Working with People eBook

Communication Skills for Reflective Practice

Second Edition

Louise Harms

Working with People eBook

Communication Skills for Reflective Practice

Second Edition

Louise Harms

ISBN:

9780195596281

Binding:

Ebook

Published:

13 Nov 2015

Availability:

Available

Series:

$76.95 AUD

$87.99 NZD

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Other options: Paperback $84.95 AUD $97.99 NZD

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Description

Social workers are committed to making a difference at individual and structural levels. We listen and respond to the unique stories of each person, family, group or community. For this reason, good communication skills are fundamental to engaging and working with others about their needs and rights. Working with People explores the place and challenges of communication, interviewing and counselling skills within the context of social work and human service practice.

This book focuses particularly on the following areas of social work practice:
  • Applying a multidimensional approach, which not only acknowledges all the dimensions of an individual’s experiences, but also suggests that any responses by practitioners need to be multidimensional, addressing both cause and consequence. 
  • Drawing on practitioner experiences this book looks at diverse and uncontrollable settings as expected components of practice, rather than as surprises that interrupt a more controlled counselling approach.
  • Thinking beyond the first point of contact, this book identifies skills across a range of human service work encounters so that you can move beyond the first interview or the first contact point to your assessment formulations and intervention planning.
  • Practising in a critical, reflective way, scenarios and exercises encourage you to think about your own communication style and your approaches to practice with people: how it has developed over your life course, the ways in which it impacts on communication with others.
NEW TO THIS EDITION
  • New chapter exploring mindfulness skills for social work practice which are relevant not only to our direct work with clients, but also to ourselves for our own self-care 
  • Integrated case scenarios across many chapters so that you can see the development of skills and interventions, and the diversity of approaches that our practice theories provide us with
  • Discussion of ethical decision-making as part of our everyday practice
  • Exploration of confidentiality, particularly in relation to situations when it may need to be breached
  • Culturally safe practice is given more emphasis throughout the text
  • Links with the application of skills in group work and family practice

Contents

Part 1: Framing the Relationship

Chapter 1: Working Towards Change

Experiences of human adversity 

Why do we have human services? 

Who is involved in human service work? 

Core values in the client–social worker relationship 

Transforming values into practice 

Chapter 2: Understanding Communication and Change 

Understanding communication 

Communication as a process 

Verbal communication processes

Non-verbal communication processes

Individual and collective communication processes

Chapter 3: Theorising Communication and Change 

The influences on our listening

Paradigms and worldviews 

Theoretical knowledge 

Factual knowledge 

Stages of change 

Consumer perspectives 

Practice knowledge or wisdom

A multidimensional approach

Part 2: Forming the Relationship

Chapter 4: Skills for Your ‘Use of Self’
Why the ‘use of self ’ is an important concept for social workers
Your use of self in context
The purpose of your agency
Chapter 5: Self-Care Skills
Self-care: Managing the impacts of your work
Supervision
Debriefing and psychological first aid
Chapter 6: Engagement Skills
Preparing to meet
Confidentiality 
Using self-disclosure 

Part 3: Focusing your Communication

Chapter 7: Listening and Questioning Skills
The task of establishing the story
What other verbal skills can I use to establish and clarify the story?
Chapter 8: Reflecting Skills: Paraphrasing and Summarising
Building a deeper understanding of people’s experiences
Active listening in practice
Chapter 9: Assessment Skills
Moving towards an assessment formulation
Who is the assessment for?
What are some of the challenges in the assessment process?
What assessment frameworks are used?
A multidimensional assessment framework
What interventions are used?
How do we set the goals for the work?
Chapter 10: Ethical Decision-Making and Risk Assessment Skills
Shifting to a focus on risk
Threatening behaviour towards self and others 
Revisiting confidentiality 

Part 4: Focusing Your Interventions: Skills for Theoretically Informed Practice 

Chapter 11: Psychodynamic and Cognitive Behavioural Approaches and Skills
Psychodynamic approaches to practice
Cognitive behavioural approaches to practice
Strengths and limitations of these skills
Chapter 12: Narrative and Solution-Focused Approaches and Skills
Narrative approaches to practice
Solution-focused approaches to practice
Strengths and limitations of these skills
Chapter 13: Feminist and Critical Social Work Approaches and Skills
Feminist and critical social work approaches to practice
Strengths and limitations of these skills
Chapter 14: Mindfulness Approaches and Skills
Mindfulness approaches to practice
Strengths and limitations of these skills
Chapter 15: Task-Centred and Crisis-Intervention Approaches and Skills
Task-centred approaches to practice
Crisis-intervention approaches to practice 
Strengths and limitations of these approaches 

Part 5: Finishing the Work

Chapter 16: Ending and Evaluating Skills
Thinking about finishing the work
The tasks of finishing the work
A final word on strengths, optimism and communication

Authors

Louise Harms is an Associate Professor and Director at University of Melbourne

Sample Pages

Read a sample of Working with People, Second Edition:

Chapter 1: Working towards change