Professional Use of Self

A few things came up this week that made me think about my "professional use of self." I understand this term to mean, as a social worker, using one's skills and strengths to be an agent of change. Coincidentally, this is the idea behind the name of my blog; basically, what I can do to make a difference. According to my Community Practice textbook, use of self includes such skills as "coordination, advocacy, active listening, counseling...assertiveness...self-awareness, (and) interpersonal skills" (Hardcastle & Powers, 2004, p.208-209) The authors go on to say that "use of self implies that a social worker must be able to perform solo, because he or she may be the only person on the scene who can and will act" (ibid, p. 209). I think this is a really important point- one that connects social work to the foundation of social justice. It implies courage, which I don't think gets talked about enough in school (or at least in my experience). We have to be willing to speak up, even when no one else will. This relates back to having the awareness of and confidence to use one's strengths.
Related to this, Hardcastle & Powers go on to say that use of self includes "self-examination, making judgements, (and) taking actions beneficial to service consumers and community members" (p. 211). The authors emphasize the fact that "we react to others and others react to us" (p.212). This is such an important part of self-awareness- to have the humility to recognize one's weaknesses, triggers, and pejudices. This has been on my mind because I went to a training this week called "Decisions on Disproportionality." We discussed specifically the disparities within the child welfare system regarding various ethnicity groups. And we spent a lot of time talking about self-awareness and what we can do, as individuals, to effect change. We examined the concept of prejudice, and acknowledged the fact that everyone is prejudice, because it means learned ideas and opinions. And these learned ideas and opinions are created via socialization, which we all experience. Unfortunately, some socialization we experience within American culture and society is racist/sexist/homophobic/classist/etc, etc, etc.
I learned that prejudice is the thought or belief, and discrimination is the action based on that prejudice. Therefore, there are two ways in which we can take action against disparities within our agencies, systems, and society. First, we can practice mindfulness of our prejudices. When a thought pops into my mind that is an assumption or stereotype, I can be aware of it, and check myself. An example used in the training was that of a white woman walking down the sidewalk, and, when spotting a black man coming towards her, wanting to cross to the other side of the street. We can train ourselves to notice when these types of prejudices come up for ourselves. Then, the second part, is to use that awareness to guide our actions. Back to the example, once the white woman notices her thought, she can then choose to not cross to the other side of the street. This is a simplification, but we are constantly confronted with situations where these tools can be utilized. "Avoiding," such as that of the example, is only one way of discriminating- there are many. One of which is ignoring, which leads me back to the point about having the courage to speak up. Because silence perpetuates discrimination just as other things we consider more active.