Clinical Social Work Education Research Articles

Enhancing Equity in Clinical Social Work Education: Supporting Indigenous Queer and Gender Diverse Students and Researchers'

AbstractFor Indigenous Australian Queer and Gender Diverse (QGD) Peoples, being acknowledged, recognised, and considered in frameworks, policies, and within organisations in the broader Australian context is rare. This article will explore some of the structures, systems, and policies that impact on Indigenous QGD peoples in Higher Education (HE). We will speak on social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) and how this knowledge may translate into clinical social work practice. We explore the ways in which HE can become conscious, motivated, and emboldened to enact clinical social workers of the future towards ultimately improving current recruitment, retention, which will contribute to individual and group change in Australia.

Colorism and Historical Trauma: Barriers and Stepping Stones for Healing within Clinical Social Work Education

ABSTRACTColorism and historical trauma are part of the lived experiences of many racialized and marginalized groups. However, few studies have examined the meaning and function of colorism and historical trauma among clinical social workers and how prepared they feel to support healing from these experiences in their practice and lives. To address this gap, 42 clinicians of diverse racial, ethnic, gender, and regional identities from the United States were surveyed, of which 35 were interviewed, to explore their experiences of colorism, historical trauma, healing, and clinical social work education. Key themes will be presented: 1) Invisibilized healing & wounds: Black, Asian, mixed race, Latine, and people of color (POC) clinicians identified a need to heal personally from intrafamilial and societal experiences of historical trauma and colorist microaggressions, 2) Closing the gaps in clinical education, and 3) Clinical supervision as a compounded barrier or stepping stone. Implications for decolonial clinical social work education and practice will be discussed.

Practice Makes Perfect: MSW Students Reflect on Skill-Based Teaching Methods in Clinical Social Work Education

ABSTRACT In this qualitative study, we consider student experiences with and perceptions of teaching methods that are clinical skill-based (e.g., simulation role plays). Focus groups included Master of Social Work students (N = 40) from six universities in the United States. A framework-guided content analysis was used and revealed four discussion areas: (a) classroom-based opportunities for practice observation and feedback, (b) field-based opportunities for practice observation and feedback, (c) other methods such as standardized patient simulations and computer simulations, and (d) attitudes about these methods. Experiences were quite diverse with classroom-based clinical role plays being the most common. Attitudes were generally positive. Student reflections on their experiences yielded several teaching recommendations specific to preparation, the nature of the simulated client role, and feedback.

Demonstrating LGBTQ+ Affirmative Practice in Groups:: Developing Competence through Simulation-Based Learning

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual and/or gender minority (LGBTQ+) populations experience significant mental and behavioral health disparities. Social workers are uniquely positioned to address these vulnerabilities. However, clinical graduate education has not effectively promoted or taught competent practice with LGBTQ+ populations. This qualitative study details the foundational competencies required for affirmative practice in group therapy with LGBTQ+ populations and describes a simulation-based learning activity designed to develop these competencies in graduate students. The following themes were identified as critical to affirmative practice, as identified through student reflections on their simulation-based learning experiences: deeply engaging in a strengths-based stance, keeping the group in group therapy, avoiding the expert trap, and managing identity assumptions. Implications for clinical social work education and practice are discussed.

Pivoting to Online Live-Streamed Simulations: Students’ Experiences in Clinical Social Work Education

ABSTRACT This article reports the use of online live-streamed simulations (online LSS), implemented on Zoom with Master of Social Work students. A thematic analysis was conducted from an online survey (n = 26 responses) to explore, 1) if online LSS can offer the same potential to develop holistic competence as in-class simulations, and 2) how students experienced learning social work practice through online LSS. Students reported learning procedural and meta-competencies, and indicated that online LSS provided a space to focus in on the procedural, relational and affective elements of online client sessions. We suggest that online LSS can offer similar training potential as face-to-face simulations, and that online LSS can offer unique learnings to assist students in developing competencies relevant to online practice.

Note for the Second Part of Special Issue: Clinical Social Work Education in its Digital Format

Note for the Second Part of Special Issue: Clinical Social Work Education in its Digital Format

Co-constructing a Conceptual Understanding of System Enactment.

System enactments are co-created phenomena characterized by confounding and emotionally charged multi-person interactions that emerge through the convergence of patients’ complex psychopathology, staff vulnerabilities, and the organizational dynamics of the clinical system in which all are embedded. There is ample literature about the psychoanalytic construct of enactment in the therapeutic dyad. Though systems-based clinicians often experience system enactments which transcend the dyad and occur within the projective field of the system, there is no comparable literature that discusses this phenomenon. This paper describes a qualitative study that investigated how psychodynamic clinicians understood the phenomenology and impact of system enactments on clinicians, treatment processes and organizational climate. Major themes were identified through qualitative analysis of the data. The following four key findings were distilled from the resulting themes of the study’s two research questions: (1) Clinicians conceptualize system enactments from a classical perspective; (2) System enactments have an experiential impact on clinicians in the domains of affect, cognition, behavior, and physiological arousal, which may be related to secondary traumatic stress responses; (3) Clinicians demonstrate a collapse of mentalizing associated with ruptures in the patient’s treatment, conflict in the working relationships between staff, and problematic organizational dynamics; and (4) Interconnected and reciprocal interactions among all levels of the system including patient subsystem, individual staff subsystem, intra-staff subsystem and organizational subsystem, are shaped by the impact of system enactments. A conceptual understanding of system enactmentis outlined, and implications for clinical social work education and practice, organizational policy-making and research are addressed.

Teaching Mental Health and Well-Being Online in a Crisis: Fostering Love and Self-compassion in Clinical Social Work Education.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has shifted clinical social work (CSW) and mental health education in Australia, and indeed throughout much of the globe, onto online delivery. The disruption caused by COVID-19 presents unexpected challenges in fostering the development of skill sets among social work educators in partnership with students. This article is a reflexive collaborative autoethnography written by four educators of different international and cultural backgrounds at a regional university in Queensland. Our university has experienced a shift from primarily a face-to-face delivery to online delivery due to social distancing. This article is grounded in an ethic of love, a values-based relationship-oriented practice promoting care, collaborative dialogue and solidarity between people, using self-compassion and reflexivity. We explore how COVID-19 has forced the authors to alter their teaching practice, cope with uncertainties, and respond with loving kindness to the shifting needs of students. We draw upon our experiences as educators of diverse cultural, linguistic, gender, and sexualities from Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Nigeria and reflect upon how we have simultaneously turned inward and outward through technology. We draw upon person-centered, narrative, trauma informed and anti-oppressive clinical and educational approaches when exploring self-compassion and loving approaches with the students. We discuss the need for self-compassion and love of others as we respond to the current crisis by modeling self-compassion and love for CSW students who are experiencing crises, including loss of employment, separation from family overseas and interstate, isolation from colleagues and loved ones, and healthcare issues.

Teaching Note—Considering Competencies for Social Work Practice and Research With Transgender and Gender Diverse Individuals

ABSTRACT This article presents current research on clinical practice with transgender and gender diverse (TGD) persons and introduces clinical social work educators and researchers with TGD-specific counseling competencies from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Counseling (ALGBTIC). The article will align these practice competencies with existing social work education competencies and policies to advance clinical social work education and research on best practice with TGD individuals. To demonstrate how the WPATH and ALGBTIC competencies can be used to create teaching modules, there are four class activities offered for possible use. Finally, a critical review of the limitations of the WPATH and ALGBTIC competencies is presented, suggesting a need to adapt or develop “social work-specific” competencies for use in clinical practice education and research with TGD individuals.

Attitudes towards the Integration of Evidence-Based Practice in Clinical Social Work Education in Egypt, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Palestine and Oman

In recent years, there has been a growing interest regarding the integration of evidence-based practice into social work education and practice. This study aims to identify and measure attitudes of clinical social work educators towards integrating in clinical social work education in Egypt and other Arab countries. Seventy-three clinical social work educators were surveyed. Overall, 84.34% of respondents expressed a very positive attitude towards the importance of EBP. Although 73.65% of respondents expressed encounters many strong barriers, 54.22% of respondents rejected of the notion that EBP is an attempt to induce a state of creative chaos in clinical social work education, while 77.63%% indicted positive attitudes towards the possibility of fulfillment of steps.

Clinical social work education, mental health, and the DSM-5

ABSTRACTSince the inception of social work in the late nineteenth century, there has been an ongoing debate as to what constitutes the essence of social work practice. Does the social worker maintain a macro or micro focus, serving as an agent of social change or social control, respectively? This article explores the perennial debate in the context of social work education about mental health in the United States, particularly as related to the classification and treatment of mental disorders for the diverse range of underserved clients.

Benefits and Challenges of Online Education for Clinical Social Work: Three Examples

As growing numbers of social work programs offer online delivery of course content, the positive aspects described in the literature, such as student access and flexibility, as well as concerns about quality, instructor/student relationships, and academic honesty of students, need to be examined as they relate to clinical social work education (Pelech et al. 2013; Reamer 2013). Three examples of fully online courses offered to clinical social work students by an experienced clinician and online instructor are examined in the context of the benefits and challenges put forth in the literature. A foundation interviewing course, diagnostic assessment course, and course on social work with older adults with a service-learning component are described in terms of quality, comparison to face-to-face courses, advantages, and disadvantages. These examples illustrate that online courses which are strategically and rigorously developed are comparable to face-to-face courses in many ways, including activities, assignments, assessments, outcomes, student quality, and methods of addressing academic dishonesty. Yet, differences exist in quality and quantity of interaction and skill development. Methods of ensuring quality are explored, including intense instructor presence, real time meetings online, and well-formulated discussion questions that require students to interact with the material and each other in ways that are potentially more demanding and engaging than courses taught face-to-face. Further challenges of technology, class size and requirement of additional faculty time are discussed, as well as clinical content that is currently more appropriately taught with a face-to-face component.

Establishing a Community of Inquiry through Hybrid Courses in Clinical Social Work Education

Utilizing the conceptual framework of Garrison, Anderson, and Archer for critical inquiry, this paper outlines the importance of the community of inquiry (COI) model and how it may inform online social work education. Integrating the COI model, we discuss how online learning in the classroom with a hybrid approach has been used to facilitate critical reflection and discourse. To illustrate this approach, we provide two case examples from clinical courses taught in an MSW program.

Simulated Family Therapy Interviews in Clinical Social Work Education

This article describes a learning method that employed theatre students as family clients in an advanced social work practice course. Students were provided with an opportunity to integrate and apply their learning of theory, clinical skills, and professional conduct in full-length family therapy sessions that occurred in the classroom and were videotaped for later review. Family therapy training methods provide the conceptual basis for this educational method. A detailed presentation of instructor actions, student activities, and participant feedback is offered. Qualitative data indicate that simulated family therapy interviews can provide effective learning experiences for MSW students.

Clinical Social Work Education in Palliative and End-of-Life Care

This paper describes the first post-Master's program in the US in end-of-life care for social workers. Developed at the Smith College School for Social Work, this program used innovative relational methods in student recruitment, curricular design, supervision, and leadership development, based upon input from the faculty, students, and field supervisors. Collaborations emerged with funders, agencies, and programs nationally. The program was based on a pedagogical stance that clinical work with dying people requires the capacity to be fully present-in individual, group, and family work; in interdisciplinary meetings; and in advocating for quality and equity of care-while attending to diverse and at-risk populations. Students deepened their clinical skills and took leadership in the field of end-of-life care.

Social Work Education and Clinical Learning

In response to a growing diversity of opinion regarding educational models and essential content in clinical social work education, this paper offers a perspective concerning graduate clinical curricula. Part I, the foundational piece of the paper, discusses the definition of clinical social work, social work’s core orientation and values, and influential contextual issues. The interrelated core orientations guiding knowledge and skill development are identified as the person-in-situation perspective and the concept of relationship. Based on this foundation, Part II identifies elements of a contemporary biopsychosocial knowledge base and essential clinical skills. This paper is intended to stimulate dialogue about a topic of importance to the profession and the clients it serves.

Irmgard Wessel: The Making of a Clinical Social Worker

Irmgard Wessel is a unique woman whose quiet, hard-working way generates ideals that are inspirational. With little fanfare, Irm's work has had a major impact in the field of clinical social work and clinical social work education. As each of us is inspired and encouraged by the knowledge of such exceptional social work clinicians, the discipline, as a whole, is enhanced. This paper describes not only Irmgard Wessel's career, but also adds a biographical understanding of her development from childhood to clinician, educator, and activist. It is about the making of an extraordinary clinical social worker.

Completing the Process Tapestry

Process recording is a valuable teaching tool in clinical social work education. It helps to identify and clarify the interview process, and provides meaningful content from which field instructors and students can have supervisory dialogue. The main intent of this article is to introduce two new components-themes and defenses-to the structured guidelines for process recording developed at the Loyola School of Social Work. These two new components will further assist students in processing and understanding interview content. Examples supporting this thesis are included. In addition, discourse is provided on how the new structured guideliens can work with any process recording modality.

Heresy about the social work clinical doctorate?

First I want to congratulate Dr. Lipusch and Dr. Shelby for their achievement. Everyone who helped make their accomplishment possible; family, faculty and those who support the Institute has reason to be proud of their contribution to this day. Your celebration marks an important advance for social work practice in our community because it adds to our profession's ability to serve those who turn to social work for help. Such a happy occasion probably would be better celebrated with song, and wine, but academic tradition requires that you hear something serious, perhaps uplifting, but hopefully brief. So please be patient while I talk about the role of advanced clinical social work education outside of the usual university setting. I do this not because the Institute needs to justify its role in society but because many social work educators are adamantly opposed to such a development. I would prefer they accepted my somewhat heretical approach to advanced clinical education. Heresy is my theme because a friend told me that a program similar to the Institute's was planned for Washington and asked my opinion about it. My friend asked a question. Many educators would react with downright hostility to such an idea. They have a right to be concerned about standards, especially in the light of NASW's abortive excursion into doctoral education with the Union Graduate School. However, we ought not arbitrarily dismiss the idea of free standing programs that are dedicated to promoting clinical education. Like its university counterparts the Institute seeks to expand the intellectual frontiers of the profession. Unlike many of them, even those that purport to be clinically oriented, the Institute seeks to expand the practice frontier by emphasizing the clinical preparation that is at the

An alternative model for curriculum building in clinical social work education: The California Institute for Clinical Social Work

The growth and development of the California Institute for Clinical Social Work has been parallelled by the enhanced professional contributions of its alumni. Of the 59 graduates of the Institute, ten hold academic positions in top-ranking institutions of higher learning while three more are the chief administrators of social agencies. The remainder devote their time to direct clinical practice. In a recent survey of alumni, all graduates commented in one form or another upon the fact that because of the program, their work was more rewarding personally and was more responsive to clients' needs because of the knowledge and skill that they had gained. The evolution begun in 1974 still continues. This novel program has been elaborated to meet changing needs. Study of its efficacy and flexibility will be pursued as its development proceeds.