My placement is very big on reflective practice (which I realise would be less the case if I was in a social work setting but I’m actually in a therapeutic setting.) There’s lots of positives about this, obviously.
But at times it can be quite difficult. For example, I came to supervision today with a few concerns that I wanted to raise about my placement at the moment. I’ve felt a bit demotivated recently. Partly this is because I have one client who is barely ever in the project and has currently left (can’t disclose more details) and we’re not yet sure will return. My placement should now be picking up pace and I should be getting my second client soon, but I have only had one actual keywork session with my first client and what I feel is fairly little client interaction of late. Although I see clients around the project to have little chats with, I haven’t had a much of a supporting role to any.
My supervisor turned it all back on me and asked me to think about the issues it brings up for me – am I too driven by getting things done, and isn’t the fact my client isn’t around, giving me things to think about and write about too. I meed to think more about my own issues and how I’m dealing with my feelings.
I’ve thought about this quite a lot. At the time I felt quite angry – I felt that my supervisor was absolving himself of any responsibility towards my placement (not just for the above issue but for others brought up too) – but then I thought, there is definitely some truth in the things he is saying. I can be very goal driven, wanting to be busy, efficient etc and perhaps don’t quite know what to do, when there isn’t anything to do.
On the other hand, as this is my placement, I would like to feel constantly challenged and as if I am developing and I feel that the placement can be incredibly slow, with days going by where I really don’t feel I have done anything at all. Today for example I took part in cleaning group with two clients, spent a few hours doing “room checks” – ie measuring the temperature of the water in each bedroom and checking the room for safety reasons. Did some uni work and then had supervision. When a lot of days are like this, I don’t feel I’m achieving too much.
But it is interesting. Partly because I think its teaches me a lot about me. Definitely one of the biggest things I have been struggling with is learning how to give up control – something so important when you’re working with people, as opposed to standard targets – learning the limit of your role and how to leave responsibility with the client.
On the other side, I do wonder how this would differ in a social work setting. As I’m in a therapeutic setting, there’s no abundance of case loads. We have 7 clients in the project at the moment – everyone keyworks with one or two- or is therapist to one or two, and it’s not about working through a time scale, it’s an ongoing process, of possibly years – so in many ways it feels a lot more relaxed, less pressure to get things done…which is counter to all the managerialism and target driven culture complaints that social workers often receive.
Anyway…that’s my rambling.
My suggestion is that you probably had to complete a practice learning agreement with your supervisor at the start of the placement. Are they providing you with the learning opportunities that they noted on the form, or do they have definite plans to do so by the end of the placement?
ReplyDeleteIf you have doubts about that, then you can talk to your university placement tutor about your concerns. It's true that residential work can have long quiet periods, but you still need to get enough to do to pass the placement.
Thank you v much for the response, it's tricky - the PLA shows that I will do keyword, run groups etc to fulfil my key roles and that is happening, it's just not taking up that much of my time so I don't feel I'm constantly working on things and I guess in contrast to what I hear from my peers on stat placement, I feel I'm doing little. But I'm definitely learning lots about communication , boundaries, mental health more broadly , just hard to get the balance!
ReplyDeleteThank you v much for the response, it's tricky - the PLA shows that I will do keyword, run groups etc to fulfil my key roles and that is happening, it's just not taking up that much of my time so I don't feel I'm constantly working on things and I guess in contrast to what I hear from my peers on stat placement, I feel I'm doing little. But I'm definitely learning lots about communication , boundaries, mental health more broadly , just hard to get the balance!
ReplyDeleteI don't understand what you mean when you differentiate between a social work setting and a therapeutic setting. If by therapy you mean psychotherapy (or mental health therapy) then I have to express this: therapy IS a social work setting. There is an entire branch of the social work profession -- clinical social work -- that focuses primarily on therapy and mental health.
ReplyDeleteI think your willingness to do some soul searching is a very good thing. Self awareness is extremely important, no matter what kind of social work you do. It does, however, sound like your supervisor is trying to put off your legitimate concerns under the guise of pushing you to be more self aware. Do you have a field liason? This would be someone at your university who is responsible for actually giving you a grade for your field placement. Maybe you could talk to this person?
You're totally right, it was lazy use of language. I think i was trying to explore the setting in terms of only therapists being employed there and the focus of the project is on therapy which makes it a naturally reflective setting with all the staff spending a lot of time exploring the reasons behind client's behaviour and indeed staff's- including staff therapy group etc.
ReplyDeleteMan I like your post and it is so good and I am definitely going to save it. One thing to say the In-depth analysis this article has is truly remarkable. No one goes that extra mile these days? Bravo!! Just one more tip you can get a Translator for your Worldwide Audience !!!
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