Nontraditional and Unorthodox Interventions in Social Work: Ethical and Legal Implications

Abstract

Social work interventions with individuals, families, couples, and small groups have evolved over time. Traditional casework methods associated with social work's pioneers during the early and midtwentieth century–-such as Mary Richmond, Florence Hollis, Harriett Bartlett, Grace Coyle, and Helen Perlman–-have been transformed. Today's social workers are more likely to discuss and debate the use of such approaches as dialectical behavior therapy, narrative therapy, hypnosis, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, art and dance therapy, radical cognitive therapy, and Internet-based therapy, among others. Clinicians now have access to a staggering array of clinical options that would be unimaginable to social work's earliest practitioners and scholars.