Communication Skills for Reflective Practice

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 withDiscussion of ethical decision-making as part of our everyday practiceExploration of confidentiality, particularly in relation to situations when it may need to be breachedCulturally safe practice is given more emphasis throughout the textLinks with the application of skills in group work and family practice