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Clinical social work practice in organisational settings is complex and challenging. Effective practice is contingent on knowledge and skills that are particular for systems-based work involving multiple interprofessional mental health practitioners and clients interacting in a relational matrix. Yet, not all social work theories and constructs that were developed for application in individual, group, and family modalities are directly transferable to the practice environment of a treatment system. This paper offers a conceptual framework that synthesises contemporary psychodynamic theory with systems theory – referred to as a psychodynamic systems approach – to inform and advance knowledge of systems-based social work practice. This approach considers the interplay of dynamic processes among the four levels of the socially co-constructed system which constitute the system as a whole. It examines how five key clinical phenomena – transference, countertransference, splitting, projective identification and enactment – are actualised in systems. Definitions of these phenomena formulated from a dyadic perspective and a contemporary psychodynamic systems approach are offered, and their similarities and differences are discussed. A composite case example is provided to illustrate how several of these phenomena manifest in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recognition of the importance of relationship and working alliance for effective social work supervision, psycho-social factors serve to influence the relational dynamics, impacting on functions such as case discussions and decisions and practitioner welfare and learning. Attachment theory provides an insightful lens for understanding these pivotal aspects of social work supervision and how supervisors may adapt their approach. This paper synthesises the literature linking attachment theory to supervision in social work and the allied discipline of psychotherapy, which is relevant to this lens. Consideration is given to the implications of the different adult attachment patterns of supervisors and supervisees, for their working alliance, the supervision process and social work practice more generally. Further thought is given to the notion of supervision within organisations as a secure base and the impact this may have for supervision practice and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African social workers and psychologists have called for the utility of ubuntu philosophy in the fields of social work and psychology. Ubuntu is an African philosophy that is based on humanness, kindness, communality, socio-structural issues such as social justice, and human rights. This paper explores the philosophy of ubuntu guided by the seven modalities of the multimodal approach, which are behaviour, effect, sensation, imagery, cognition, interpersonal relationships and drugs/biology. The article suggests that ubuntu as an African philosophy has potential to contribute two modalities in addition to the seven modalities in the multimodal approach by the South African psychologist Arnold Lazarus. It argues that ubuntu contributes two domains in assessments and these are as follows: the person-physical environment relationship and the spiritual relationship. Given the emphasis on eco-spiritually informed social work, this paper calls for the adoption of these two modalities for the assessment and intervention plans in social work practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While recognition that some service users do not want social work involvement has grown in recent years, little research has explored what relationships between social workers and 'involuntary clients' look and feel like in practice and how they are conducted in real time. This paper draws from research that observed long-term social work practice in child protection and shows how relationships based on mutual suspicion and even hate were sustained over the course of a year, or broke down. Drawing on a range of psycho-social theories, the paper adds to the literature on relationship-based practice by developing the concept of a 'hostile relationship'. The findings show how hostile relationships were enacted through conflict and resistance – especially on home visits – and how anxiety and other intense feelings were often avoided by individuals and organisations. Much more needs to be done to help social workers recognise and tolerate hostility and hate, to not retaliate and to enact compassion and care towards service users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supportive psychotherapy (SP) continues to be an indispensible psychotherapeutic approach for a range of mental health diagnoses, taught to and practiced by psychiatrists and other mental health professionals. However, confusion abounds when attempting to delineate the boundaries of its intervention strategies, its theoretical foundation, processes of change, and distinct efficacy as compared with other approaches—and even its definition. The primary aims of this paper are three-fold: (1) to review the theoretical foundations of SP, (2) to advance a clearer identity for SP and (3) most importantly, to incorporate contemporary theoretical approaches to inform the practice of SP. The paper argues for a re-visioning of SP, in order that it may endure as a viable and distinct psychotherapeutic approach, in both modern-day practice and research contexts. Such re-visioning includes the incorporation of contemporary relational theory and findings from neuroscience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professionals working with families in difficulty require a structured space to consider their work. As organisations and the systems within and across them become more sophisticated it seems that less attention is being paid to the emotional and psychological aspects of working with families than to the paperwork and processes that surround the work. Systems psychodynamic theory and the methodical reflective practices it underpins offers a suitable framework in which to consider practicing and researching in this emotionally complex field. This paper describes one aspect of a small doctoral study designed to provide a sustained reflective space (Work Discussion Group) to Irish child protection social workers in order to closely explore the reality of their practice experience. This paper explores one worker's experience of bringing a written account of her work with a family to the WDG. Findings suggest that her work was undertaken in a climate concerned with efficiency, certainty and the reduction of risk. This climate evoked anxiety and reduced opportunities for reflective and considered practice. The work discussion group provided containment for this worker's anxiety and allowed her to make sense of this anxiety and its accompanying defences and to move closer to working with this family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognition and shame are both concepts that potentially offer social workers a structure to build practice on; two states experienced by both social workers and service users. ‘Recognition’, within social, political and economic thought, has been established as a field in which inequality and exclusion can be analysed. Social work theorists have also made inroads into exploring its reach. ‘Shame’ in twentieth century and contemporary sociological and psychoanalytical accounts, is understood as a force in limiting human agency, well-being and capacity This paper briefly outlines some of the defining ideas in circulation in relation to recognition and shame, and then briefly considers how psychoanalytical and contemporary social structural analysis builds on this, making links to contemporary social work thinking throughout. The paper also specifically considers some of the uses of recognition and shame for thinking about social worker and service user ‘well-being’, and the connections, through both the relational and the socio-political, which inflect social work practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the United Kingdom as elsewhere, children across the age range are now being adopted from care. Some of these children, by no means all, are expressing additional physical, emotional, behavioural and educational needs. In consequence, the government has introduced legislation and attendant policies aimed at providing adoptive families with support. In 2013, in the northwest of England, a specialist post-adoption support service was established, and an illuminative evaluation of its organisation and provision was conducted. A key theme emerging from the qualitative data concerned the difficulties parents had encountered in accessing appropriate support prior to the creation of the service. These difficulties have been interpreted as: uncertainty in defining the problems encountered and knowing which agencies and professionals to approach; ambivalence about seeking help; professionals' uncertainty in knowing how to respond; and the scarcity of resources. This paper illustrates these difficulties, then draws attention to some of the ways in which they are being addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on qualitative research investigating the advice giving behaviours of social work students. Second-year students, who were enrolled in an interpersonal communication skills course, were required to undertake an 'advice-giving audit' exercise across 6 days, with the aim of strengthening their awareness of the interactive nature of advice giving. Students then wrote a diary entry about the frequency of their everyday advice giving behaviour, its intent and reception. Nineteen students provided these reflections for analysis. Findings included three themes pertaining to advice-giving: (i) Giving advice as a natural, comfortable and unconscious way of communicating; (ii) Power and position influences advice dissemination, and (iii) Withholding advice opens, deepens and confuses norms of communication. A fourth theme pertained to the insights that students reported from engaging with the exercise. These findings illustrate the complex interactional process associated with professional advice giving. The research also suggests that experiential activities, which are conducted outside of the classroom, have significant potential to promote the critical examination of embedded communicative practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the development of staff consultation in the context of an innovative residential childcare pathway within a local authority in the United Kingdom. A preceding attempt to develop group consultations in residential homes has been expanded upon and enhanced as part of implementing a broader therapeutic residential service model. A wide-ranging training programme and consultations have been developed for residential childcare workers to introduce and embed therapeutic ideas. Systemic therapy and attachment theory ideas have been used explicitly through exploring with staff how these approaches can inform practice, and implicitly by providing a framework of consultation to inform and expand individual and team thinking. Promoting reflective practice through group consultations has highlighted complex challenges, stimulating opportunities as well as a need to consider multiple levels of context. Recommendations from this learning are discussed to help inform practice in new and existing residential services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residential child care is an inherently distressing and multi-layered endeavour undertaken by staff who are often poorly trained and supported. In addition, the children, and the adults who care for them, can provide a convenient receptacle for the split off negative feelings of professionals, politicians and the public. The complexity and difficulty of this work is often unrecognised and a simplistic response based on a programmatic, behavioural framework, reinforced by performance-based management and an audit culture, is common. This paper argues for the usefulness of a different approach, drawing on psychoanalytic and open systems thinking, to provide a more nuanced understanding of what is happening in these volatile settings that can guide interventions which match the complexity of the work. Alongside advocating the use of key psychoanalytic and systems concepts to improve understanding, it argues for the importance of providing a containing and reflective environment for staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores professional judgement of social workers working to protect children. Based on 22 in-depth interviews with social workers, a grounded theory methodology is adopted. The policy context for child protection practice is outlined and analysed. This study then explores how information, responsibility and in particular anxiety, are transacted between social workers and other professionals. Additionally, this study explores the delicate balances social workers are required to negotiate, focussing on two elements of the findings, 'closeness- distance' and 'power over- power together'. The delicacy of the balances negotiated by social workers leads to a powerful analogy of social workers as tightrope walkers and strategies to seek balance are identified. The implications for practice are explored. The internal mental processes of social workers require closer attention, a cautious approach should be taken to rational-technical solutions and social workers should be better prepared to respectfully challenge other professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In July 2015, a new statutory duty was sanctioned in the UK for a range of professional practitioners, including social workers, to pay ‘due regard to preventing terrorism’. The duty has contributed to a shifting of social work practice and decision-making from the fields of advocacy and promotion of ethics, social justice and human rights, towards risk-work more analogous to that of the security services. Social workers are caught up in pre-emptive risk work, operating in a pre-crime space. Further, an ‘ethic of silence’ has emerged because social workers are not speaking back or challenging the duty due to the ensnared nature of the dominant securitised discourses, which prevent counter-discourses from emerging. Utilising an autoethnographic approach, this paper shows that the new duty is reorganising and rearranging new networks of practitioners with securitisation a dominant feature, and this significantly affects practice decisions. Latour’s actor network theory (ANT) helps us to examine the ethical and practical implications for decision-making. Shifting notions of ethics, rights and as yet unforeseen consequences of PREVENT concern us. This being said, humane and socially just social work practice within the duty is possible; strengths-based risk practices provide practical and ethical ways forward and these are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a novel conceptual frame for understanding and talking about the existential aspects of life transitions, such as marital separations, undertaking a recovery process and major losses. The first key concept, finitude, refers to the many ways we as individuals are bounded and constrained by life circumstances. The second concept, transcendence, refers to those activities we engage in that take us beyond our finite, constrained existence. The third concept, equilibrium, refers to the ongoing state of balance we seek to maintain between the conflicting forces of finitude and transcendence. The lives of three composite characters are used to illustrate how major transitions disrupt this equilibrium and, in some cases, trigger oscillating imbalances that are very difficult to step away from. Their situations are presented in a style which highlight the inner dilemmas faced in major life transitions. What practitioners can do in helping to restore and maintain a re-established equilibrium is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on ‘streetwalkers’ and ‘street sex workers’ who are unlicensed sex workers not belonging to a brothel and subject to criminalization. They often face great stigmatization and are usually considered victims by service providers. Five Singaporean ex-streetwalkers (n = 5), who had left the streets for at least six months and were currently receiving or had previously received skills training at a social service agency, participated in this study. Using an agentic framework and social relational theory principles, this qualitative study explored the impact of streetwalkers’ relationship with their children on their decision to enter and leave the streets and reasons for their successful help-seeking experiences. Findings revealed them to be agents who actively used strategies to meet their goals and to sustain close relationships with their children. The mother–child relationship context was a key influence on their decision to enter and/or leave the streets. Social work practice implications include tailoring service delivery to tap into their agentic capacities and identity as mothers; research and training in provision of proactive social services in a non-judgmental manner to preserve the dignity of these women while meeting both their own and their children’s needs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]