Direct work with children – the practitioner's perspective

Abstract

Direct work with children is a social work technique widely used by practitioners involved with children who have experienced trauma and abuse. Whilst there is an abundance of literature about how to do direct work and ‘successful’ pieces of work there is little written about practitioners experiences of the work. This article seeks to identify some of the difficulties and dilemmas practitioners, including the author, face undertaking direct work. It makes recommendations of ways in which social work structures and resources might be altered to ensure that direct work is of benefit to the children it seeks to help and that practitioners are able to maintain their commitment to it.