Biopsychosocial Approach Social Work

The biopsychosocial approach is an incredibly useful, and thorough tool, when assisting individuals and groups. Specifically, when assisting vulnerable and marginalized individuals or groups. This approach states, that in order to understand an individual, we must first understand their environment, as well as their lived experiences. This approach is incredibly beneficial for individuals that have been marginalized by society, as their lived experiences pose a greater threat to their personal wellbeing. To clarify, individuals and groups that have been marginalized have been pushed away by society, and the biopsychosocial approach is incredibly beneficial. As this approach does not neglect any part of an individual’s reality, but instead takes all of the components within their lives into account, when implementing interventions.
A part of this reading that really resonated with me as important to my social work practice, was the excerpt regarding the psychodynamic approach to social work intervention. I feel as though, often times, as social workers, we can neglect the internal motivations that drive a client to do what they are doing. I believe, that in order to comprehensively assist a client, I must first understand why they are doing what they are doing, and whether their internal motivations are steering them towards “good” or “bad”.
The psychodynamic theory, to me, attempts to understand why an individual does what they do, and the conscious and unconscious thoughts that precipitate the event’s in an individual’s everyday life. In the case of my own social work practice, I believe this theory is important, as I cannot assist a client if I do not understand the forces that are pushing them to do what they are