Alex Abramovich - Becoming a Social Worker

M ASTERS AT W ORK ALSO AVAILABLE

B ECOMING A N EUROSURGEON

B ECOMING A V ETERINARIAN

B ECOMING A V ENTURE C APITALIST

B ECOMING A H AIRSTYLIST

B ECOMING A R EAL E STATE A GENT

B ECOMING A M ARINE B IOLOGIST

B ECOMING AN E THICAL H ACKER

B ECOMING A L IFE C OACH

B ECOMING A Y OGA I NSTRUCTOR

B ECOMING A R ESTAURATEUR

B ECOMING A P RIVATE I NVESTIGATOR

B ECOMING A B AKER

B ECOMING A S OMMELIER

B ECOMING A C URATOR

B ECOMING AN A RCHITECT

B ECOMING A F ASHION D ESIGNER

B ECOMING A S PORTS A GENT

B ECOMING AN I NTERIOR D ESIGNER

B ECOMING A F IREFIGHTER

B ECOMING A N URSE

B ECOMING A V IDEO G AME D ESIGNER

B ECOMING A M IDWIFE

B ECOMING A T EACHER

B ECOMING A S OCIAL W ORKER

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F OR S USAN M AYE

S ocial workers are frontline workers, counseling families in crisis, helping survivors of domestic violence, finding foster homes for children. They may be overburdened, overtired, overextended, and overwhelmedbut rarely do social workers get bored.

Its hard to be bored when youre working with people at their most open, unguarded, and vulnerable. Social workers do a great many things: they are substance abuse counselors at celebrity rehab centers and psychotherapists in private practice; they staff abortion clinics and homeless shelters; theyre caseworkers just out of college and high-level administrators with decades worth of experience under their belts. Social workers work in courtrooms and hospitals; at Ivy League universities and inner-city high schools; on military bases; in nursing and residential care facilities; in corporate human resources departments and labor union offices.

Social workers help shape public policy at city, state, and federal levels. In the field, they conduct research (one-on-one interviews, focus groups, surveys) that influences our understanding of social formations and the human mind. In fact, those two polessocial formations and the human mindare the things social workers find themselves balancing daily, because social work is rooted in the idea that individuals are inseparable from their environments.

Social work is an ever-expanding profession: if theres a voidsome systemic social problem that isnt being addressedsocial workers rush in to fill the vacuum. As a result, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates, the profession is expected to grow by 13 percent by the end of the 2020smuch faster than the average for all other occupations.

But what are social workers, exactly? What kind of work do they do?

According to the National Association of Social Workers, the primary mission of the social work profession is to enhance human well-being and help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty.

What this means is that social workers advocate for individuals and ensure that their most fundamental needsnutrition, education, health, and mental health careare being met. At the same time, social workers fight for social justice and change.

In day-to-day terms social workers work collaboratively with clients to determine their goals, help them navigate bureaucratic systems, and offer emotional support. They provide referrals and connect clients to basic resources, such as housing, health care, education, mental health care, and/or public assistance. Whether or not they work as therapists, social workers may also find themselves providing psychotherapeutic services. And in crisis situations, such as domestic violence and child abuse, social workers step in to deescalate the problem and provide safety.

A client whos had all their needs met, or now has the ability to meet their own needs, no longer requires a social worker. A society that is perfectly fair, just, and equitable would have no use for social workers, either. In that sense, the social workers ultimate goal is to render their own job obsolete.

T HERES NO ONE PATH to becoming a social worker. At the undergraduate level, aspiring social workers can earn a bachelor of social work (BSW) degree. But its not unusual for social workers to major in English, psychology, sociology, or other subjects. Nor is it unusual for social workers to come to the job after working in another profession. In social work, lived experience counts, and a BSW is not a requirement for graduate school.

In graduate school, students generally complete foundational courses in human behavior and the social environment, research, and social welfare policy before choosing a track or concentration. Most programs offer concentrations in clinical practice (mental health), generalist practice (administration, community organizing, and program development), and policy practice (research, policy analysis, and policy advocacy). Along with their coursework, students are expected to complete two internships (field placements), working three days a week in schools, hospitals, nonprofits, city agencies, or community health centers, carrying caseloads, receiving supervision, and gaining intensive hands-on training. Interns are also required to complete weekly process recordings, writing sessions out verbatim while describing their thoughts in the margins. While these documents are time-consuming and tedious to write, they are also tremendously useful. In the course of reviewing them, supervisors offer feedback on the students responses to clients, critiquing questions and noting instances of bias and projection.

Typically, social workers complete their programs in two years, graduating with a master of social work (MSW) degree. Afterward many will complete state exams to become a licensed master social worker (LMSW)a necessary step for employment at some agencies. In order to become clinical social workers, who provide therapy and counseling to individuals and/or groups, they must complete approximately 2,000 hours of direct therapeutic work with clients under the supervision of a licensed clinical social worker. They then take a clinical licensing exam and become a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), which allows them to open a private therapy practice.