The Creation of Meaning in Clinical Social Work

The Creation of Meaning in Clinical Social Work PDF Author: Carolyn Saari
Publisher: Guilford Press
ISBN: 9780898627725
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Reflecting the trend of constructivist thinking across the sciences, this volume provides a framework for integrating newer ideas with the traditional practice of clinical social work. Its underlying assumptions are that construction of a mutual meaning system between therapist and client is essential for treatment, and that identity complexity is essential to healthy adaptation. Relating to former notions of process and content in treatment, this volume by Carolyn Saari illuminates these concepts. In her previous book, Clinical Social Work Treatment: How Does It Work?, Saari demonstrated the importance of a shared meaning system in treatment. In this significant new work, she offers a detailed examination of the manner in which such meaning is constructed. She also shows how this theory more adequately bridges the gaps between the intrapsychic and the interpersonal as well as between the individual and the social structure. As she explains in her introduction: ...the adaptive point of view has provided an inadequate foundation for clinical social work theory. A theory of meaning in which psychological health is indicated by a constructed personal meaning system (or identity) that is highly differentiated, articulated, and integrated is proposed to take the place of conceptualizations about adaptation. This theory of meaning, which includes the idea that what the child internalizes is his or her experiences with the world, is believed to hold more utility for understanding the psychological effects of phenomena such as racism and social oppression. In an intellectual climate involving much heated debate between treatment methodologies based upon scientific empiricism and those based on hermeneutics, Saari argues that clinical theory must rely on both a causal, developmental science and on a theory of meaning that involves the narrative construction of the possible. Her work lays the foundation for sorting out the aspects of clinical theory that involve each of these ways of thinking, and for exploring their interaction. Providing the basis for a deeper understanding of the complexities of human functioning and clinical practice, this volume is an enlightening guide for advanced graduate students and an invaluable resource for practicing clinicians.

The Creation of Meaning in Clinical Social Work

The Creation of Meaning in Clinical Social Work PDF Author: Carolyn Saari
Publisher: Guilford Press
ISBN: 9780898627725
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Get Book Here

Book Description
Reflecting the trend of constructivist thinking across the sciences, this volume provides a framework for integrating newer ideas with the traditional practice of clinical social work. Its underlying assumptions are that construction of a mutual meaning system between therapist and client is essential for treatment, and that identity complexity is essential to healthy adaptation. Relating to former notions of process and content in treatment, this volume by Carolyn Saari illuminates these concepts. In her previous book, Clinical Social Work Treatment: How Does It Work?, Saari demonstrated the importance of a shared meaning system in treatment. In this significant new work, she offers a detailed examination of the manner in which such meaning is constructed. She also shows how this theory more adequately bridges the gaps between the intrapsychic and the interpersonal as well as between the individual and the social structure. As she explains in her introduction: ...the adaptive point of view has provided an inadequate foundation for clinical social work theory. A theory of meaning in which psychological health is indicated by a constructed personal meaning system (or identity) that is highly differentiated, articulated, and integrated is proposed to take the place of conceptualizations about adaptation. This theory of meaning, which includes the idea that what the child internalizes is his or her experiences with the world, is believed to hold more utility for understanding the psychological effects of phenomena such as racism and social oppression. In an intellectual climate involving much heated debate between treatment methodologies based upon scientific empiricism and those based on hermeneutics, Saari argues that clinical theory must rely on both a causal, developmental science and on a theory of meaning that involves the narrative construction of the possible. Her work lays the foundation for sorting out the aspects of clinical theory that involve each of these ways of thinking, and for exploring their interaction. Providing the basis for a deeper understanding of the complexities of human functioning and clinical practice, this volume is an enlightening guide for advanced graduate students and an invaluable resource for practicing clinicians.

Clinical Social Work Practice

Clinical Social Work Practice PDF Author: Sharon B. Berlin
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description
Social workers have been using cognitive methods of intervention for decades. They have borrowed elements of cognitive therapy to augment work undertaken with particular clients and have followed cognitive therapy protocols more completely when client problems seem to call for it. However many uses of cognitive therapy in social work settings require difficult, on-the-spot juggling. In these cases, it is the social worker's job to relate cognitive therapy's internally focused explanations and interventions to the client's particular problems and situations-problems and situations that are inescapably linked to environmental demands and deprivations. Clinical Social Work Practice presents a comprehensive cognitive perspective on social work clinical practice. It is a perspective that bridges an internal focus on how people think about themselves--traditionally, cognitive psychology's realm--with a look outward to consider the kinds of meaning-making options their environments afford. In going beyond the usual cursory acknowledgement of larger environmental influences on personal problems, this book not only offers a framework that is likely to be welcomed by social workers, it will also have strong appeal to a full range of other helping professions who recognize this gap in theories of therapy. The theoretical grounding for this cognitive-integrative approach is drawn from a range of neurological, social, psychological, and social work theories. It is laid out carefully and clearly and balanced with a generous offering of detailed clinical examples and practice guidelines. It is a perfect introduction to cognitive therapy for both social work students in advanced social work practice courses and practicing social work therapists.

Clinical Social Work

Clinical Social Work PDF Author: Rachelle A. Dorfman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135063044
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
Published in 1996, Clinical Social Work is a valuable contribution to the field of Psychiatry/Clinical Psychology.

Narrative Theory in Clinical Social Work Practice

Narrative Theory in Clinical Social Work Practice PDF Author: John P. McTighe
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319707876
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
This theory-to-practice guide offers mental health practitioners a powerful narrative-based approach to working with clients in clinical practice. It opens with a primer on contemporary narrative theory and offers a robust framework based on the art and techniques of listening for deeper, more meaningful understanding and intervention. Chapters expand on these foundational concepts by applying them to a diverse range of populations and issues, among them race and ethnicity, human sexuality, immigration, and the experience of trauma, grief, and loss. The author’s engaging voice, thoughtful pedagogical style, and extensive use of examples and exercises also work together to inform the reader’s own narrative of growth and self-knowledge. Included in the coverage:• Encountering the self, encountering the other: narratives of race and ethnicity.• Surviving together: individual and communal narratives in the wake of tragedy.• Spiritual stories: exploring ultimate meaning in social work practice.• Sexual stories: narratives of sexual identity, gender, and sexual development.• Leaving home, finding home: narrative practice with immigrant populations.• Moving on: narrative perspectives on grief and loss. Narrative Theory in Clinical Social Work Practice is geared toward students as well as seasoned social workers, and professionals and practitioners in related clinical fields interested in informing their work with a narrative approach.

Person-Environment Practice

Person-Environment Practice PDF Author: Susan P. Kemp
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 9780202367842
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
The primary audience for Person-Environment Practice is the great majority of social workers whose helping efforts extend to individuals, families, groups, and neighborhoods. Its primary aim is to examine each of these levels critically, through the prism of "environment," and to offer practical suggestions for both assessment and intervention.

Paradigms of Clinical Social Work

Paradigms of Clinical Social Work PDF Author: Rachelle A. Dorfman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000144283
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
This book provokes sociological questions about the expanding number of paradigms of clinical social work and the application of clinical theory. It enhances clinical social workers' ability to make sense of people's lives so that we may help them in their struggles.

Advanced Clinical Social Work Practice

Advanced Clinical Social Work Practice PDF Author: Eda Goldstein
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231143192
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Advanced Clinical Social Work Practice traces the development of relational ideas from their origin in object relations and self psychology to their evolution in current relational, intersubjectivity, and attachment theory. Relational treatment emphasizes openness and collaboration between client and therapist, mutual impact, the client's subjectivity, and the therapist's empathy, genuineness, and use of the self in therapeutic interaction. The approach treats the relationship and dialogue between client and therapist as crucial to the change process and shows how the therapeutic relationship can be used to help clients and therapists bridge differences, examine similarities, overcome impasses, and manage enactments. The relational emphasis on the subjective experience of both client and therapist is beautifully illustrated throughout this book as the authors draw from their clinical work with clients from diverse backgrounds, including gay and lesbian clients, immigrants, and clients of color. They demonstrate how relational principles and techniques can be applied to multiple problems in social work practice& mdash;for example, life crises and transitions, physical and sexual abuse, mental disorders, drug addiction, and the loss of a loved one. The authors also discuss the integration of relational constructs in short-term treatment and with families and groups. This volume opens with a historical perspective on the role of relational thinking in social work and the evolution of relational theory. It presents an overview of the key concepts in relational theory and its application throughout the treatment process with diverse clients and in different practice modalities. The book concludes with a discussion of the challenges in learning and teaching new theoretical and practice paradigms, particularly in creating a more mutual exchange in the classroom and during supervision.

Community Practice

Community Practice PDF Author: David A. Hardcastle
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199889678
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 454

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Book Description
For almost two decades, Community Practice has been a definitive text for social workers, community practitioners, and students eager to help individuals contribute to and use community resources or work to change oppressive community structures. In this third edition, a wealth of new charts and cases spotlight the linkages between theoretical orientations and practical skills, with an enhanced emphasis on the inherently political nature of social work and community practice. Boxes, examples, and exercises illustrate the range of skills and strategies available to savvy community practitioners in the 21st century, including networking, marketing and staging, political advocacy, and leveraging information and communication technologies. Other features include: - New material on community practice ethics, critical practice skills, community assessment and assets inventory and mapping, social problem analysis, and applying community ractice skills to casework practice - Consideration of post-9/11 community challenges - Discussion on the changing ethnic composition of America and what this means for practitioners - An exploration of a vastly changed political landscape following the election of President Obama, the Great Recession, the rise of the Tea Party, and the increasing political and corporate use of pseudo-grassroots endeavors - A completely revamped instructor's manual available online at www.oup.com/us/communitypractice This fully revised classic text provides a comprehensive and integrated overview of the community theory and skills fundamental to all areas of social work practice. Broad in scope and intensive in analysis, it is suitable for undergraduate as well as graduate study. Community Practice offers students and practitioners the tools necessary to promote the welfare of individuals and communities by tapping into the ecological foundations of community and social work practice.

Human Behavior Theory

Human Behavior Theory PDF Author: Roberta Greene
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135132750X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 487

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Book Description
In recent years, advocates for civil rights for minorities, women, and gays and lesbians have become more informed consumers of mental health services. As a result, social work practitioners need to prepare themselves to serve diverse constituencies for who previously held behavioral and cultural assumptions have proven not to be universally applicable. The purpose of Greene's book is to help students and practitioners better understand how social workers have used human behavior theories to more competently address variations in group and community membership within the social worker-client encounter. The book's approach is largely thematic. Most of the chapters explore how particular assumptions of a human behavior theory--psychoanalytic theory, psychodynamic/ego psychology theory, systems theory, behavioral theory, symbolic interaction theory, feminist theory, constructionist theory, small group theory, and an ecological perspective --have been used to answer issues related to cultural diversity. The challenges and limitations of each theory's applications across varying client constituencies are discussed throughout. What sorts of new conceptual issues for the practitioner of family services are raised in work with minority families, for example, or with lesbian families? How does a specific theory help, or not help, in group-specific interventions and evaluations? Intended as a companion volume to the widely adopted human behavior text by Greene and Ephross, Greene's new book fills the need for a wide, synthetic reading of the recent literature.

The Neuropsychodynamic Treatment of Self-Deficits

The Neuropsychodynamic Treatment of Self-Deficits PDF Author: Joseph Palombo
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315390183
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
The Neuropsychodynamic Treatment of Self-Deficits examines how to work psychoanalytically with patients to address the problems that result from neuropsychological impairments, exploring the latest advances in understanding and treatment, while also addressing the concerns that clinicians may have in providing treatment. Patients with disorders such as ADHD, dyslexia, and executive function disorders can often feel shame, and develop defenses as a result of their disorders. These defenses can then become overgeneralized and lead to future dysfunctional feelings, thoughts and behaviors. For therapists, the challenge is to find ways of responding to these patients and to help them deal with their issues at the level of the multiple domains of self-experience, rather than at the single level of their intrapsychic dynamics. This book proposes a new neuropsychodynamic perspective that is bound together by a metatheory, deriving from dynamic systems theory. Joseph Palombo breaks new ground in his consistent application of non-linear dynamic systems theory and a levels-of-analysis perspective. The framework suggested conceives of the therapeutic process as a collaborative effort in which each member of the dyad makes a unique contribution to the process. Change agents that permit patients to benefit from therapeutic interventions include the relationship between patient and therapist, the understanding that emerges from the identification of the self-deficits, and the proactive engagement of the patient’s sense of agency. The great advantage of Palombo’s framework is that it permits the integration of a broad set of domains of experience that include the neuropsychological, the introspective, and the interpersonal. This book will allow the reader to become familiar with the types of patients that have neuropsychological deficits, providing an understanding of the psychodynamics of these conditions and enabling better preparedness to address psychological needs. More important, Palombo also makes the underlying case that an understanding of brain function is critical to any assistance such patients may need. Covering work with children, adolescents, and adults, The Neuropsychodynamic Treatment of Self-Deficits is the first book to offer a guide to understanding and working with patients with a range of neuropsychological disorders from a broadly psychoanalytic perspective. It will appeal to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and clinical psychologists, as well as clinical social workers, family therapists, and mental health nurses.