SW 673 - Relational Perspectives On Clinical Social Work Practice

3 Credit(s)

Clinical social workers try to help clients resolve or manage a variety of problems or barriers that interfere with effective and satisfying social functioning. These include the cumulative effects of trauma, oppression, family conflict, and emotional neglect that have produced patterns of emotional regulation, thinking, and acting that function (on one level) to protect the self but that are dysfunctional (on other levels) in terms of preserving physical health, participating in interpersonal relationships, and maintaining occupational viability. This course applies recent developments in affect theory, attachment theory, interpersonal neurobiology, self-psychology, intersubjectivity theory, narrative theory, and relational (or two-person) psychology to the challenges facing social workers trying to help clients manage themselves and their lives in the wake of emotional neglect, trauma, oppression, domestic violence, and substance abuse. A central concern of the course is on how the worker’s participation in the helping relationship facilitates or impedes the client’s ability to use that relationship as an opportunity to regain and sustain satisfying social functioning.
Prerequisite(s): SW 506 or Advanced Standing