The New Social Worker Vol. 20, No. 4, Fall 2013 | Page 8

Field Placement

H

Field Placement Wisdom
by Kelly C. Johnson, MSW

ere I am, a 34-year-old woman
nearly finished with a master’s
program in social work. Walking
into my first classes, I realized I would be
required to have two different field placements. I thought to myself, “This is going
to be a piece of cake. I’m a grown adult
woman who is responsible and accountable, and I have been around the block,
per se.”

But what I soon realized was that I
didn’t know as much as I thought I did.
The area in which I learned the most about
being a social worker was within those
internships. Not only did I learn about
the skills needed to be an effective social
worker, but I also learned about myself and
how those discoveries have and will lead
me to be a better social worker. There were
certain wisdoms that became apparent in
my field placements. Here are a few.

I may comment, “I can’t interpret how a
person feels, as their feelings are their own.”
It was then that I reached a realization, and
it became easie r for me to move on.

Do Your Own Work

Another key idea that improved
my effectiveness is knowing the value of
“doing your own work.” What I mean
by that is working on your own issues and
vices. How can I expect my clients to do
the work, when I haven’t done the work
myself? Doing my own work provided me
an immense amount of insight about my
own behaviors and how those influence my

It’s Okay To Not Know

One of the most important ideas I
learned was that I do not have to have all
the answers. I remember when I was at my
first internship, and I was co-facilitating a
group on substance abuse. I was terrified that one of the clients would ask me a
question about substance abuse to which I
didn’t have an answer. But then I realized—
I am an intern, and it is okay to not know
something. A good social worker is not
with clients to provide all the answers,
but instead to find answers with clients. I
struggled with not being able to answer
all my clients’ questions; however, what I
realized was that sometimes many of my
clients do not necessarily want an answer.
Instead, they are seeking someone who can
listen.

I spent much of my time in my first
internship concerned with whether or not I
appeared competent, rather than just genuinely being who I was—a first-year intern.
As my second internship started, I realized
that to be a good social worker, I needed to
be human and cut myself some slack. I realized that I will not know everything, and
it is okay to verbalize that to my clients by
using such phrases as, “I’m not sure, but let
me get that answer for you.” When asked a
question about how a family member feels,

6

The New Social Worker

life. But it also provided me with a sense of
empathy. I could then begin to understand
how my clients felt when they came in for
a first appointment. Feelings of apprehension, vulnerability, anxiety, and/or fear
about what may occur in counseling can be
common feelings.

My second internship involved issues
that I had personal experience with, and
I was terrified. I realized I had not fully
worked on those issues. There was more
work to be done. For me to provide for my
clients, I needed to begin to resolve those
personal fears. If I did not, my fear was that
countertransference would develop, and
I would be performing a disservice to my
clients. I remember hearing one of my clients’ experiences and hearing very much of
my own story in those words. It scared me
to no end, but it triggered an experience in
me—one that I knew had to be dealt with in
order for me to be a better professional.

Listen to Feedback

The third most important fact I
learned was that feedback is very important

Fall 2013

for me to develop as a social worker. Not
only should that feedback be from supervisors, colleagues, and professors, but it
should also come from clients. At my first
internship, I asked a client for feedback on
my performance. The client thought I was
condescending and somewhat callous. I
thought to myself at this point that I had
done something terribly wrong. With the
help of my field supervisor, I decided to
speak with the client and investigate why
the client had these feelings. Afterwards,
my field supervisor and I processed this
situation, and I remember being in tears,
because I thought I had harmed my client.
I realized that because I was so nervous, I
came off to my clients in a different manner
than I intended. If I had never asked for
that feedback, I would never have known.

I also feel it is important to get feedback from clients so you know whether or
not you are meeting their needs in therapy.
In my second internship, I asked my clients
which activities they enjoyed, which they
did not, and which they would like to do.
This way, I could meet their specific needs,
which may have been different from those
of another client. My first internship taught
me that asking for feedback would be
crucial to my development. I guess in some
ways you can consider it to be constructive
criticism from your clients. Take that criticism and learn and grow from it.

Relax

This leads me to the fourth important
idea I learned: RELAX! During my first
internship, I was so worried about everything that I was not really able to recognize
what I was doing correctly or incorrectly.
I was so anxious that sometimes I was not
hearing everything my clients were saying.
I just kept thinking about the skills we had
learned in class, and that was all that kept
running through my head. I had the goal
of perfection, but I learned that perfection
will never happen in social work. Frankly,
perfection in and of itself does not happen.
What sort of standard was I going to hold
myself to? Compare myself to other social
workers? No two social workers are made
alike, so how could I compare? I needed
to be comfortable with myself and com-