Engagement With Clients: A Case Study

Two Perspectives of Engagement with Clients One thing that makes social work stand out from other professions is the relationship that a social worker builds with their client. It is an important factor but can also be very challenging at times. There are several stages to the social work treatment process. Those stages include; engagement, assessment, intervention, and termination (USC VAC, 2013). It is vital that a social worker begin to develop a relationship with their client during their first session and build on that relationship over time. The treatment stage in which a social worker can initiate the development of a relationship with their client is in the engagement stage, which serves as the foundation for the rest of the sessions
to come. One thing to consider as a social worker is to be able to identify with your clients. The best way to do that is to be aware of your own cultural values, beliefs and preferences you hold and also how you would want a social worker to interact with you. Being a self-aware social worker is imperative so that you can keep from bringing you own thoughts and ideas into the treatment plan for your client. Understanding and knowing where you stand on certain issues important thing to be conscious of so that you know what to separate yourself from while trying to build rapport with a client.
If I Were the Client As a beginning social worker it is important for me to be aware of my own personal values and beliefs and also think about how I would like to be treated as client by a social worker during the engagement phase. Seeking help for emotional issues is always hard to do no matter how accepting you are of the mental health processes. Building a rapport with my social worker and establishing trust are essential to me in the beginning stages phases of my treatment. I want to feel as if my social worker truly cares about why I am there As a black, female client, working with a hypothetical white, male therapist one thing that would be very important for my social worker to be aware of is where I come from and how my environment might influence my treatment process.
I need to my social worker to work with me in finding solutions to the problems I am facing. Utilizing the ecological perspective during my treatment would be very beneficial to getting the root of the problem. I would feel that my social worker does not only care about my treatment but is an advocate in helping to achieve that change. According to McKay et al (1996), the ecological perspective consists of four critical elements; (1) clarifying the helping process, which is the social worker introducing themselves to me and explaining the treatment process and making sure I understand exactly what the process is, (McKay et al (1996) p. 465). (2) Developing the foundation for a collaborative working environment which would include finding a balance between the information needed to obtain the appropriate intake information and allowing me, the client, to tell my story of why I am there in the first place, (McKay et al (1996) p. 465). (3) Focus on immediate, practical concerns; this would mean that my social worker is prepared to respond to crisis situations, negotiate with other systems that may be a barrier of some kind to my treatment and be able to respond to any presenting concerns, (McKay et al (1996) p. 465). I need to feel as though my
social worker is just as active in my treatment as I am and is providing all the resources and help they can give. Lastly, (4) Identify and problem- solve around barriers to help seeking, (McKay et al (1996) p. 465). It would be important for my social worker to know if I have been in therapy before what that experience was for me; whether it was negative or not. It would be easier for me to trust my therapist when they are knowledgeable of all of my obstacles; whether they are personal or environmental. For example, one thing that would be vital for my white, male therapist to explore and understand before working with me is the obstacles I may face just by being a black female. It is important for me to feel as though my social worker really values my thoughts, opinions and feelings.
One way to do that would the social workers ability to empathize with me. Empathy “is the act of perceiving, understanding, experiencing, and responding to the emotional state and ideas of another person,” (Gerdes & Segal, 2011, p. 141). Even if my social worker does not share the same views as me, being able to see things from my perspective and genuinely understand where I come from is the most important quality my social worker can bring to the table when working with me. According to Gerdes & Segal (2011), there are two main components to empathy; emotional empathy and expressed cognitive empathy. Emotional empathy is “the ability to be affected by the clients’ emotions,” (Gerdes & Segal, 2011, p. 141). Although I do not want my social worker to be as distressed as I am, I need to know that they are not an emotional robot and they can see why I am experiencing the emotions I am experiencing. Expressed cognitive empathy is “the translation of such feelings into words,” (Gerdes & Segal, 2011, p. 141). By my social worker being able to verbalize with me that they comprehend my emotional state of mind, that would relieve a lot of anxiety for me just knowing that what I am feeling is not so far-fetched and that it can be understood by a complete
stranger.
If I Were the Social Worker Let’s envision a Chinese – American female named Kim Le, who lives in San Diego is coming to meet me; her therapist, for the first time. Kim Le is 17 years old, a senior in high school and is the first generation in her family to be born in the United States. While working with Kim Le, it would be essential for me to be culturally competent. Being culturally competent will allow me to “provide care that serves her social, cultural and linguistic needs, (Buckley, T. B., 2012). Understanding Kim Le’s culturally background is essential in developing a treatment plan and establishing trust with her. Being the first generation to be born in the United States is a barrier that she and I would have work through. It is common for a social worker to “acknowledge our own barriers to intercultural understanding,” (Buckley, T. B., 2012). Another to consider while working with Kim Le is to acknowledge the cultural influence on her desire to seek therapy. Chinese cultures are more likely to try home remedies to deal with illness which may also include mental health. If her social worker felt that Kim Le needed mood stabilizing medications it would be important to explore natural ways of obtaining the same results or at least understand why Kim Le might object to the medications. Along with being understood culturally, it would be essential for me as Kim Le’s social worker to evaluate her levels of anxiety and self- confidence. It seems logically to assume that she may be feeling such a way for coming into therapy for the first time and also having a multicultural background. One way for me to explore these emotions with Kim Le would be to use sustaining procedures. According to Woods and Hollis (2000), sustainment can be used to reduce feelings on anxiety or lack of self-confidence. The idea of sustainment is for a social worker to openly express their confidence and esteem for the client. (Woods & Hollis, 2000, p. 131). “Exploring the nature of the clients difficulties,” (Woods & Hollis, 2000, p.131) is a dynamic step in developing a rapport with the client. By trying to figure out what is going on with the client and working together on the problem shows the client that they are values as a person and that the social worker cares about them as a person as well as their treatment process. Sustainment can also be beneficial to use when dealing with multicultural client like Kim Le. By understanding her background and sympathizing with the difficulties of being a minority that can help reduce the anxiety she is feeling about being in therapy. It is common knowledge that the Asian cultural has very specific social etiquettes that differ significantly from that of the American culture. By “being aware of different cultural groups meanings to certain non-verbal behaviors,” (Hepworth et al, 2012, p. 166) it can help eliminate counterproductive communication patterns. The first step a social worker can do to make sure that they are not silently offending their clients is by simply being aware of their non-verbal behaviors. For example, if I were a male therapist, it might be considered disrespectful if I looked Kim Le directly in her eyes during our session. So I would need to be aware of where I was looking so that Kim Le could remain as comfortable as possible.
Differences and Similarities One similarity I can see between me and Kim Le as the client is that we are both minorities and have certain barriers to deal with because of our ethnicity. Our therapist must be cultural competent and aware of our ethnic differences to be able to work with us effectively, and to be able to gain our trust. It is important for us to have social worker to be empathetic of our situation when it comes to dealing with the obstacle our ethnicities gives us. One big difference is that, even though we are both minorities, she is the first generation of her family to be born in the United States. Our cultures differ tremendously because I am very much American in my culture and spiritual practices while Kim Le probably does not even speak English at home with her family. Although that difference may seem minuet it is significant enough for a social worker to consider when working with individuals with those differences. For Kim Le, she not only has to deal with being Chinese in America, but she also has to deal with being American in a Chinese household. I do not have to deal with that duel cultural identity. For a social worker is important to see those little differences between their clients and be able to understand them and work with them. It shows the client how invested you are in their care and it also makes you a well-rounded social worker.

References
McKay, M. M., Nudelman, R., McCadam, K., & Gonzales, J. (1996). Evaluating a social work engagement approach to involving inner-city children and their families in mental healthcare. Research on social work practice, 6(4), 462-472
Overview of the phases of treatment [Asynchronous]. Retrieved from USC VAC June 6, 2013 Gerdes, K., & Segal, E. (2011). Importance of empathy for social work practice: Integrating new science. Social Work, 56(2), 141-148. Hepworth, D. H., Rooney, R. H., Rooney, G. D., Strom-Gottfried, K., & Larsen, J. A. (2012). Eliminating counterproductive communication patterns. Direct social work practice: Theory and skills (pp. 165-183) (9th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.
Buckley, T. B. (2012). Cultural competency: how to communicate effectively across cultural boundaries. Drug topics, 156(7), 24-33. Woods, M. E., & Hollis, F. (2000). Sustainment, direct influence, exploration-description, ventilation. In Casework: A psychosocial therapy (5th ed., chap. 5, pp. 131-152). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.