Personal Narrative: A Career As A Professional Social Worker

My parents used to fight each other when I was young. My father has a common characteristic which shows on almost all traditional Asia men and that is male chauvinism. When the wife is a traditional Asia woman, it builds up a happy family in the world. However, my mother has her own opinion so sometimes fighting became a common thing in our family. Even though when I grew up and they stopped fighting and started arguing, I still can remember the feelings – helpless, scared and anxious. Therefore, when I meet a client who has involved in domestic violence, my experience may affect my view and consultation for my clients. To be a professional social worker, I need to have an objective view and not taking any bias on clients. For example, I may feel sorry for the victims which represent me and my mother in my mind, and pursue them to make a decision that I recognize is good for them.
If they still want to stay with perpetrator even he hits both of them badly, I will be upset and want to convince them to leave the perpetrator.
This is not a good social worker will be. A professional social worker need to make sure the feeling not override him/herself and help client make an impartial and informed decision. However, for the perpetrators, I am not sure if I can control my angry which is the expression the younger me want to show to my father. Therefore, perhaps it is not a good idea that I deal with clients who are involved in domestic
violence. Despite this, I want to be the one who help the victims from the disaster as well as I want someone to help me when I was young. One thing I learned from the conflict between my parents is communication. A good communication can avoid lots of arguments and fights. Therefore, I will keep practice my communication skill with clients in later practice to ensure the success of the conversation. Also, when I am consulting with clients who are having issues because they don’t communicate, I will tell them the best way to solve the problem is communicating and understanding. For example, if the client come to me talking about he or she want to suicide because his/her father never understand him. I will talk to the student first and chat with his father about how his son/daughter though about him. Then I will arrange a meeting with both of them and give them space to have a deep talk.