This was on top of their many other duties. We could extend this to say that consensus of opinion is power. This regular form is indicative of 'the way of doing X' being socially authorized and having a set of rules for the proper performance of X. In talking about it, it is notable how she brought up other times when Roberta was really aggressive towards her and others. Roberta asks for the document that Olivia is writing on, she takes it and nods as she reads through it, but she does so irritably and the atmosphere, which was better, starts to become tense again. They seem very aggressive, and very argumentative and sometimes patronizing From our point of view it seems like they are trying to pull the whole family apart. Still, the fact remains that despite informational and personal knowledge imbalances, the playing field of interpersonal power remains objectively level. When interviewed for the research around the time these encounters were happening Roberta admitted she deliberately covered the seating to prevent professionals from sitting down, orchestrating discomfort. However, they were not really aware of the primitively anxious nature of their surveillance, the splitting and framing of the mother as a dangerous bad object and the effect of this on the mother and baby. These are the suspended feelings social workers were not getting help to deal with, which because they remain repressed can easily be unconsciously acted out against service users in retaliatory ways and that ultimately traumatise workers and burn them out. Some parents were opposed to child protection involvement and this type of relationship was often hostile and remained that way. The requirement of an open-ness for social work is a political one in the sense that we must consider what to do about the configurations of power and subjectivity as they emerge within the social world. Within the literature on relationship-based practice (Ruch et al., Citation2018) there is recognition of the complexity of working with strong feelings and dealing with aggression and hostility (Cook, Citation2020; Smith, Citation2018). Olivia is good at asking Roberta to help her fill it in it is an attempt to involve her in the process and address power imbalances. It involves using empathic skills and self-knowledge on the part of the social worker (Trevithick, 2003 ). The effects of the Pindown system on the children who experienced it were traumatic and in some cases devastating. On the one hand, in order to transform the dependence of the other person into independence in a goal-oriented way and with the right means, but also in order not to let the relationship become a one-sided relationship of domination, which no longer corresponds to a basic partnership intention (cf. WebAs well as recognising power issues and imbalances, as the social worker l would also need to undertake a risk assessment. WebBoundaries are a defining feature of the social worker-client relationship. When such splitting occurs, relationships and the work suffers because sound assessments and decision-making require practitioners and the whole system to be in touch with as many dimensions of the emotional dynamics as possible and connected to the complexity of being human the good and the bad in us all (Cooper, Citation2018, p. 32). Lundy (2004), basing her views on the work of Moreau (1989), highlights the Some uses of power in social work not only demonstrate bad practice, but also are regarded as immoral and illegal. Roberta tries to get more information from the social worker about Susan but is given a vague reply that this new social worker will be coming to visit for a while. As Cook (Citation2020) argues, it is crucial that the risks arising from the complex emotions experienced on home visits and elsewhere are brought to awareness and made into a resource for insight and thoughtful practice. Similar close attention was given to observing and recording encounters between staff in the social work offices, soaking up atmospheres and organisational cultures. On closer inspection, according to Fiedler, it must quickly become clear that power does exist in social work. Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine. Practitioners were interviewed numerous times about the case, both in situ as events were unfolding and in formal research interviews. WebSocial workers often grapple with difficult professional and systemic power dynamics with both service users and the other professionals they encounter in multi-agency working. the chair of a case conference), position (e.g. Taken together they help us understand how "power is situated" in relation to certain people and in relation to particular contexts. After this meeting the professionals feared that Roberta would act out her anger on her daughter. By month 11 of the fieldwork the cumulative concerns about Roberta and her parenting resulted in the local authority trying to remove Amy from her. By 'physical' I mean the changes that a client can make to her or his landscape, e.g. WebPower and the ways in which social workers manage it are critical elements of the relationships between parents and social workers in child protection systems (Mandell, Tew (2006) A case study method was adopted by bringing together all the data on each case and this provided 30 very detailed case studies of long-term social work practice. Yet they also feel obliged to treat clients sensitively and as persons to try and cancel out the indignity of treating them as mere assessment objects. 100% just losing it. Drawing on a range of psycho-social theories, the paper adds to the literature on relationship-based practice by developing the concept of a hostile relationship. In her final research interview at the end of the research fieldwork (month 12) Roberta still had custody of her daughter but expressed how she regarded the attempt to remove her as a persecutory, punitive response. I am not. Following the work of Klein (Citation1946) there is evidence of psychological splitting occurring here, which is a defence mechanism for dealing with intense anxiety and other unbearable feelings. 2.3.1 Power in the self-image of the social worker Parental allies can provide a person who has lived experience of the child protection system, who can offer emotional containment, genuine understanding and enable parents to feel valued, not just bad objects (Tobias, Citation2013). Starting from the observation that power can firstly be exchanged with each other, secondly instrumentalized and thirdly structuralized, he leads over to the consideration that social work is thus constantly confronted with the questions of superior power, of power distribution and power control (cf. Webpower imbalance between the worker and the client resulting in client vulnerability and the undermining of freedom to consent. The social worker offers financial help while benefits are being sorted to take account of the babys arrival. It simply means they have a few more choices available to them that you can't afford. The paper draws on a range of psycho-social theories to show the complex dynamics of hostile relationships, the emotional demands they place on social care staff and service users and the impact on individual workers, teams and organisations of working with or avoiding such hostility (Holway, Citation2015). Knowing general causes, backgrounds and connections enable me to grasp and assess the client's problem situation, as well as his strengths, resources and limitations. As Thompson (2000) highlights, to assess the Susan has a powerful tone of helpfulness in her voice, really encouraging Roberta to accept help and conveying the genuineness of the offer. A visit that Susan and Olivia made together later in Month 6 was more typical of the pattern of relating that became established: Susan took the lead, knocked on the door and Roberta led us into the kitchen. There was a deep investment in not showing or fully feeling what was there deep down to be felt. Minson, (1980) 'Strategies for Socialists? Social workers always undertook joint visits and the 11 encounters we observed were characterised by anger, acrimony and frustration. Negative qualities of workers identified by parents were being judgmental, cold and uncaring, poor listeners, critical, and insincere. Most of this work was done in the second half of the year. - It only takes five minutes While transferential processes might be considered crucial in traditional psychotherapy, in CBT they are usually seen as interesting quasi-phenomena rather than material to be "analyzed" as if doing so would advance the therapy. This shows how even in long-term work where such children are regularly seen by practitioners, they can be kept at a physical and emotional distance (Ferguson, Citation2017; Winter et al., Citation2017). High profile cases where children were harmed or died despite extensive professional involvement have heightened awareness of what Laming (Citation2009) called resistant and deceitful parents. The emotional impact of hostile relationships paralysed workers and organisations, restricting their minds and actions, confining them in highly constricted spaces where they and parents effectively enacted pathological relationships, taunting and punishing one another. Thus, many people may have more wealth than you do but that doesn't mean they have more worth than you do. The parents attempted to take charge by interrupting, shouting and making accusations that social workers are untruthful, inconsistent, hypocritical and in cahoots with other professionals. As Rajchman (1985) points out "In his book on prisons, the historical constitution of the subject becomes a problem not simply about knowledge, but about power, and not simply about discourse but about practice." WebThe power imbalance can become exploitative when practitioners who are members of a dominant culture devalue the client's own values and perceptions. Despite her overt hostility to social care, Roberta consented to being part of the research. This lack of acknowledgment deepens one's despair. The social work team manager was deeply immersed in the case and had been on the end of Robertas rage from the start. So, bringing it full circle, don't believe for a minute that your therapist has more power in the relationship than you. Roberta Dixon had two children, who were not in her care but resident with their relatives for the past two years, and she saw them occasionally. The home visit in child protection social work: Emotion as resource and risk for professional judgement and practice, Isnt it funny the children that are further away we dont think about as much?: Using GPS to explore the mobilities and geographies of social work and child protection practice, Researching social work practice close up: Using ethnographic and mobile methods to understand encounters between social workers, children and families, How children become invisible in child protection work: Evidence from day-to-day social work practice, How social workers reflect in action and when and why they dont: The possibilities and limits to reflective practice in social work, From snapshots of practice to a movie: Researching long-term social work and Child protection by getting as close as possible to practice and organisational life, The nature and culture of social work with children and families in long-term casework: Findings from a qualitative longitudinal study, Difficult conversations on the frontline: Observations of home visits to talk about neglect, If I feel like this, how does the child feel? The persistent stigmatising of the poor and of black and minority ethnic communities make them into marginalised others who provoke fear and contempt (Tyler, 2020 ). Psychology Today 2023 Sussex Publishers, LLC. Already here, in my opinion, the helper is called upon to be aware of his power and the imbalance. social workers negotiating with other workers or professionals, the use of disciplinary strategies is not so evident. These skirmishes, the anger, threats and walk outs, all delivered in highly personalised ways, show how incredibly emotionally and intellectually demanding these hostile relationships are for everyone concerned. Within the sub-sample of cases where service users did not want a service there were different degrees of resistance and discontent. Furthermore, forms of power are differentiated in the literature; this leads, for example, to distinctions between power to act, power to define, or power to limit. Ultimately however, the emotional support provided was compromised by the managers regulatory role and their need to address issues such as staff performance, timescales and targets for completing work. The teams where the casework with involuntary clients occurred that we have featured in this paper were not uncaring. Cooper (Citation2018, p. 32) describes how individual professionals and whole systems can lose their heads with anxiety, become reactive and stop thinking and how case dynamics become split very quickly. Roberta was interviewed for the research on three occasions: in Months 6, 8, and 12. ibid.). The majority (60 percent) of U.S. social workers are white; thus, issues of white privilege and the empathy gap between white social workers and clients of color must be addressed. Well, no, youre not because youre just causing problems and making everything a lot worse and worrying people and stressing people out rather than actually doing anything to help anyone. People often have sex when they're tired, meaning the sex is more likely to be short, perfunctory, goal-oriented, and mechanical. a possibility, and leaves open whether this becomes action. On most of the visits Roberta sat on the stool holding the baby and there continued to be nowhere for practitioners to sit, which meant they mostly stood for the entire duration of the visit, or spent it crouched on their hunkers, which they repeatedly described (to researchers) as awkward and painful. This is exemplified by a social worker we shadowed on several occasions who, as he talked about the deep emotional effects the work had on him, cried, shook and sweated so profusely that his shirt became soaking wet. Fifty-four staff supervisions were observed and 54 interviews took place with families, some of which involved up to three interviews with the same families over the course of the year. On the other hand, power in a positive sense can also mean ability and capability, one can "make a difference by acting". But to speak this way to a client is to contravene some of the basic touchstones of good practice such as showing sensitivity to the client, their problems and their circumstances. 2.3 Dealing with power The parents Ron and Angela didnt like it, but it enabled the worker to see the children with whom she had a good relationship. On the one hand they feel obliged to treat clients in a disengaged and technical way, in order to establish that their interest is purely professional when discussing personal and sensitive issues such as sexuality. She hums a bit while she reads through things, and writes things down on her own pad of paper. Through empathetic, strengths oriented practice and skilful use of relationship-based practice, some of these parents were helped to transform ambivalence and hostility into a capacity for cooperation, care and love and they and their children thrived together (for extended examples, see Ferguson, Warwick,Disney, et al., Citation2020). The problems of the subject and of power are ones Foucault himself was continuously rethinking. adequate credentials. You can feel the anger coming off him, anger with Rebecca and her manager for how he feels hes being described, anger with Angela for seeking to go back to court and complaining no one helps him. According to his understanding, power means "every chance within a social relationship to assert one's own will even against opposition, regardless of what this chance is based on" (Weber 1976, p. 89). by poverty, by living in an unfurnished house and so forth. Recognition of involuntary clients and the complexity of such work has grown in recent years (Calder, Citation2008; Rooney, Citation2009; Trotter, Citation2015; Tuck, Citation2013). An implicit power imbalance exists between therapist and client that is particularly relevant to this client group; and the egalitarian nature of person-centred They constitute some of the most important forms of regulatory power and means by which society maintains itself. As Winnicott (Citation1949) showed, feelings like hate are experienced and acted out unconsciously by professionals and not just service users. Moreover, this reality of a balance of power doesn't apply only to therapeutic relationships. You only need to say one sentence . Is It True That Single Women and Married Men Do Best? Power is often used synonymously with terms such as violence, domination or control. But the fact is therapists are not endowed with any special powers and abilities that make them better or "more" than other ordinary people with specific educations and (let's hope!) Whilst Robertas behaviour was frightening, if one function of supervision is for managers to support workers emotionally and in being critically reflective about parent-child relationships (Davys & Beddoe, Citation2010) it didnt happen. This move requires that we couple the concepts of power and subjectivity within a consideration of critical social work practice. Amy was awake when we arrived and the social worker kept a significant physical distance from her and her mother for the duration of the 21 minute visit. The initial couple of home visits by Olivia after mother and baby went home were quite harmonious, as the following typical scene illustrates: Roberta talks about how she has changed as a person she was only 16 when she had [first child]. Angela obviously does not see the problem with having Ron in the home. They were seen 24 times by social care over the course of the year they too prevented/avoided more visits and we observed 15 of these encounters. Foucault develops a model of subjectivity based on "the Nietzschean idea of the nonfinalized problematization of the forms through which the experience of the subject is constituted" (Rajchman, p.124). Social defences and organisational culture in a local authority child protection setting: Challenges for the Munro Review? Creating supervisory practices and cultures where these deep feelings, unconscious processes and states of mind can be accessed is very difficult. Senior manager supervisor: I was thinking wed spoken about it earlier in the week and she had got upset then and Id heard the story, you know. She told the worker they were being rude and that she would search their name on the internet and then hung up. It is argued that, in most The best-known, albeit fuzzy, definition comes from the sociologist Max Weber. I'm sure the reader can think of other examples. (Lest I come across as "blaming the victim," let me be clear that there are some cases wherein a vulnerable client who has little or no experience with therapy can suffer grievous boundary violations without "willingly" relinquishing power.) It exists simply because of the structures in which social workers work, e.g. Foucault, M. (1979) Discipline and Punish, Peregrine Books, London. Power imbalance may affect joint work. If the latter occurs, it may be taken by the social worker as a refusal to work for change, and the person or the family may be adjudged 'difficult'. Power and social work (not) a contradiction On the one hand, social workers are to a large extent active in organizations and institutions in which structural power is given from the outset (cf. With respect to people experiencing mental distress and detained through the use of compulsory powers, Beresford (Citation2005) suggests the term service refusers might be more appropriate. Within five minutes the social worker tells Roberta to be careful to hold the babys head so that it doesnt flop and Roberta responds angrily that she knows how to care for a baby. They were often helpful to children and parents and many families confirmed this in research interviews. Connect with your NASW Chapter to find local action groups leading the way on achieving equity. So, we seek legal advice before if shes not working. She disputes that she has harmed her children. The awkwardness of these encounters was painfully obvious; contempt and hate filled the air. How Blame and Shame Can Fuel Depression in Rape Victims, Getting More Hugs Is Linked to Fewer Symptoms of Depression, Interacting With Outgroup Members Reduces Prejudice, Practice Improves the Potential for Future Plasticity, How Financial Infidelity Can Affect Your Gray Divorce. Freuds work and psychoanalytic theory as developed by Klein (Salzberger-Wittenberg, Citation1970), Winnicott (Citation1949) and Bion (Citation1962), argues that professionals capacities to think clearly about and relate to the service user (referred to as transference) is particularly influenced by the level of anxiety the professional experiences and what the service user projects into them (referred to as counter-transference). In Schlter's book "Sozialphilosophie fr helfende Berufe" (Social Philosophy for the Helping Professions), power is understood in a broader sense as a capacity for realization, and social work and power are brought into a direct relationship. 750 First Street, NE Suite 800 P!ZgKRZ>f?"P0G. For example, therapists need to learn about the peoples cultures they will be counselling. So it was seven weeks after the initial referral that face to face contact was made with Roberta on a home visit. There had been significant concern for the two children aged 4 and 5 from early in their lives due to their fathers drug abuse and violence towards their mother. Twenty-five encounters took place between social work and the Jones family over the year and there would have many more if the parents had permitted it. Rajchman, J. The practitioners tried to relate to the children in the home and saw them at school, but the parents soon blocked that too. When Is It OK to 'Fake It Till You Make It'? And it never was. The reality is, however, that while a therapist might have more specific training, particular knowledge, and certain skills, the client has most of the actual power. Help advocate for antiracist policies and meaningful social change across the country by signing up for NASW Advocacy Alerts. Lundy (2004), basing her views on the work of Moreau (1989), highlights Both approaches emphasize unanimously that through power the behavior of other persons can be influenced independently of their will. The study of the use of language in social settings (sociolinguistics) and its relation to power is one aspect of social work practice which has not been properly examined in the research and literature. Robertas baby, Amy, was born in Month 6 and very regular social care visits began. It is important to note, however, that the nature of therapeutic relationships does often involve an imbalance of intimate sharing. "Thus, 'power' is immediately equated with 'abuse of power', with a condition that must be overcome as quickly as possible" (Stiels - Glenn 1996, p. 16). We might call the first potential power and the second actual power. Racism and white supremacy are ingrained within American institutions and systems and have therefore affected social work ideology and practice for generations. They were alarmed by her aggression, mental health problems and history of alleged violence and concerned that Roberta may hit the (as yet unborn) baby: Im really concerned about this baby, really concerned Im really worried about this baby [I] can imagine her hitting the baby that cries. Due to the large size of each case-study and the insights they give into the detail of practice the paper is focused around a small number of cases. in the form of the authority or the office. Meeting emotional needs and enabling critical thinking is more likely to happen if the reflective, analytical aspects of supervisory practice (clinical supervision) is provided separately from administrative supervision in which managers address performance and audit issues and targets. The aim of such interventions would not be to find the authenticity of self experience, or to anchor choices, responsibilities and life projects within a definite range of fixed judgement, but to constantly question and transform the role of one's "self" in one's thought. We have been lied to actually from social services, blatant lies to our face so there is definitely no trust or anything there. It is not intended to be a substitute for help from a qualified health professional. In facing head on the difficult experiences and emotions that hostile relationships involve, the paper draws on social theories that are helpful in thinking about such emotional and relational complexity. Nevertheless, this can be thought of as similar to a physician having a greater understanding of a patient's medical issues than the patient has about the physician's, or an attorney knowing intimate details about a client's life circumstances that the client doesn't know about the attorney. Schlter goes even further by formulating that social work "at least in its professional form owes its very existence to a publicly recognized power imbalance of many kinds " (ibid.). Acknowledging this and the presence of difficult emotions in the dynamics of hostile and avoidant relationships is a very important way to begin to overcome them. Roberta is much louder and really dominates the room. We also extracted data from social work case files about the total work that was done over the year (Leigh et al., Citation2020). Power then is not just personal but also structural. Prior to the birth, two case conferences took place, at the first of which Roberta expressed huge anger towards all the professionals and her unborn child was placed on a child protection plan. The first home visit was done by the team manager, Olivia, due to the social worker Susans unavailability. While this lack of contact could have been a relief to Roberta, it may also have triggered feelings of abandonment and meant that the opportunity to intervene early to try and build a relationship was squandered. Directly confronting racism at the individual, agency, and institutional levels is the antiracist mandate we all must embrace. Meanwhile the independent social worker who completed the pre-birth parenting assessment related to the mother as a good object and could see nothing of the danger others were preoccupied with. So, and she, I felt, chose, and it seemed OK to come to the supervision and she didnt want in that setting to be upset and so I sort of thought, well maybe thats OK, I dont want to press her on that. The research on the other hand did gain some access to the deeper emotional life of individuals and the organisation. Concluding theses on possibilities and limits for a responsible use of professional power conclude my remarks in the last chapter. The defenses we use in love can also work against us. Professionals and families were only shadowed and interviewed if they gave informed consent. Realistically, you are just two people with different skill sets working collaboratively to achieve therapeutic goals. Foucault, M. (1980) 'Power and Strategies' in Michel Foucault: Power/Knowledge, edited by Colin Gordon, Harvester Wheatsheaf, Brighton. In both cases, of professional and client relationships, the interaction between humans and their physical environment is of crucial importance in effecting change for good or for ill. For instance, in the UK it has become abundantly evident that high rise blocks or flats are damaging to one's well-being. I mean, you know, there I am talking about that emotion at the beginning of the supervision, half way through Im talking about, right, how are you going to a get a grip with this member of staff? Its quite tough to balance. WebAdditionally, power differentials between the counselor and their client can influence the therapeutic relationship. I have therefore sifted through the abundance of literature on the problem of power in the context of social work, edited it and thus narrowed it down. The research found that different kinds of relationships became established between social workers and families in long-term casework. Social workers are given the capacity to act, as well as actually acting as social workers due to several legitimating powers: (1) Social work knowledge bases, e.g. Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab. Power in discourse is concerned how power is actually exercised and enacted, that is face-to-face spoken discourse. This can be the state, which socially legitimizes the power, or directly the client, who gives power through his order. Given the inherent power imbalance between social workers and their clients, social workers maintain With this in mind, towards the end of the paper some suggestions are made about what a critical social work might look like, if it does not merely wish to contain what people say and route them towards a definite end point, but instead, energetically open up a new space of subjectivity which more closely conveys an appreciation of life as a whole, whilst making our habitual relations of power vibrate until they disjoin. When we feel threatened we will often make changes to our behavior and strategies of life to resist that threat and preserve things as they are. Rebecca raises her voice to talk over them, she talks about the concerns of nursery. Why Traditional Psychotherapy Led to CBT, Which Spawned DBT, How to Have a Balanced and Stress-Resistant Life, How to Stop Overreacting to the Small Stuff, 13 Common Behaviors and Values of Narcissistic People, The Danger of Self-Protection in Relationships.
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