March is Social Work Month, a time to honor and celebrate the countless contributions that Social Workers make to improving the mental health, wellbeing, and quality of life for diverse populations in a wide range of practice settings. Social Workers are consummate professionals, well versed in a myriad of skills that promote intrapsychic and inter-personal growth and healing, as well as advocating for individuals and communities who are disempowered, disenfranchised, or lacking in resources. In this blog, I’d like to focus on Social Workers’ contributions as therapists, and the healing gifts they provide.

Social Workers consider therapy a “gift” and a proactive sign of self-compassion and courage. It’s a healthy statement about one’s desire to learn, grow, and heal.  We view our clients holistically: putting them in a bio-psycho-social, spiritual lens. We recognize the impact that internal, interpersonal, environmental and cultural influences have on our clients’ cognitions, emotions, somatic experiences and behavioral choices.  We strive to be trauma-informed and strengths-based, recognizing that it is more important to ask, “What happened to this person?” rather than asking “What's wrong with this person?”

For Social Workers, therapy includes a deep respect for client self-determination. We understand that the agenda for therapy as well as the pacing of the work is dictated by the client. It is their journey.  We provide the psychoeducation, hope, resources, comfort, and support, while understanding that the extent to which clients integrate insights, grow, and change is completely up to them. We don’t own their successes, and we don't own their relapses.  

The gifts you contribute have helped to make the world a better and more healed place!

We are compassionate witnesses to our clients’ pain narratives, and we understand that it is the unconditional, safe holding space that we offer clients, our modeling of non-judgment and compassion that allows clients to be emotionally vulnerable and courageous.  We believe in the power of secure attachment and the necessity of bringing hope into every session.

Social Workers are also gifted at working collaboratively with other mental health and medical providers. We can advocate on behalf of our clients while teaching them to advocate effectively for themselves. We are often the ones who encourage clients to follow through with their primary care physicians, whether it’s to pursue the need for medication, rule out organic cause for somatic symptoms, or catch up on the wellness care they have been neglecting.

I have been a Social Worker for more than 40 years and I continue to be incredibly proud of my profession, and extremely impressed with the talented, creative colleagues I have the pleasure of teaching and learning from. March should not be the only time we acknowledge and celebrate those wonderful professionals.  To my Social Work friends and colleagues, hold your heads up high and know that the gifts you contribute have helped to make the world a better and more healed place!

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Clinicians Tips

If someone needs to better understand the value of therapy and forging a therapeutic relationship with a Social Worker, here are some things to keep in mind:

• Getting outside support breaks the cycle of handling pain alone
• Therapy helps you see yourself and your situation from a different angle.
• Getting outside support breaks the cycle of secrecy and shame
• Therapy gives you the "cheerleader" you deserve  
• Social Workers are well versed in a myriad of treatment modalities
• Social Workers are extremely effective in a wide range of practice settings
• Seeing a Social Worker can feel less stigmatizing and is more affordable than seeing a psychiatrist.
• Social Workers understand and are sensitive to the various influences and impact of life events, environment, culture, race, gender, religion, and ethnicity.

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