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, 2013
Mondays 2 to 4:50 (Jan 14 – March 4th)
Room: TTK 226
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 relationship.
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.
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2. Use course content to systematically examine one’s own professional use of self in clinical
practice.
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
Written Assignments
There are three assignments described in this syllabus with due dates. 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 and sent to me by
12 noon, Friday January 25th. (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. What accounts
for these discrepancies or the lack thereof? Possibilities might include your personality, life
experiences, education, etc.
Assignment #2: Please turn in at the beginning of class on Monday, February 11th. (Length –
your discretion, spend approximately 1 page per picture)
On our Sakai site there is a folder labeled “images” that contains six images. Some are sketches,
some photographs, and some paintings. They are labeled image 1 – image 6. You have been
given no other information about these images. Please do not attempt to Google or otherwise
investigate them 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. Please look at each and
respond in writing to the following questions about each object:
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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”?
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, March 4th.
Using your personal genogram and our class readings, consider the ways in which the
peculiarities of your own family history may manifest 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.
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.
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Student Evaluation
Assignment 1
20 points
Assignment 2
25 points
Assignment 3
30 points
Attendance
5 points
Active Participation
20 points
Course Schedule
January 14th
Week 1
Welcome and Beginnings
Please send assignment 1 by email on Thursday, January 25th by 12:00 noon.
January 28th
Week 2
Opening Themes
Note: We will begin our class at the Ackland Art Museum at 2:00. Please meet at the front
door of 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.
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.
February 4th
Week 3
Countertransference – Definitions and Impact
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
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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 11th
Week 4
Family of Origin Work
Assignment 2 – Due at the beginning of class
Christopher Currie from the Ackland will join us for the first hour of class. We will meet
in our regular classroom.
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
February 18th
Week 5
Questions of Boundaries
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.
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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 25th
Week 6
Self-Disclosure
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.
March 4th
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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