August here we are! With the beautiful sun and light and heat and everything else that comes with this time of year.

This month in supervision we’re continuing our exploration of the common factors theory, and reviewing again this article which provides a contextual model for understanding the common factors. One of the things we know about treatment outcomes is that the therapist/social worker themselves has a significant effect on the treatment. We are still learning about which nuanced traits and approaches are effective (beyond, of course, empathy, congruence, etc.). Here’s, in brief, what the article mentions on this.

In order to further explore this, we are going to do our own qualitative research on…wait for it…ourselves. The goal is to better understand how we are showing up in our work. I still remember being in a team meeting years ago when I was doing community reintegration services for veterans. Our supervisor told the team about my colleague and me, saying we were playing good cop/bad cop with a veteran for whom we were both providing case management services. I asked, “wait, which one am I?” and my supervisor laughed, and didn’t answer because to him my approach was so obvious! Now of course I can see my style and approach much more clearly, but it’s incredibly helpful to reflect and understand it well, and to elicit feedback from others around it (next month we’ll go further into eliciting feedback, one of my favorite topics).

Please pick a few of the questions below and journal on them. I’ll give some examples to help (in italics). Come ready to discuss!

• How do you believe you will be effective in your work? I.e. In a nutshell, how do you think your work/position works? Eg: I believe if I keep myself calm and listen closely to the client, they will be able to unload some of their burden, feel better and make healthier choices.

• Who is an effective therapist/social worker, and what do they do to be effective? Eg: I remember my therapist who helped me understand what thought distortions are- that was effective for me in changing my thinking.

• Which parts of yourself do you feel you need to hide in your work? Eg: I shouldn’t laugh too much (or) I shouldn’t let people know I’m grieving right now.

• Which clients seem to respond best to your work together? Eg: clients with basic life skill needs seem to respond best to my straight-forward solutions-focused approach.

• What has led you to do this work? Eg: I feel that people need more social justice-informed treatment and there are too many gaps in the system.

• What are the easiest areas of your work (i.e. your strengths)? Eg: I’m really good at empathizing with someone who had childhood trauma.

• Which of the goals your client has do you feel confident you can help them achieve? I have been able to help clients who need more psycho-education around racism.

• What lights you up, what energizes you in your work? I get so happy when a client of mine finally leaves an abusive relationship!

Lastly, please bring to our sessions this month 3 pieces of feedback that you have received from your colleagues any time in the last year.

Comments or questions?