Social Work As Narrative

Narrative in Social Work Practice features first-person accounts by social workers who have successfully integrated narrative theory and approaches into their practice. Contributors describe innovative and effective interventions with a wide range of individuals, families, and groups facing a variety of life challenges. One author describes a family in crisis when a promising teenage girl suddenly takes to her bed for several years; another brings narrative practice to a Bronx trauma center; and another finds that poetry writing can enrich the lives of people living with dementia. In some chapters, the authors turn narrative techniques inward and use them as vehicles of self-discovery. Settings range from hospitals and clinics to a graduate school and a case management agency. Throughout, Narrative in Social Work Practice showcases the flexibility and appeal of narrative methods and demonstrates how they can be empowering and fulfilling for clients and social workers alike. The differential use of narrative techniques fulfills the mission and core competencies of the social work profession in creative and surprising ways. Stories of clients and workers are, indeed, powerful.

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.

A clear guide to one of todayís most popular treatment modalities, this volume explores why the narrative metaphor is important in the therapeutic relationship, and how to incorporate narrative techniques into social work practice. Building on basic insights about how stories shape peopleís lives, and how destructive stories can be modified, the authors explore various applications of the narrative approach. These applications include conducting groups, working with multicultural clients, and supplementary classroom discussions.

First published in 1997, this volume constitutes a critical analysis of the contradictory portrayal of social workers. Christopher Hall sets the task of exploring how social workers make their work visible and justifiable through their talk and writing. He examines the language, explanation and analysis they use to explain their actions and assessments set within an atmosphere of criticism and controversy, given that they often seem unable to protect themselves due to uncertainty in their mandate and their often invisible trade. Hall’s study offers opportunities for key questions relating to social work, professionals and the handling of controversy, and to render social work documents more understandable through approaching them as narratives with readership.

"This edited text brings together the stories of nine clinical social workers working during COVID-19, exploring the disconnections caused by a forced use of technology as well as the disconnections apparent in a time of social injustice. Employing narrative strategies to capture this transformative moment of our history, these chapters explore the effects of technology and social media on psychotherapy, the delivery of services for the chronically mentally ill and elderly, as well as the consequences of recent cultural shifts on our conceptions of gender, sexuality, race, the immigrant experience, and political activism. While traditional research methodologies tend to address social problems as if they were divorced from the lives and experiences of human beings, these chapters employ phenomenological description of how the existing system functions, to identify theory-to-practice gaps and to recover the experiences of the person within the various institutional structures. Divided into three parts, each chapter begins with pre-reading and close reading questions and ends with writing prompts, allowing for practitioners and students to examine their own thoughts, and put what they have learnt into practice. Suitable for students of clinical social work and practicing mental health professionals, this book is essential for those wanting to make sense of social work practice in our constantly evolving times"--

Interest in the contribution narrative makes to other disciplines has been booming in recent years, but its impact in social work has been limited and confined mainly to therapeutic intervention. Narrative Social Work is the first book to extend the narrative lens to explore the contribution of narrative to social work values and ethics, social policy, and our understanding of the self in social, cultural, and political contexts. Clive Baldwin argues that narrative is a richly textured approach to social work that can enhance both theory and practice.

First published in 1997, this volume constitutes a critical analysis of the contradictory portrayal of social workers. Christopher Hall sets the task of exploring how social workers make their work visible and justifiable through their talk and writing. He examines the language, explanation and analysis they use to explain their actions and assessments set within an atmosphere of criticism and controversy, given that they often seem unable to protect themselves due to uncertainty in their mandate and their often invisible trade. Hall's study offers opportunities for key questions relating to social work, professionals and the handling of controversy, and to render social work documents more understandable through approaching them as narratives with readership.