Melissa

Billings
SW 1010-400
Reflection Journal #2

I have learned some great information this week. I enjoyed listening to the podcast on
trauma informed care, reading the NASW website regarding standards of clinical social
work practice, and reading chapter 5 with information about what it means to be a CSW
and what it takes to become one. The information that I learned this week will both help
me with my professional career path and on a personal level.
Along with information from last weeks lessons, I feel that I learned more about the
different kinds of practice models there are in social work. Although I feel like the
generalist practice may be the best, and can understand why it is the one currently
embraced by the social work community (Farley, Smith, Boyle p.79), it was nice to read
about the other methods, as they make-up the history of the social work profession. I
learned the differences between the psychosocial, task-centered, behavior modification,
and cognitive models (Farley, Smith, Boyle p. 85-88) Before reading chapter five, I was only
familiar with behavior modification, used to discourage poor behavior in children, and
cognitive therapy, used commonly in the treatment of eating disorders. I had never heard
of task-centered, and really just thought that psychosocial was part of generic therapy (I
know now there is not such a thing).
What I really believe will help me on a professional level was all the information
that I learned about what a CSW can do and what it take to become one. After learning that
information this week, I feel that is the career path I am going to choose. I was unclear on

the path to becoming a CSW until this weeks lessons cleared it up for me. I didnt realize
that you needed a masters degree and a minimum of 2 years or 3,000 hours of post masters
degree work in a clinical supervised setting (NASW website). Although it seems like a lot of
work right now, and that I am so far from completing it, I feel that this path seems right for
me.
Something else I learned this week that will help me on a professional and a
personal level is about trauma informed care. On a person level this information is helpful
to me because my sister is bi-polar and suffered abuse as a young child and I believed that
this type of therapy will be beneficial for her. I have long believed that though bi-polar has
a genic component, it takes an event to flip the switch. Dr. Smyth strengthened this view
when she talked about schizophrenia, as an example, of a biological condition that also has
roots in a traumatic childhood event (Smyth podcast). I also think trauma informed care is
something that will be helpful to me on a profession level because I would like to work for
D.C.F.S. after I graduate.

Works Cited

Farley, O. William; Smith, Larry Lorenzo; Boyle, Scott W. (2012). What is Social Work? In
Introduction to Social Work (12th ed. p. 79-88)
"NASW Standards for Clinical Social Work in Social Work Practice."NASW. Web. 25 Sept.

2015. https://www.socialworkers.org/practice/standards/NASWClinicalSWStandards.pdf
The Social Work Podcast, Interview with Nancy J. Smyth Ph.D., April 29, 2013
http://socialworkpodcast.blogspot.com/2013/04/an-overview-of-trauma-informed-
care.html