Playing hide-and-seek: searching for the use of self in reflective social work practice

Abstract

With the increasing awareness of power and privilege in current theorizing, social workers are increasingly called upon to engage in critical self-reflection and develop strategies of reflective use of self in their practice. However, despite this call the use of self is disappearing from social work curricula. This paper presents an overview of findings from a small qualitative study exploring the use of self among reflective social work practitioners. In-depth collegial conversations were used to generate data. Narrative and discourse analysis were used to interpret the data. Findings are nuanced and textured reflecting the diversity of participants’ worldviews.

Keywords:

• reflective social work practice
• relationality
• self and other
• supervision
• training
• use of self

Acknowledgements

The authors are deeply grateful to their colleagues for participating in this study and for sharing their reflections and experiences so generously. They would also like to sincerely thank the reviewers and editors of Reflective Practice for sharp critical insights. The authors would like to state that no funding was received for writing this paper or for conducting the research on which this paper is based.