Clinical Social Work

The field of Clinical Social Work is a broad entity of overlapping physical spaces and interpersonal connections through which individuals in need are encouraged to explore their whole selves. Clinician and a client come together to develop a trusting relationship derived from asking questions and staying curious about the human condition, teasing apart intricacies of questions such as “Why is one here?” “What needs are not being met?” “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” “What changes can be made to highlight your capabilities?” To be in the care of a clinical social worker involves describing problems and patterns of the client, as well as reviewing their historical development in the hope of linking these factors together. By doing so, client and clinician can begin to explore various dynamics of the client’s past or present struggles as they are recreated within treatment setting and the therapeutic relationship.

By drawing upon a wide array of theories as well as studies of cultural and environmental variables, the field promotes an awareness of multiple ways of being. Though the promotion of multiple lenses seldom upholds the execution of anti-racism, anti-discrimination, and non-biased practice one hundred percent of the time, the purpose here is to constantly remind clinicians that they, as well as all humans are susceptible to be strengthened or weaker by a range of circumstances, needs, biology, and resources. In this way, Clinical Social work aims to bridge the binary thinking present in other fields of mental healthcare, which tend to reduce such intricacies to pathologies with little room for a conception of the individual outside of one specific