Self Awareness In Social Work (Essay Sample)

Self-Awareness Reflection In Social Work Student's Name Professor's Name Sociology January 08, 2019 An Essay About Self-Awareness Students find it difficult to apply the leanings they acquire from their practicum experiences to actual professional social work set-ups (Marlowe, Appleton, Chinnery, & Van Stratum, 2015). Social work set-ups are more realistic, and hence, complicated in nature, as compared to practicum work set-ups. After practicum work, I had been required to execute unfamiliar job duties in professional social work set-ups that I have not executed in the past when I was just still doing my practicum work. These duties included counseling troubled teens, and providing counseling sessions in rehab and psychiatric wards. Self-awareness incorporated in the ethical decision making process is a direct or indirect common factor of any decision making (Evans, Levitt, & Henning, 2013). As such, as a social worker, I had quite been aware of the consequences my recommendations and advise may have on the clients I have counseled. I have made sure that all of the recommendations and advise that I have given to my clients are ethical, and would benefit them for the better. I ensured as well that the recommendations I have given my clients would not harm their significant others and other people in their lives. A 16-year old teenage girl came to me at work for counseling to ask for advice about her early pregnancy. She was unsure as to whether or not to push through in giving birth to her unborn child, or if it was just better that she aborted it. She has yet to finish her high school studies. Her studies take up most of her time on an almost every day basis. Therefore, caring for an infant would just make things unmanageable in her life, as she thought, should she push through in giving birth to her first child. I gave this teen an ethical advise that she needed to consider that giving birth to her child was the most moral thing to do, in the eyes of God. This was because in the eyes of God, abortion is morally wrong. I advised her to seek the help of her parents or other relatives in caring for her baby after her child is born. That way, she is still able to not go through abortion and have other people help her care for her baby after it is born. Mindfulness awareness is a kind of meditative activity in which participants become deeply aware of their breath, thoughts and emotions in their subconscious minds (Beck, 2019). Mindfulness awareness is best practiced with eyes closed. I have been practicing mindfulness awareness in my spare time after work for 10 years now. In between my shifts at work, during breaks, I make it a habit to practice mindfulness awareness to lessen stress which I have acquired due to the duties I perform at work on a regular basis. Whenever I practice mindfulness awareness, I first close my eyes, inhale and exhale deeply. I condition myself to become aware of the cycle and speed of my breathing. I then recollect in my mind the goals for the day that I have achieved so far at work. I congratulate myself for having been able to achieve these goals for the day. Afterwards, I begin outlining ways that should aid me in achieving other daily goals at work which I have yet to achieve. I then inhale and exhale deeply again before ending my awareness session. I have been feeling way better ever since I started practicing mindfulness awareness. Additionally, my brain and mind have been refreshed on a regular basis ever since I started practicing this meditative activity. Because of this, I have, thus, been able to provide the most objective and ethical recommendations and advise to clients who seek counseling services from me at work. I plan to continue practicing mindfulness awareness for many years to come. I would personally recommend to my clients as well that they try to practice mindfulness awareness in their spare time. I would tell them that doing so would possibly make them relieve themselves of stress and regulate their emotions. It is quite difficult actually for social workers to do their parts in preventing youth suicide and bullying (Goldblum, Espelage, Chu, & Bongar, 2015). There are a lot of times that it is already too late for social workers to prevent youth suicide and bullying, even by the time they are already providing counseling services (Goldblum et.al., 2015). One of the greatest challenges in my career as a social worker is, indeed, preventing youth suicide and bullying. There had been multiple situations when I had not been able to detect that the teenagers I was providing counseling services to were already suicidal. Many of the teen clients I counseled did not open up to me during our counseling meetings that they felt suicidal already. This may be because they did not want to get the help they needed in order to prevent them from really committing suicide. As such, in multiple situations I had to find out later on from parents of my teen clients that their sons and daughters that I provided counseling services to almost committed suicide. I regretted not being able to detect that these clients of mine were actually suicidal based on the ways they talked to me and the things they told me during our counseling meetings. If only I was able to detect early on that these teens were suicidal, I would have become influential in saving the lives of these teens. Most of my teen clients did not open up to me that they were traumatized after being bullied. I had been able to detect that some of my teen clients have been bullied, though. However, I was not able to detect bullying trauma being experienced by all of my clients that have been bullied. Teens are very good in hiding some things from social workers, like me. Some of the bullied teens I counseled were very stubborn in keeping certain things a secret from me, their social worker. Some parents then have come up to me at a later time. They told me their sons and daughters were bullied. But, their children were just not willing to open up to me about their bullying experiences. They felt hopeless that anybody could ever help them cope with such traumatizing events. I learned that to stay on the safe side, in the future, I will need to constantly remind teens I counsel that I am the best person to help them cope with traumatizing events, such as bullying. In the future, as long as I do this constantly, my teen clients should likely open up to me that they may need help overcoming traumatizing bullying experiences. Students who attend class regularly and do not have any problems in their academic performance in school may still need counseling and emotional support guidance (Tutjer, 2014). I know...