Essential Knowledge for Clinical Social Work Practice: Social Work Faculty Perspectives

ABSTRACT

Clinical social work educators have a critical role in defining clinical social work and conveying their understanding through their teaching. While there have been a few conceptual articles that have defined clinical social work, there is little empirical research conducted on this topic. In this study, we asked 15 social work faculty teaching advanced clinical social work practice how they defined clinical social work, particularly what core concepts, principles, and theories or frameworks that guided clinical social work. The results indicate that participants conceptualized clinical social work drawing upon the concept of person-in-environment and the therapeutic relationship. Furthermore, participants identified teaching a range of psychological theories but emphasizing a psychodynamic orientation. Furthermore, participants identified multi-level analysis and a commitment to diversity and social justice as important concepts that they wanted students to recognize about clinical social work. This article, through the voices of clinical social work faculty, challenges the field of clinical social work to define what their commitment to social justice means and reflect on how we are responding to criticisms and moving forward as a field.

KEYWORDS:

• clinical social work
• social work education
• person-in-environment
• therapeutic relationship
• social justice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Advanced Practice is the language that was used in the 2008 version of the CSWE Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS); the 2015 version uses Specialized Practice. Both languages refer to the level of practice that is distinguished from Foundational Practice (in the 2008 version) or Generalist Practice (in the 2015 version).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rani Varghese

Rani Varghese, MSW, Ed.D. is an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work at Adelphi University. Dr. Varghese’s clinical experience has been in the context of college campuses supporting survivors of gender based violence Her research focuses on social work education, clinical social work, social justice practices and principles, and intergroup dialogue.

Hye Kyung Kang

Hye Kyung Kang, PhD is an Associate Professor and Director of the Social Work Program at Seattle University. Dr. Kang’s research focuses on postcolonial social work practice, community organizing and mobilization in immigrant communities and communities of color, cultural citizenship, and critical pedagogy.