State how your colleague’s examples of spirituality’s influence in client relationships resonate with you.
Respond by Day 5 to at least two colleagues in one of the following ways:
State how your colleague’s examples of spirituality’s influence in client relationships resonate with you. Provide support for your perspective.
State whether you are likely to use your client’s strategy in your own social work practice, and explain why.
Be sure to support your responses with specific references to the resources. If you are using additional articles, be sure to provide full APA-formatted citations for your references.
Discussion below
All persons that I have come across in life have some kind of spiritual belief, or religion in them. When a person has an experience that they cannot explain they usually attribute it to a higher power. For some people that might be praying in a building with a congregation and for others it might be being in connection with nature. “As individuals, all practitioners subscribe to belief systems that influence how they conduct their daily lives and interactions with others” (Furness, and Gilligan, 2010). I was raised Roman-Catholic, but since then I have experienced other religions and practices. As a social worker I must be open to what my clients’ belief are based on; even if Jesus-Christ is not part of that belief, they find their “God” hugging a tree; or they do not believe in something bigger than themselves.
If the client has other religious beliefs than mine, I need to know that to be able to help improve their overall being. For example, I don’t know too much about the Muslim religion, but it is important for me to know how that religion enhances my client’s wellbeing, or how the separation from the practice is affecting my client. If a client says that they find God walking in the woods and that is going to enhance their wellbeing, then that is something I need to support even if my religious beliefs are different. As proposed by Crisp (2011), encouraging wellbeing involves a holistic approach to social work including the acknowledgement of the role of their beliefs in their lives. “Moreover, it has been claimed that failing to address religious dimensions results in unethical practice” (Amato-von Hemert, 1994; Hodge, 2005, as cited in Crisp).
I feel that religion or spirituality could only enhance the effort to help a client in their overall wellbeing. From a very basic perspective without including my religious principles, I believe in something greater than myself. This belief enhances my day to day activities through practices of prayer and meditation. I consider that having a client with no beliefs at all could present a barrier. An agnostic or atheist client would present a challenge to that concept, and in the way that I could enhance this client’s wellbeing holistically.
As a strategy, I understand that it is important to ask my clients their religious beliefs or spirituality and to know how these beliefs have affected their lives. Moreover, “the inclusion of spirituality and religion within social work is supported by the profession, including mandates from the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) (Barker, 2007). “Social workers should be alert to the fact that their clients may have significant religious or spiritual beliefs and values and be familiar with the commonalities across various religious doctrines” (Zastrow, and Kirst-Ashman, 2019).
References:
Barker, S. L. (2007). The Integration of Spirituality and Religion Content in Social Work Education: Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going. Social Work & Christianity, 34(2), 146–166.
Crisp, B. R. (2011). If a Holistic Approach to Social Work Requires Acknowledgement of Religion, What Does This Mean for Social Work Education?, Social Work Education, 30(6), 663-674, DOI: 10.1080/02615479.2011.586564
Furness, S., & Gilligan, P. (2010). Social Work, Religion and Belief: Developing a Framework for Practice. British Journal of Social Work, 40(7), 2185–2202. http://track.smtpsendemail.com/9064971/c?p=Ukv3NvBO72ZvI7piXl3qZFpEPg9BnbIy-eIgHTmZRuJMflyelFdg0DBuWrenFUFjNvm5POfG65NAzAlwS6xMPprOcgBBEABC85KL5iQnexptUDQuNTsB1ZSbJVkcQaHJtou2on-_QNApm9wLwqXc9uylaqu_tNG1rgeLQLEa7RBQIxSlJlYsjWWxqHEiEJac
Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2019). Understanding human behavior and the social environment (11th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
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