Dean Anderson is a social worker at Wasatch Mental Health, the second largest mental health agency in the state, in the Outpatient Clinic. He received his masters in social work at Brigham Young University. Throughout his life he had experiences that showed him that this was his purpose in life. He now runs his own private practice and loves it. Mr. Anderson gave a lot of advice to our social work class including how to cope, how to be self-aware, and also taught us what promotes change in a person.
Mr. Anderson began by describing social work as losing your innocence. I had never thought about it so bluntly before. He described how you are always exposed to a lot of emotional and horrific things. He proceeded to give an example of how he had just barely talked with someone who had raped someone at gun point. Social Workers are exposed to a great deal of traumatic things. Mr. Anderson then said that because of this factor you must have a healthy life style out of work. It is important to find things you love doing such as being with your family, picking up a hobby, hiking, etc. and make time for them. You must also leave work problems at work and not bring them home with you.
His next piece of advice he gave us was how to learn to be self- aware. To become a social worker, you must have all of your own personal problems worked out before you can be expected to help others with theirs. To be self- aware you have to recognize your own feelings and emotions and not let them get in the way of clients. He gave a story about his son as an example. His son had received brain damage in an accident. One day he had a boy come in who was about the same age as his son who had brain damage. Mr. Anderson said it was hard for him to not take the father approach when deciding how to best help the client. But it is important that he and all social workers make professional decisions that are in the best interest of the clients.
Finally Mr. Anderson discussed what helps clients change. You cannot force a client to change. Instead the client is ultimately going to have to decide that on their own. He said forty percent of the time what is going on in their life is what causes them to change. This includes factors such as family support, food, shelter, financial stability, etc. The next 30 percent is relationship with therapist, or the influence the therapist has on the client. If the therapist can be a positive support it can help a client out a great deal. The type of therapy used such as cognitive provides a fifteen percent change. The last fifteen percent is a placebo. These factors are all influential factors that help a client want to change.
Going and listening to Dean Anderson talk was very educational. He is a very smart and experienced man that had a lot of great advice. His suggestions on how to cope, and teaching us the importance of being self-aware, and what helps a client change are all great advice when studying about the profession of social work.
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