
combinations, that can be structured to meet the specific educational needs of
individual here today; as we learn to create a mindfulness-based relationship
with our clients as part of self-assessment.8
Alan W. Wolkenstein, MSW, LCSW
Clinical Professor of Family Medicine (Ret.)
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public
Health
Senior Educator: Wolkenstein and Associates
Mequon, Wisconsin
Mequon, Wisconsin
References
1. Balint M. The Doctor, His Patient
and the Illness. London: Pitman Publishing Company; 1957.
2. Johnson AH. The Balint Movement in America.
Family Medicine. 2001; 33(3): 174-177.
3. Kirk EP. The Fog of Expectation.
BMJ. 2004; 329(7480); 1495.
4. Loxterkamp D. A Change Will Do You
Good. Annals of Family Medicine. 2009; 7(3): 261-263.
5. Watts A. This is It, and Other
Essays on Zen and Spiritual Experiences. NY: Vantage Books;1960.
6. Epstein R. Mindful Practice.
1999;282(9)833-839.
7. Wolkenstein AS and Wolkenstein ME.
Reflective Learning Through Psychosocial Chart Reviews. Annals of Behavioral
Science and Medical Education.2009; 14(2): 62-64.
8. Marnocha M. What Truly Matters: Relationships
and Primary Care. Annals of Family Medicine.2009; 7 (3):196-97.
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