Feelings of incompetence - Is Cultural Competency Enough?

 Hello Friend, 

I hope you are doing well.

Today I wanted to share my thoughts about a certain aspect of social work education that sort of bothers me.

After completing my BSW, I was thinking about what my future plans are for my career. I am hoping to move to South Korea in the future and practice social work there. I realized though that at the moment, my education had not prepared me much for this at all. From my experience, it appears that the curriculum fully focuses on working with American clients, in America. International Social Work or practicing in another country is just not discussed at all. 

I understand that I am in the minority here, as only approximately 2.7% of Americans end up moving abroad (link). Even if someone does not plan on moving out of the United States, students are graduating unprepared to be able to work with clients in other countries. A majority of social work education in the United States focuses on cultural competency. While that is important, it is often done so from the perspective of not being in the minority. If one were to work in a country or with clients from a country where the social worker would be in the minority, the education would not be as helpful. When looking to my future, I am met with a feeling of uncertainty. I am White, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Christian Male, so I am VERY much not used to being in the minority. I have lived my life surrounded by privilege and not having really lived in a position where I can properly experience being the minority. I feel like my education has not helped me to prepare for the inevitable shock I will get upon becoming the minority when I move to South Korea and having to be culturally competent to the majority. 

In terms of going forward, I believe that it should become mandatory in social work undergraduate programs to have training on international social work. While I do like the National Association of Social Workers (I hope to do an article on the membership experience of this soon), in my BSW experience, I do not recall a teacher ever mentioning the International Federation of Social Workers. Having at least one class solely dedicated to international social work and preparing students to be able to work with clients in other countries and possibly move and practice in a country other than the USA, is critical. 

What are your thoughts on this issue? Do you think I should do further research on this issue? Do you feel like there are any areas where your degree has not prepared you for your career goals?

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Benjamin B.

Book Review: The Body Keeps the Score

 

Hello Friend,

I hope you are doing well.

Today I would like to talk about the book, The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk. This is an incredible book that I highly recommend reading. It is very easy to find this book on Amazon or at your local bookstore (I picked mine up at the lovely Park Road Books in Charlotte, NC). This book does an excellent job of describing trauma and the way it affects our entire bodies as well as our brain. Bessel van der Kolk's goes over his own journey of learning about trauma in his very expansive career in the mental health field. Given his experience though, he does sometimes use vocabulary that may not be the easiest for everyone to understand. As part of my self-care routine, I like to read a book for an hour every night before bed and not look at any screens. With this book, I found that I had to also bring my dictionary to bed with me. I do not believe that this should deter non-social workers from reading this book, as it paints a very detailed picture of trauma that everyone should see in order to understand trauma victims' brains. 

I must warn that this book can be challenging to read at times. It deals with trauma and traumatizing events without holding back. The book talks about violent and bloody acts, rape, child molestation, and many other triggering stories. So be warned about that when going in. 

One thing that caught my eye with this book is its description of a variety of treatments for trauma, that were not your traditional medication treatment or psychotherapy sessions. He describes using EMDR, yoga, bio-feedback, and many other methods for treating trauma. I found EMDR to be really interesting and I would like to get to do more research on it. I found mixed sources about it online, with some saying it works really well while others say otherwise. I talked to two social workers that I know personally about their thoughts on it, and they both said that they believe EMDR to be an effective and legitimate treatment, so I may consider going to a seminar or workshop for it in the future. 

The treatment that I mainly look forward to doing more research on and most likely using in my future practice is Internal Family Systems Therapy. The book did a good job of touching the basic points of this therapeutic practice. I was very lucky that at my local library book sale, I was able to find a book on it so I can read about it more in-depth. For me, this book touches on many points and covers just enough so you understand the purpose of a treatment (and it feels justified to be in the book), but it also makes you crave to learn more about them and is very motivating to research them on your own. 

So overall, I believe that this is a great book for social work students (and really anyone else who is curious) to get an excellent introduction to trauma and the effects it has on the body (as well as treatment options). I kind of wish that this would be assigned reading in the BSW program, but at the same time I know quite a few people that would instantly lose interest in it as soon as it becomes assigned reading, so maybe just having people come across it on their own or by word of mouth is the best course. My field advisor was the one who recommended this book to me, and as a result we started sharing books with each other and came to really trusting each other's opinions on books. 

Go check out this book and let me know what you think about it!

Keep reading!

Sincerely,

Benjamin B.

Graduation Day

 Hello Friend,

I hope you are doing well.

As of 5/6/2022, I now have my Bachelor's in Social Work. It feels almost unreal that I now have a social work credential. I can do some basic social work jobs and could apply to get my Certified Social Worker (CSW) licensure. I am looking forward to beginning my Master's Degree, in July. I will be beginning my Graduate education and I don't know what to expect. I will be participating my school's first year of offering an online MSW program. It recently received accreditation from the CSWE. I also am looking forward to finding out what my next field placement will be. 

With earning my BSW, I am still processing my emotions in order to understand the full impact of receiving my degree. I think I will feel more impact with my MSW as then I will be done with my school education (until I decide to go back in a couple years to get my doctorate). My lack of any super strong emotions (or at least not registering them), makes me wonder if imposter syndrome is starting to appear. This has been one of my biggest fears since I learned about it in my classes. I struggle with doubting myself and I do worry that this will carry into my career. This fear is probably one of the reasons I am so fascinated with studying ethics and ethical decision making models, as it helps me feel like I am making more informed and educated decisions in my work. I am hoping that this will go away with time. Do you have any of these doubts or fears? If so, do you have any tips? I do know for sure that I want to keep going as I do have a passion to help others. I believe that this drive will help push me forward, past the doubts I struggle with. I hope this is not a naive assumption to make. 

Have you graduated recently?

I hope to talk again soon!

Sincerely,

Benjamin B

Ethics Template

 Hello Friend,

I hope you are doing well.

I made a research tool that I wanted to share with you all. If you are working on any project and you want to look at the NASW Code of Ethics and see how the various ethical standards apply to your project, I made a template for recording relevant information related to each standard. The last couple of blank sections are in case you need more space for a section. I hope it is helpful for you and your projects! 

Sincerely,

Benjamin B.

P.S. - Four days till graduation!