Social Worker Skills

935 Words2 Pages

As a social worker you have to be able to demonstrate a variety of traits and skills. These include; courage, empathy, flexibility, openness, confidence, critical thinking, professional purpose and many more. I do believe I not only demonstrate many of these characteristics, but I bring many other valuable attributes as a learning social worker.
As a social worker, being empathetic, courageous, and sympathetic are all necessary traits. According to Karen Healy (2012), “Empathy refers to a willingness to imagine, and in that imagining, experience some of the pain or difficulty of the service user” (Healy, 2012: 41). This allows the social worker to identify and understand what their service user is going through. When I worked for Peterborough …show more content…

Being open and communicative shows a trustworthy, safe zone for service users. According to Healy (2012), to communicate and be comfortable being open, one should use S.O.L.E.R (Sitting squarely, Open body posture, Leaning towards the other, Eye contact, and Relaxed) (Healy, 2012: 27-28). This allows the service user to feel that the worker is there and ready to communicate, listen and be non-judgmental. At CCRC, when talking to the children I always made sure that I was attentive, eye contact was made, and that the children felt they were being heard and understood. I used key indicators to let them know I was listening, this way they were comfortable talking to me and opening up. The children seen me as approachable which allowed them to be open with me, and feel safe in what they said. One little girl confided in me on a daily basis. She told me a personal stories involving herself and the shelters she lived in at times, it was from those moments on I knew I was meant to be a social worker. I knew then I wanted to help better the lives of people. For me being a social worker is not about changing the world, but about changing the lives of the people I touch in a positive …show more content…

When in a social work profession, a social worker must use their own experiences, social location, and many other factors to relate with and assist service users. This allows for the social worker to place their self into their service users’ situation. All of my past, current and future life experiences; employment (Symposium Café – server, CCRC – youth social worker), volunteering (BBBS), education (Trent University) and social location (middle class, white, adolescent, female), and everything else to come, will be put towards building my professional purpose. This will allow me to provide my service users with the necessary assistance and compassion they

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