Running Head: SOCIAL WORK: REFLECTIVE AND COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE

Social Work: Reflective and Collaborative Practice

Hannah Wirkkunen

SOWK699 – University of Calgary

March 7, 2019

Dan Wulff
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Advocates of post-structuralism reason that reality and meaning is uniquely

contextual, as such, there is no uniform all-inclusive reality or universality (Combs &

Freedman, 2012). Rather, post-structuralists seek to acknowledge and understand the

meaning that individuals give to their unique experiences and perceived realities. As

social workers, it is critical to acknowledge and respect these unique realities and lived

experiences when interacting with clients. The ideas of Tom Andersen and Harlene

Anderson similarly draw upon the aforementioned ideas that now guide and support

contemporary post-structural social work practice with families and individuals. The

philosophies of Collaborative Therapy and Reflecting Processes that most closely align

with my personal and professional values and beliefs include honoring and respecting

the client as expert, acknowledging that social work and clinical practice is a mutually

transformative experience and lastly the significance of language within relationship.

Social work practice has evolved over time allowing helpers to select theories

and approaches that more closely align with their personal values and beliefs, as well

as the unique experiences and needs of their clients. Likewise, child welfare or child

intervention practice has also evolved over time. In Canada, Alberta included, child

welfare practice initially focused upon level of risk, however, overtime, this practice has

evolved into a strengths-based approach that seeks to acknowledge and honor the

strengths present within families, despite experiencing identified difficulties. I believe

that the ideas offered by Tom Andersen and Harlene Anderson align with my clinical

practice experiences within the child welfare system, specifically working with youth and

young adults. In my experience within Alberta’s Ministry of Children’s Services, each of

the aforementioned components of Collaborative Therapy can be utilized in clinical

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practice with families and youth while still abiding by both agency and legislative

requirements.

The Alberta child intervention system supports youth and young adults until the

age of 24, meaning that youth who reach the age of 18 while in care, are eligible to sign

a legal agreement between themselves and the department to receive ongoing support,

including financial and emotional maintenance. In the city of Red Deer, there is a

designated youth services team who work alongside young adults between the ages of

16 to 24. The mandate is to support lasting healthy transitions into adulthood, including

relational, physical, cultural and legal connections. Every youth supported into

adulthood has a unique lived experience resulting in incredible strengths and resiliency.

It is also necessary to consider the complex needs that youth may be or have

experienced, such as trauma including abuse and sexual exploitation, addiction and

mental health challenges, teen pregnancy, homelessness, and justice system

involvement, among others (Smyth, 2017). Additionally, similar to other social

institutions, there is an overrepresentation of indigenous children and youth within the

intervention system requiring a unique approach to practice. While many of these youth

have been in care from infancy or childhood, youth often have ongoing relationships

with their biological parents or caregivers from previous placements. These

relationships can be multifaceted and at times youth request support in navigating the

complexities. However, I believe that the most important contributor to clinical practice is

the formation of a positive therapeutic alliance between the helper and the client. Perry

(as cited in Smyth, 2017) explains that opportunities for healing and positive change

occur within safe and healthy relationships, furthermore, respect and trust must be
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present within the helping relationship in order for youth to address their intrapersonal,

interpersonal and other challenges.

I believe that an important component of forming a positive therapeutic alliance

with a client involves honoring the client as the expert. This includes respecting client’s

unique lived experiences, contextual realities, identified preferences and their right to

self-determination. As mentioned above, because there are no universal truths, we as

humans each develop distinctive realities based upon personalized interpretations of

our lived experiences. Both Tom Andersen and Harlene Anderson’s work reference the

importance of viewing clients as the expert in order to work in a collaborative manner.

Part of working alongside youth within children’s services involves ensuring youth

successfully transition into adulthood, including identifying and achieving associated

goals. In my practice, youth are encouraged to be active participants including

identifying their own goals and collaboratively defining success. Harlene (2012)

emphasized that clients are experts of their own lived experiences, as such, clients

should be afforded the opportunity to co-plan their own therapy.

I recall working with a youth client who was struggling with addiction. This

particular youth moved to Central Alberta from a large Ontario city where he frequently

experienced homelessness. As a fairly new child welfare worker, my immediate concern

was to address the level of risk and concern for safety. While attempting explain the

importance of collaboratively developing a safety plan to address the risk associated

with substance use, the youth interjected and advised that he independently navigated

the city streets for many years and understands the risk associated with his behavior. It

was then that I realized that what I believed to be collaborative was actually me
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operating as the expert. In doing so, I failed to recognize his own lived experience.

Rather, an alternative approach would have consisted of me and the client

collaboratively identifying and naming the problem, followed by a discussion of

contextually appropriate interventions (Strong, 2000). Strong also emphasizes the

importance of developing solutions based upon the lived experiences and preferences

of our clients, while continuing to abide by our ethical and legislative mandates. This

idea aligns with the importance of acknowledging that as helpers, we can never

completely know another person other than ourselves.

Smyth (2017) describes the working relationship as a process of continuously

being informed by the client and in this process, we are always learning more, both from

what the client has said, and what the client has not said. In addition to building a

positive and collaborative relationship with youth, both Anderson and Andersen

describe working relationships as mutually transformative experiences. As social

workers, we often discuss a client’s stage of change within the transtheoretical model in

association with their goals. However, as professionals it is also important to consider

our own willingness to be changed within the process of helping. As humans, social

workers possess values, biases and beliefs that have the power to form preconceived

hypotheses or judgements before genuinely interacting with a client, or family. Similarly,

Anderson and Goolishian (2018) believe that such judgements can be used as

opportunities for curiosity to explore deeper, but in order to do so, we must be willing to

have our values, beliefs and judgements challenged and even changed. I believe this is

especially important within the child intervention system as our decisions can have

devastating impacts for family systems. Within helping relationships, once a positive
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therapeutic alliance has been formed, mutual exchanges occur between the helper and

the client (Andersen, 1987). Andersen believed that because each person has

developed their own unique understanding and conceptualization of reality, ongoing

shared and exchanged views provide an opportunity to consider alternative

perspectives. Ultimately, contributing to the mutually transformative experience of

therapy. In my experience working with youth and their families, I have allowed myself

to be vulnerable in the sense that I am willing to have my beliefs challenged and even

changed. I am open and willing to learn from my clients in our partnered journey.

When working with youth, some have experienced negative relationships with

adults, specifically those in positions of authority, including social workers. A unique

method of extending appreciation to youth who have influenced one’s practice or

challenged one’s beliefs, includes writing a letter acknowledging these experiences. Dr.

William Masden (as cited in Smyth, 2017) encourages helpers to remind youth that they

are respected and thank youth for their contributions to our professional learning and

development. I believe that writing a letter to youth provides an opportunity to reflect

upon our work as helpers, but also requires us to search for the language to sufficiently

describe the experience of truly being with our clients.

Tom Andersen and Harlene Anderson both wrote extensively about the

importance of language within relationships, believing that human systems generate

both language and meaning, including therapeutic relationships (Anderson &

Goolishian, 1988). In line with Tom Andersen’s philosophies, helpers engage with

clients in a way that further develops their own understanding of the client’s perception

of lived experience and conceptualization of their self-identified problem. I believe that

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allowing clients the space to discuss their own perception of the problem is especially

important within mandated agencies, such as child intervention or other systems such

as corrections. This space provides clients with an opportunity to share their lived

experiences in relation to their perceptions of reality and the meaning they associate

with the identified problem. The meanings that we apply to our experiences are context

specific and evolve over time depending upon or interactions, including therapeutic

interactions with helpers, such as social workers. Client’s may also have not yet had an

opportunity to share the meaning they associate with their lived experiences. This is

important, because Tom Andersen believed that when clients have an opportunity to

share verbally their inner dialogue for the first time, both the client and helper can be

impacted in new ways (Gehart, 2018). I believe that this practice allows social workers

to be intentional and thoughtful in their attempt to best understand a client’s experience.

Further, as humans, we are members of systems that are constantly evolving

and changing based upon the language we use to interact with others and ourselves

(Anderson & Goolishian, 1988). These interactions and experiences influence our

individualized and shared realities. Anderson and Goolishian maintained that systems

such as families have unique modes of interacting based upon their shared

experiences, contextualized meaning and applied language, and over time, these

methods may evolve. When families experience challenges, helpers such as social

workers may be invited or mandated to provide support. The helper must attempt to

learn, understand and interact using the family or client’s language. Anderson and

Goolishian also explained that the language used by individuals and systems such as
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families is a metaphor for their lived experiences. For example, the words and

associated meanings that clients use are representative of their contextual realities.

Although, as I mentioned, we can never truly and completely understand another

individual, the helper and client can collaboratively generate meaning together that best

reflects the perceptions of those involved in the system, such as family members or

friends. Further, I also believe that by allowing client’s the space to apply their own

meaning to an identified problem, us as helpers are provided with a new perspective

and language that can contribute to our own evolving and ever-changing realities. As

previously mentioned, all human systems generate both meaning and language based

upon social interactions and shared experiences, the space shared between a social

worker and client is also privy to such changes. This is an opportunity to co-create

meaning with clients in our attempts to understand those who we share spaces with.

While not all social workers guide their practice based upon the ideas of Tom

Andersen and Harlene Anderson, these approaches to practice do align with the values

and principles outlined by the Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW). The

practice of respecting all clients as experts of their lived experience abides by the

CASW value to respect and uphold the inherent worth and dignity of all clients.

Honoring clients as experts of their own realities, respects their right to self-

determination (CASW, 2005) and allows clients to make decisions for themselves based

upon their self-identified goals. Further, the action of allowing clients to identify their

personalized definitions of problems, goals and success, honors the CASW value of

service to humanity by supporting clients in pursuit of their unique goals. Lastly, while

helping relationships are identified as mutually transformative, it is recognized that the

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therapeutic alliance is formed in order to serve the needs of the client, in accordance

with the principle of integrity within professional practice (CASW, 2005). The principles

and approaches utilized within Reflecting Practices and Collaborative Therapy not only

abide by the Canadian Association of Social Workers, but also provides an opportunity

for social workers to truly work with our clients in pursuit of their preferred lives.
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References

Andersen, T. (1987). The reflecting team: Dialogue and meta-dialogue in clinical work.

Family Process, 26, 415-428.

Anderson, H., & Goolishian, H. (1988). Human systems as linguistic systems:

Preliminary and evolving ideas about the implications for clinical theory. Family

Process, 27(4), 371-393.

Anderson, H. (2012). Collaborative relationships and dialogic conversations: Ideas for a

relationally responsive therapy. Family Process, 51(1), 8-24.

Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW). (2005). Code of ethics. Retrieved

from https://casw-acts.ca/en/Code-of-Ethics/casw-code-ethics-values-and-

principles

Combs, G., & Freedman, J. (2012). Narrative, poststructuralism, and social justice:

Current practices in narrative therapy. The Counseling Psychologist, 40(7), 1033-

1060.

Gehart, D. R. (2018). The legacy of Tom Andersen: The ethics of reflecting processes.

Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 44(3), 386-392.

Government of Alberta, Children’s Services. (2018). Practice Strategies for Lifelong

Connections.

Shotter, J. (2015). Tom Andersen, fleeting events, the bodily feelings they arouse in us,

and the dialogical: Transitory understandings and action guiding anticipations.

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 36, 72-87.

Smyth, P. (2017). Working with high-risk youth: A relationship-based practice

framework. New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

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Strong, T. (2000). Six orienting ideas for collaborative counsellors. European Journal of

Psychotherapy & Counselling, 3(1), 25-42.