Day 19 @ Care Corner Field Seminar #2

Field seminar was GOOODDD!!!! Let's call the field tutor FT. I appreciate FT's candid response and strong opinions. That is refreshing in a time when everything about values seem so relative - no right, no wrong. I always believe that in certain issues, standards should and must exist.

I also appreciate the way he asked questions.. most of which I couldn't answer.
At one point, he got us to indicate where we are in our goal achievement on a scale of 1-10. I placed myself at 3/10. 2 others placed themselves there. The rest were at 1 or 2 or 5. It was comforting to have 2 others. I don't think 3/10 at this point is bad. The journey has just begun (gonna end equally soon though). I'll move one point per week. That'd nice. Then he got us to share why we placed ourselves at whichever point and got students to listen and provide solutions. Afterwhich, he asked us how it felt to hear solutions from someone else.

I responded and said I felt uneasy and hearing solutions felt a little unnecessary. Because (at the risk of sounding overly self-sufficient and pompous), I believe that I have the answer to my own problem. Translate it to a client, I believe the client has the answers - the role of a worker isn't to provide solutions. That would grossly undermine their capacity. FT replied and said "Isn't exploring alternatives equivalent to providing solutions? Are SWers really agents of empowerment or advocates of social control?". I have no answer to that. Perhaps, the difference lies in the way in which we approach exploring alternatives with the clients? What do you think?

Topics covered included supervision, supervisor-supervisee r/s and how we should do our best to tap into this r/s, as well as theory utilization.

What has been helpful for me in supervision thus far..
- the regular sessions.. the regularity of it. Hahaha I'm a quality time person.
- sups' understanding stance.
- that I'm given the space to explore and make mistakes.
- the honesty.. in confronting tricky issues.
- not spoon-feeding me.

What would improve supervision
- ask me more questions? Especially for counseling case.. qns like "Why do you think I asked that question?"
- show me where theory is being utilized and what theory. Sometimes I really cannot see theory being used and I don't know what is being used.

FT also went through what he thinks are perspectives, theories and models..

Perspectives... systems perspective, ecological perspective, strengths perspective, feminist perspective. Perspectives do not explain why certain things happen.

Theories.. Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory of development, cognitive theory.. Theories must explain things.

Models... Satir model, Bowen's Family Therapy, Crisis Intervention Model... Models are kinda like put together combining theory and perspective.

Practice frameworks.. when you put all the above together.

Most of all, it was good to hear that I'm not alone in the uncertainty I'm facing.. other students have it worse.. sharing the same sup with another student.. I think comparison then becomes almost so legitimately inevitable and necessary. Scary. And those female students who have male sups.. makes it difficult to share feelings. Oh my.. that's bad, cos I think social work can be emotionally draining. A friend was sharing about office dynamics and how she was frustrated about not being able to deal with it. My take is that social work itself isn't so scary, it's probably office dynamics that make it scary/tricky.