In the Fertile Minefield: Navigating Challenges and Opportunities with Facilitating Self-development and Growth in the Intercultural and Interracial Clinical Treatment Dyad

Abstract

The “use of self” is a powerful tool that social workers rely upon to facilitate treatment growth for their clients. Yet, for many ethnic and racial minority clinicians, their self contains personal, psychological, social, and cultural aspects that they must acknowledge, examine and negotiate as they enter into the clinical arena. The therapeutic world is increasingly diverse, therefore, the profession must address issues relating to researching, educating, training, supervising, and supporting clinicians from diverse backgrounds to attend with greater knowledge and self-examination. They must attend to the nuances of use of self with respect to issues of intersectionality in order to provide attuned, culturally responsive, and socially just treatment. This paper demonstrates how clinical social work practitioners can facilitate self-development and growth in clients through their strategic use of self as grounded in early British and American object relations theories and contemporary relational theory. The clinical materials in the composite case study (employed to protect the confidentiality of the clients) are used to illustrate that when clinicians embrace the challenges of working in the intercultural and interracial treatment arena and dive deeply beyond the choppy surface, there are many opportunities to further the therapeutic progress while providing a culturally sensitive and socially just clinical practice. Implications for clinical social work practice, education and research are identified.