Essay on Professional Social Work Practice: Self-Reflection & Care

This essay delves into the critical aspects of professional social work practice, emphasizing the significance of self-reflection and self-care. It highlights the importance of understanding one's actions and feelings through reflective practices, particularly in demanding situations. Kolb's learning cycle is presented as a valuable tool for practitioners to process experiences and integrate them into their practice. The essay also addresses the ethical obligation of self-care for healthcare professionals, emphasizing the need to manage personal emotions and prevent burnout while dealing with clients' issues. It underscores the necessity for practitioners to maintain a balance between their professional and personal lives, ensuring their mental and physical well-being for effective client diagnosis and support.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE
Professional Social Work Practice
Name of the Student:
Name of the Organization:
Author’s Note:

2SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE
Task 1
Self-reflection is one of the most important tools for expressing the thoughts of feelings
of the individuals (Hart, 2018). This is one of the most widely used methods as it helps the
individuals in understanding the events that have taken place in the recent past. In each and every
activity individuals act in a specific way. However, the actions or the events take place in such a
rapid manner that it becomes tough for the individuals in understanding what exactly has
happened. So, the process of self-reflection helps the individuals in understanding the
significance of the events that took place with them and how they actually acted during those.
The process of reflection on action helps in understanding why an individual acted in a particular
way. I often use this process as it helps me to understand the reason behind my behavior and I
also try to think if I would have acted in a different way then what would have been the scenario
or the outcome. The process of reflection also helps in taking proper care. I have seen that there
are many areas where I need to take the assistance from doctors.
As a practitioner, I have realized that there are also many different people who realize the
need for taking help. I have realized that Kolb's learning cycle is one of the most important tools
of self-reflection that helps in reflecting over all the different thoughts and the experiences that
took place during the last incident that has taken place. As a practitioner, I have to take part in
several social work services as well. I have seen that Kolb's reflective cycle helps the patients in
getting the concrete experience via which they can add some values to the experience that they
suffered through. Reflective observation helps them to do a quick review of the experience that
they have passed through.

3SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE
The abstract conceptualization helps them to link the experiences with different theories
or frameworks that they have learned. The last stage active experimentation helps the individuals
in understanding what they have actually learned from the experience and put the same into real
life practice. As I kept on developing myself and moving forward in my career, I have seen that
different people have different kinds of learning styles. Honey and Mumford questionnaire
shows how the approach and the learning style of people vary. Some are activists, while some
are reflective. Each and every individual will be able to understand the loopholes present within
their learning styles. While reflecting upon any particular incident that has taken place the
individuals can actually exhibit their learning styles and also find out the errors present within
them. In the course of my professional career, I have seen that many people exhibit the reflector
style of learning. They usually bet depresses when there is as huge pressure during any situation.
They usually do not enjoy any time boundaries or lack of time for preparation. So, they find
themselves in a big problem during any such situation. It is from their experiences that they get
to realize the different measures that they need to take for overcoming these problems.
Task 2
As per my perception self-care is a very essential concept that needs to be followed by
each and every health care professional, psychiatrists, mental health counselors, and other
doctors as well. I think that taking care of one's own mind and body is one of the most essential
aspects of being a sound doctor or practitioner. I have come across many situations where the
doctors often fall prey to the personal conflicts or the personal problems that may arise while
treating the issues that are being faced by the clients. I have seen many of my co-workers getting
traumatized while dealing with their patients. So, in order to combat these situations, it is of
utmost need that we take care of ourselves as well. I feel that it is really essential for each and

4SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE
every counselor or practitioner to keep a control over their own emotions and sensations while
dealing with their patients.
Self-care is like an ethical obligation that each and every doctor, health care professional
or practitioners must abide by (Gallagher, 2016). The practitioners and doctors are normal
individuals just like their patients. It is common for me and for many of my colleagues to have
some similar bitter experiences in life just like our clients. So, it might happen that the memories
of these bad experiences are buried somewhere in the unconscious or the preconscious portions
of our minds. There is a chance that these dormant memories might re-appear as we enter into
the process of doing the treatment of our patients. So, I feel that it is really very important for all
the practitioners and the doctors to take necessary steps that would really help them to deal with
such situations. For an instance, I make sure to take short breaks or gaps between the courses of
my work. This helps me to keep my mind fresh and I can thus carry on with my work in a fresh
and peaceful manner. However, it is also very helpful as it helps us in understanding all the
different ways in which our experiences are similar and also different from that of our clients. It
helps us in striking a balance between the two. So, it is needed that the practitioners keep their
minds at a calm state while diagnosing their clients (Shaw, McMaster & Newholm, 2016). They
must also try their best to keep their professional and their personal lives separate. They must
make sure that they are making use of all the necessary methods in order to deal with these kinds
of issues.
Emotional burnouts are not uncommon. The practitioners must be ready for them and
must handle them effectively. They have to maintain certain strict ethical rules like no personal
contacts with the clients, talking short breaks between works, reaching out to another mental

5SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE
health counselor in order to get help for themselves. The physical and mental well being of the
physicians is one of the most important requirements for a successful diagnosis of the clients.

6SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE
References
Hart, A. (2018) ‘Reflective Practice’ in Lishman, J et al (eds) (2nd Edition) Social Work and
Introduction. Sage. pp 153 - 169
Shaw, D., McMaster, R., & Newholm, T. (2016). Care and commitment to ethical consumption:
An exploration of the ‘attitude-behavior gap'. Journal of Business Ethics, 136(2), 251-
265.
Thompson, N. (2016). Anti-discriminatory practice: Equality, diversity, and social justice.
Macmillan International Higher Education.

7SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE
Bibliography
Brodie, I. (2016). Joyce Lishman, Chris Yuill, Jillian Brannan and Alastair Gibson (eds), Social
work: An introduction.
Ferguson, H. (2018). How social workers reflect in action and when and why they don’t: the
possibilities and limits to reflective practice in social work. Social Work
Education, 37(4), 415-427.
Gallagher, C. (2016). Social work and professional development: A critical reflection about
group work. Groupwork, 26(1).
Newell, J. M., & Nelson-Gardell, D. (2014). A competency-based approach to teaching
professional self-care: An ethical consideration for social work educators. Journal of
Social Work Education, 50(3), 427-439.
Stoddart, G. L., & Evans, R. G. (2017). Producing health, consuming health care. In Why are
some people healthy and others not? (pp. 27-64). Routledge.