The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work
WHAT WE BRING TO PRACTICE: A CRITICAL LOOK AT PROFESSIONAL USE OF SELF
SOWO 757 Section 1 – Spring, 2012
Instructor: Mimi Chapman, Ph.D., MSW
919-843-8282
mimi@email.unc.edu
Office hours: By appointment
This course explores students’ professional use of self in direct practice. Using scholarly
literature, students examine practice situations in which personal characteristics and experiences
positively and negatively shape clinical work.
Together we will examine domains and choices about professional use of self. We will be
considering our personal styles and preferences and how they impact our work with clients. We
will examine readings on the idea of countertransference and consider the definition and
relevance of this concept across social work settings and in the context of evidence-based
practice. In addition, we will be considering how the work we do changes us and how reflective
practice contributes to self-care.
This course will contribute to your professional development only if you apply the concepts and
strategies discussed to your own practice. Because I will be asking you to draw on your practice
experiences, it will be helpful for you to continue to journal and/or complete process recordings
on your current cases.
NOTE: The course instructor adheres to University and School policies regarding
accommodations for students with disabilities, religious holidays, incompletes, plagiarism, and
students’ evaluation of the course and its instructor as stated in the Student Handbook and the
graduate school bulletin.
Course Themes:
1. Who we are as practitioners and the impact personal characteristics such as race, gender, age,
sexual orientation, disability, culture, family of origin, and style have on clinical practice.
2. Countertransference: changing definitions, how to recognize it, how to use it to enhance
empathic communication with clients.
3. The therapeutic frame: boundaries and self-disclosure in clinical practice.
4. Changing perspectives on the use of self in the helping
5. Self-care in clinical practice
Course Objectives:
Upon completion of this course students, in written assignments and in discussion, will be able
to:
1. Articulate the major theoretical perspectives that address professional use of self;
2. Use course content to examine systematically one’s own professional use of self in clinical
practice.
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3. Identify and discuss the potential impact of clients’ traumas on helping professionals and
strategies for minimizing the negative effects of that impact;
Required Texts
All readings can be found on the sakai site for this class.
Suggested Texts
Kottler, J.A. (2010). On being a therapist.San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass
Wicks, R. J. (2008). The resilient clinician. New York: Oxford University Press.
Yalom, I.D. (1989). Love’s executioner. New York: Basic Books.
Assignments
Email Discussion Questions
On weeks 3, 5, and 6, choose issues from at least two of the required readings that confuse,
challenge, excite or otherwise interest you. Email me with your thoughts, questions, and
reflections. In addition to didactic material that I will present, our class discussion will be
structured around your emails. (Personal information or case discussions will not be used
without your consent.) These should be no longer than one page in length and can focus on one
or two readings. PLEASE SEND THESE DISCUSSION POINTS IN THE BODY OF THE
EMAIL – NOT AS AN ATTACHMENT!!! They are to be sent to me by 12 noon on the
Thursday before the class session for which the readings are assigned.
Written Assignments
There are three assignments described in this syllabus with due dates. These ask you to integrate
your readings around a series of questions. The length varies for each assignment. They should
be submitted as a hard copy in class on the day the assignment is due unless otherwise specified,
as in assignment 1.
Assignment #1 (due before the start of class 2)
To be completed via Email – Send your reflections to me by 12 noon, Thursday January 19th.
(Length: No more than four double spaced pages.)
Please view the following two movies – Good Will Hunting and Ordinary People. (If you have
not seen them before, you may want to watch them once to experience them as great movies and
then watch them a second time to complete the assignment.) As you watch these films, focus in
on the helping professional in each. Try to forget that the therapists appear to work successfully
with these clients. (It is Hollywood after all.) Now, consider these helping professionals from
two vantage points: client versus new professional. For each point of view answer the following
questions: What do I like about each therapist? What troubles me about each therapist? Then
consider discrepancies in your answers that vary between the two points of view. In your view,
what accounts for these discrepancies or the lack thereof? Possibilities might include your
personality, life experiences, education, etc.
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Assignment #2
Please turn in at the beginning of class on Monday, February 6th. (Length – your discretion,
spend approximately 1 page per picture)
You have been given a CD with eight images on it. Some images are sketches, some sculpture,
and some paintings. They are labeled image 1 – image 8. You have been given no other
information about these images. Please look at each and respond in writing to the following
questions about each object:
Part 1
What are your initial impressions when you look at this object? Is it ugly, beautiful, weird,
scary, off-putting, inviting, etc. How does it make you feel and what does it make you think
about?
Imagine that someone said you must keep this object in your house. Where would you put it?
Why?
Tell a story about this image. What do you think it is trying to “say”?
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO GOOGLE THEM, INVESTIGATE THEM, ETC. TO FIND
OUT “THE ANSWER” ABOUT THEM. Doing so will thwart the purpose of the assignment.
The images are ambiguous and the goal is not to figure out “the truth” about them. The goal is to
see what you can learn about you and how you see things. Once you have completed Part 1,
email me and I will send you part two of the assignment.
Assignment #3
Please turn in at the beginning of class on Monday, February 27th.
Using your personal genogram, consider the ways in which the peculiarities of your own family
history might manifest itself in your work with clients. Some possible questions you might
address include, but are not limited to:
1. What messages did you receive from your family about help-seeking, therapy, etc. while
growing up?
2. If your family had sought help for a problem, or if they did seek help, what type of
therapist or helper would have been the best fit for them? What characteristics would
that person have had to possess? What style would have fit for your family? Would race,
ethnicity or culture have played a role?
3. As you answer these questions, what connections do you make to your work with clients?
What type of client and/or family would you be best prepared to work with given your
own characteristics and history? What types of families would challenge you and why?
NOTE: For all assignments, good academic English is expected; grades will be lowered for poor
grammar, syntax, and/or spelling. You do not need to do extensive citing for any of these
assignments, except the last. For the discussion questions you can reference the article by author
and name in your title and this will be sufficient. If you are referencing a particular quote in an
article, it should be noted as such by the use of quotation marks.
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Class Participation
In order for this class to be meaningful, participants must contribute their observations as they
relate to both the personal and the professional. Everyone is expected to contribute to class
discussions and demonstrate through their comments that they have read and considered the
assigned readings for each week. There will be times when there are differences of opinion in
our class. Everyone is encouraged to speak up but also expected to listen to the point of view of
others. Our goal is not to achieve consensus rather, to think critically and reflectively about
content important to our work with clients.
Student Evaluation
Assignment 1
15 points
Assignment 2
25 points
Assignment 3
25 points
Email Discussion Questions
15 points total (3 discussions x 5 points each)
Attendance
5 points
Active Participation
15 points
Course Schedule
January 9th
Week 1
Welcome and Beginnings
Please send assignment 1 by email on Thursday, January 20th by 12:00 noon.
January 23rd
Week 2
Opening Themes
Note: We will meet in our regular classroom for the first 45 minutes and then reconvene at
the Ackland Art museum at 3 pm. Please note that no drink or food is allowed in
the Ackland.
Katz, R.S. (1990). Facing the challenge: Weaving the countertransference feelings into the
tapestry of your work. In B. Geneway & R.S. Katz (Ed.), Countertransference and older
clients (pp. 183-189). Newbury, CA: Sage Publications.
Kliman, J. (1998). Social class as a relationship: Implications for family therapy. In M.
McGoldrick (Ed.), Re-visioning family therapy: Race, culture, and gender in clinical
practice (pp. 50-61). New York: Guilford Press.
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Kottler, J.A. (2003). Client and therapist: How each changes the other. In On being a therapist
(pp.1 – 24). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Rizzuto, A. (1993). Exploring sacred landscapes. In M.L. Randour (Ed.). Exploring sacred
landscapes: Religious and spiritual experiences in psychotherapy (pp. 16-33). New York:
Columbia University Press.
January 30th
Week 3
Countertransference – Definitions and Impact
Discussion questions due Thursday, January 26th at 12 noon.
Berzoff, J. & Kita, E. (2010). Compassion fatigue and countertransference: Two different
concepts. Clinical Social Work Journal, 38, 341-349. doi: 10.1007/s10615=010-0271-8
Dewane, C. J. (2006). Use of self: A primer revisited. Clinical Social Work Journal, 34 (4),
543- 558. doi: 10.1007/s10615-005-0021-5
Kottler, J.A. (2003). Patients who test our patience. In On being a therapist (pp. 119 -145). San
Fransisco: Jossey-Bass.
Nye, C. (2005). Conversations with Sunwangran: The treatment relationship in cultural context.
Clinical Social Work Journal, 33 (1), 37-54.
Schwartz, R. C., Smith, S.D., & Chopko, B. (2007). Psychotherapists’ countertransference
reactions toward clients with antisocial personality disorder and schizophrenia: An
empirical test of theory. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 61 (4). 375 – 394.
February 6th
Week 4
Family of Origin Work
Assignment 2 – Due at the beginning of class
We will again convene our class at the Ackland at 2:00. Bring a copy of your assignment to
turn in and one to use during our time at the museum.
Carter, B. (1991). Death in the therapist’s own family. In F. Walsh & M. McGoldrick (Eds.).
Living beyond loss (pp. 273-284). New York: W.W. Norton.
Colon, F. (1998). The discovery of my multicultural identity. In M. McGoldrick (Ed.),
Revisioning family therapy: Race, culture, and gender in clinical practice (pp. 200-214).
New York: Guilford Press.
Framo, J. (1992). Author’s family biography: One therapist’s personal disclosure. In Family of
origin therapy (pp. 207-228). New York: Brunner/ Mazel.
Kottler, J.A. & Parr, G. (2000). The family therapist’s own family. The Family Journal, 8 (2),
143-148. doi: 10.1177/1066480700082005
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February 13th
Week 5
Questions of Boundaries
Discussion questions due by 12 noon on February 9th.
Cabaj, R.P. (1991). Over identification with a patient. In C. Silverstein (Ed). Gays, lesbians, and
their therapists (pp.31-39). New York: W.W. Norton.
Cohen, M. B. (1998). Perceptions of power in client/worker relationships. Families in Society,
79 (4), 433-442.
Cooper, M. & Lessor, J. (1997). How race affects the helping process: A case of cross racial
therapy. Clinical Social Work Journal, 25 (3), 323-325.
Kottler, J.A. (2003). Personal and professional lives. In On being a therapist (pp. 43-73). San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Lijtmaer, R. M. (2009). The patient who believes and the analyst who does not. Journal of the
American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry 37(1). 99-110.
Martin, A. (1991). The power of empathic relationships: Bereavement therapy with a lesbian
widow. In C. Silverstien (Ed.). Gays, lesbians, and their therapists (pp. 172-185). New
York, W.W. Norton.
February 20th
Week 6
Self-Disclosure
Discussion questions due by 12 noon on February 17th.
Goldstein, E.G. (1994). Self-disclosure in the treatment: What therapists do and don’t talk about.
Clinical Social Work Journal 22 (4), 417-433.
Henretty, J.R. & Levitt, H.M. (2010). The role of therapist self-disclosure: A qualitative review.
Clinical Psychology Review, 30, 63-77. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2009.09.004
Kooden, H. (1991). Self-disclosure: The gay male therapist as agent of social change. In C.
Silverstein (Ed). Gays, lesbians, and their therapists (pp. 143-153). New York: W.W.
Norton.
Kottler, J.A. (2003). Lies we tell ourselves. In On being a therapist (pp. 183-206). San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Satterly, B.A. (2006). Therapist self-disclosure from a gay male perspective. Families in
Society, 8 (2), 240-247.
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February 27th
Week 7
Taking care of ourselves
Assignment 3 – Due in class. (No discussion questions this week.)
Kottler, J.A. (2003). Hardships of therapeutic practice. In On being a therapist (pp. 75-117).
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ring, J.M. (2000). The long and winding road: Personal reflections of an anti-racism trainer.
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 70 (1), 73-81.
Strom-Gottfried, K. & Mowbray, N.D. (2005). Who heals the helper? Facilitating the social
worker’s grief. Families in Society, 87 (1), 1 – 7.
Wicks, R. J. (2008). Enhancing resiliency: Strengthening one’s own self-care protocol. In The
resilient clinician (pp. 42-79). New York: Oxford University Press.
Wicks, R. J. (2008). Replenishing the self: Solitude, silence, and mindfulness. In The resilient
clinician (pp. 80-122). New York: Oxford University Press.
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