How to be Yourself: Student Perspectives on Learning Use of Self

Abstract

Use of self is a core concept in the development of authentic social work and human services practice. For students with a history of adversity, learning how to integrate past adverse experiences into their use of self can be difficult. Adversity may have motivated many to enter the helping professions, but students may not always be sure how and when their adverse experiences can be integrated into their use of self. A qualitative survey of students from three different universities in South East Queensland, Australia, found that recognizing experiences of adversity and their impact could be an essential component in learning use of self. Further data was collected via interviews with 20 students at the primary researcher’s university. A grounded theory approach enabled qualitative data to be analyzed from 199 surveys and all interviews to explore how student experiences of adversity contributed to their understanding and development of use of self. By acknowledging past adversity, students described how they used a relational rather than a traditional dichotomous model of use of self in learning to be a practitioner. The outcomes of this study highlight the importance of formally acknowledging students’ own lived experiences of adversity and the importance of understanding use of self from a relational perspective for this cohort.