Effect Change at Individual and Social Levels. Master of Social Work Writings by Faruk Arslan, MSW, RSW

Master of Social Work
Writings by Faruk Arslan

Effect change at individual
and social levels
Patterns of psychosocial relationships between

people, and between people and resources
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OBJECTIVE
As MSW and RSW, I’ve learned and practiced Over Mind Mood (CBT), a brief therapy in
hospital setting as a discharge planner, strength-based solution focused in CAS, Trauma-Focus
Emotion Regulation, Narrative and mindfulness modalities as well as social work counselling. I
am a collaborative team member and proven ability to effectively problem solver with a strong
desire to help individuals, groups, families, especially seniors, children and vulnerable
population. Provide Psychotherapy, Spiritual Care, Spiritual Growth and using person-centered
to collaborate in the self-cure system. Guiding and helping people develop a stronger connection
with their authentic self, release constricting patterns in their mind, body or spirit, and manifest
their true potential. It is my joy to work with all dimensions and all modalities. Currently, I am a
PhD candidate in Human Relationships- Psychotherapy and Spiritual Care at Martin Luther.
Specialized: Anxiety, Stress, Depression, Relationship Concerns, Pain Management, Grief,

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Couples Issues, Life Transitions, Family conflict,
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), Self-esteem and Confidence, Lack of Copings Skills,
Anger Management, Lack of Focus, Communication and Motivation issues, Trauma, Neglect
and Abuse, Childhood and Adolescence dysfunction, Parenting challenges and Panic Attack.
ACADEMIC PRESENTATIONS
Invited, refereed and contributed as a presenter. September 25-27, 2015- The Unfinished Project
of the Arab Spring: Why “Middle East Exceptionalism” is Still Wrong", the University of
Alberta, Canada. The Young Muslim Members of ISIS: Origins and Motives.
Invited and contributed. March 5, 2015- The 21st Annual Graduate Interdisciplinary
Conference, Meaning in Motion: Knowledge, Dialogue, and Discourse, Concordia University.
Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Sufi Mindfulness Therapy.
Invited and contributed. Feb 23, 2015 – The Faculty of Social Work, Annual Research Forum,
Wilfrid Laurier University, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. Sufi Mindfulness Therapy.
BOOK CHAPTER IN ACADAMIA
The Young Muslim Members of ISIS: Origins and Motives. Berlin University, Germany, depend
on Wiley Institute approval after my paper is published at Digest of Middle East Studies
(DOMES).
THE LIST OF RECENT ACADEMIC WRITINGS
July, 2014. Transcendence Sincerity: A heart-based sufi mindfulness Spiritual practice

Employing self-journeying. 240 pages, Publisher: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing
(July 3, 2014).
http://www.amazon.com/Transcendence-Sincerity-heart-based-mindfulness-
selfjourneying/dp/3659555487 Turkish version published as Vecd Ihlasi at academia.edu
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2016. Arslan, Faruk. The Young Muslim Members of ISIS: Origins and Motives. Accepted
and pending for publication at Digest of Middle East Studies (DOMES).
2014. Arslan, Faruk. "A HEART-BASED SUFI MINDFULNESS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
EMPLOYING SELF-JOURNEYING" (2014). Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive).
Paper 1634. http://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/1634
Arslan, Faruk. January, 2015 "The Hizmet Movement of Canada’s Limitations and
Weaknesses for a Healthy Dialogue," Consensus: Vol. 35: Iss. 1, Article 5. Available at:
http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol35/iss1/5 This article based on my speeches as a
presenter
2012. “The Hizmet Movement of Canada: Limitations and Weaknesses” Waterloo
University and Wilfred Laurier University Lutheran Seminary Hizmet Movement
Conference paper held on September 29 in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
SOME OF NON-ACADEMIC BOOK JOURNALISM PUBLICATIONS
November, 2015. “ISIS in Sociology”. Publisher Lulu, 350 pages. Sociological realities,
supporters and followers of ISIS in relation to create scary Islam as part of Islamophobia
also available at academia.edu
November, 2015. Global Sufyanism and the Fake Army of Mesiah. 400 Pages. Historical
and religious realities, terror supporters and followers of ISIS in relation to create distorted
ideologies in Islam as part of Islamophobia also available at academia.edu
November, 2016. Updated. ”Rescue Us Canada” Publisher Lulu. Memory and Research
book, 400 pages, about How to come to Canada, and how to adapt in Canadian society, in
August 2006.
I am an internationally published researcher and was a well-known journalist-reporter in Turkey,

and author of 70 books. I have 24 years of interviewing, social work and journalism experience,
also written over 10,000 published articles, 4000 columns, and has featured in multiple
broadcasted TV, social media and radio news slots.
Master of Social Work (MSW) degree from Wilfrid Laurier University, 2014.
Currently registered with the Ontario Association of Social Workers (OASS) and the Ontario
College of Social Workers & Social Service Workers (OCSSW), have worked in many social
service agencies in various capacities.
Mind Over Therapy as branch of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), trained by 27 years
experienced therapist, and trained at the Stratford General Hospital in Stratford, 2013.
Solution Focused Therapy and Signs of Safety, 2013, trained as Children Protection\ Intake
Worker at Children and Family Services of Brant in Brantford, Ontario.
CPR, Standard&Emergency + AED, St. John's Ambulance, June 14, 2016.
Cultural Sensitivity Training at Six Nations Reserve, March 2013, Ohsweken, Ontario.
CBR at Social Planning Toronto, Newcomer Women Centre, Toronto, 2012.
Honours Bachelors in Sociology, Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, York University, 2011.
Social Service Worker Diploma, Centennial College, 2008.
Director of Interfaith Affairs, Intercultural Dialog Institute, 2005-2011.
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Community Organizer, Sunrise Education Trust, 2000-2003.
Relevant Experience
Novo Medical Services April 2016 to present

Gladshteyn & Baskakova Psychology Professional Corporation. May 2017 to present
Auxilium Wellness Centre May 2016- May 2017
Sufi Therapy Counselling May 2014 to present
Wilfrid Laurier University- Teaching Assistant…………………….Sep 2014 to May 2015
Stratford General Hospital at Stratford, Ontario Fall 2013
MSW Student Intern, Discharge Planning
Brantford Children’s Aid Society Brantford, Ontario Winter and Spring 2013
Student Intake/ Child Protection Worker
Investigate allegations of child abuse in a timely and comprehensive manner
Complete written reports, assessments and social histories
Interviewing experience in psychotherapy and social work
Worked with diverse populations and attained positive results
Assessed clients with mental health issues as well as family crisis cases and provided support to
families, individuals, seniors, youth and adolescents
Connected families and individuals to community resources
WORK EXPERIENCE
May 2017 to Present Gladshteyn & Baskakova Psychology Professional Corporation

May 2016- May 2017 Auxulium Wellness Centre
May 2014 to present Sufi Therapy Counselling Corporation
Sep 2014 to May 2015- Teaching Assistant...Wilfrid Laurier University, Religion &Culture
Sep- Dec 2013 Hospital Social Worker Stratford General Hospital- Intern
Jan-May 2013 Child Protection Intake Children’s Aid Society of Brant-Intern
2012- 2013 Social Researcher Social Planning Toronto, Newcomer Women C.
2011-2013 Turkish Teacher Toronto District School Board, W. Lyon M. C.I.
Public Relation Interfaith Affairs, Intercultural Dialog Institute in Toronto
VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES
2012-2017 Volunteer Organizer, KW Area Intercultural Dialog Institute (IDI)

2008-2011 President, Turkish Students Association at York University
2007-2008 Festival Organizer, Carassauga Festival, Azerbaijan Pavilion, ATRA
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Representative of IDI, Toronto Area Interfaith Council, Planning Committee
Public/Media Relation, Interfaith Affairs, Intercultural Dialog Institute in Toronto
EDUCATION
2015 to present PhD candidate, Human Relationships at Lutheran Seminary

2014-2015 Master of Art in Religion and Culture, Wilfrid Laurier University
2012-2014 Master of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University
2008-2011 Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, Honours in Sociology, York
University, Toronto
2007-2008 Social Service Worker Diploma, Centennial College, Toronto
2010 French Language Explore Program Certificate, York University, Toronto
BURSARIES AND AWARDS
Wilfrid Laurier University Graduate bursaries in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018
Student Opportunity Trust Fund
FGPS Graduate Travel Award
Seminary, Beatty Ryckman Trust
General Graduate Tuition Bursary
Graduate Teaching Assistantship (with Graduate Fellowship)
Zafrin Khandani Memorial Graduate Award in Religion & Culture
Paul Dodd Memorial Bursary
The Walter Metzger Memorial Bursary Fund for Ontario Residents – Graduate
Graduate Students’ Association Professional Development Award
Ontario Graduate Bursary
Student Access Guarantee – Graduate Students
York University in 2008 and 2011 at following:
Provost’s Scholarship
York Business &Prof Alliance Bursary OSOTFI
George Tatham Memorial Bursary
Millenium Bursary at Centennial College in 2002.
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Social Work Code of Ethics
Profession is founded on humanitarian and egalitarian ideals:
• Intrinsic worth and dignity of every human being
• Acceptance
• Self determination
• Respect for individuality
• Welfare of others
• Self realization
• Social justice
Purpose: Effect change at individual and

social levels
Focus: Patterns of psychosocial

relationships between people, and between
people
and resources
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Functions: Collaborative problem solving:
enhance – developmental capacities

(self-determination, self-realization)
advocate – just distribution of resources
facilitate – between people and resources
….. continue to grow and develop ourselves and be accountable for our
work
Canadian Association of Social Workers, 2005
Generalist-Eclectic Approach to Direct Social Work Practice:
1. A person-in-environment perspective that is informed by ecological systems theory

2. An emphasis on the development of a good helping relationship that fosters empowerment
3. The flexible use of a problem-solving process* to provide structure and guidance to work
with clients
4. A holistic, multi-level assessment that includes a focus on issues of diversity, oppression,
and strengths
5. The flexible/eclectic use of a wide range of theories and techniques that are selected on the
basis of their relevance to each unique client situation
*collaborative
Coady & Lehman, Theoretical Perspectives for Direct Social Work
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Strengths Perspective:
• The strengths orientation shifts the way social workers view and respond to clients
• Strengths focused workers assume client competence and acknowledge client’s strengths in
the environment
• Accentuating strengths highlights possible resources for achieving goals
• Identifying goals:
- solidifies the client-social worker partnership
- functions as a generally enhancing intervention
- can increase client motivation to invest in counselling
[Miley, 2004]
What Are Strengths:
Individual:
Cognitive Affective Physical
Therapist Intervention (Treatment): 60% therapeutic alliance

30% hope
8% model and technique
2% unaccounted for
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Wampold, B. (2001)
The Great Psychotherapy Debate
- intelligence - positive feelings of self worth -athletic skills
- creativity - abilities to identify and express - attractive appearance
emotions - endurance
-sensitivity - good health
Cultural Identities
- source of pride contributing to a positive sense of self and belonging
Spirituality
- can serve as a reservoir of strength
Interpersonal
- rewarding relationships with immediate and extended family, friends, neighbours, employers,
teachers, ministers
Community, Institutional and Recreational Resources

- rewarding connections can be sources of strengths
[Miley, 2009]
6 Virtues and 24 Character Strengths
1. Wisdom and Knowledge 2. Courage

- creativity - authenticity
- curiosity - bravery
- open mindedness - persistence
- love of learning - zest
- perspective
3. Humanity 4. Justice
- kindness - fairness
- love - leadership
- social intelligence - teamwork
5. Temperance 6. Transcendence
- forgiveness - appreciation of beauty &
- modesty excellence
- prudence - gratitude
- self-regulation - hope
- religiousness
[Peterson & Seligman, 2004]

www.authentichappiness.org
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Guidelines for Strengths Assessment
1. Give preeminence to the client's understanding of the facts

2. Believe the client
3. Discover what clients want
4. Move the assessment toward personal and environmental strengths
5. Make assessment of strengths multi dimensional
6. Use the assessment to discover uniqueness
7. Use language the client can understand
8. Make assessment a joint activity between worker and client
9. Reach a mutual agreement on the assessment
10. Avoid blame and blaming
11. Avoid cause and effect thinking
12. Assess, do not diagnose
[Saleeby, 1997]
Framework for Assessment [Cowger, 1997]
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Assessment of Client Strengths (Quadrant 2 of Assessment Axes)
A. Cognition
1. Sees the world as most other people see it in his culture.
2. Has an understanding of right and wrong, from her cultural, ethical perspective.
3. Understands how one's own behaviour affects others and how others affect her. Is
insightful.
4. Is open to different ways of thinking about things.
5. Reasoning is easy to follow.
6. Considers and weighs alternatives in problem solving.
B. Emotion
1. Is in touch with feelings and is able to express them if encouraged.
2. Expresses love and concern for intimate others.
3. Demonstrates a degree of self-control.
4. Can handle stressful situations reasonably well.
5. Is positive about life. Has hope.
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6. Has a range of emotions.
7. Emotions are congruent with situations.
C. Motivation
1. When having problems, doesn't hide from, avoid, or deny them.
2. Willing to seek help and share problem situation with others he can trust.
3. Willing to accept responsibility for her own part or role in problems situations.
4. Wants to improve current and future situations.
5. Does not want to be dependent on others.
6. Seeks to improve self through further knowledge, education, and skills.
D. Coping
1. Persistent in handling family crises.
2. Is well organized.
3. Follows through on decisions.
4. Is resourceful and creative with limited resources.
5. Stands up for self rather than submitting to injustice.
6. Attempts to pay debts despite financial difficulty.
7. Prepares for and handles new situations well.
8. Has dealt successfully with related problems in the past.
E. Interpersonal
1. Has friends.
2. Seeks to understand friends, family members and others.
3. Makes sacrifices for friends, family members and others.
4. Performs social roles appropriately (i.e. parents, spouse, son or daughter, community)
5. Is outgoing and friendly.
6. Is truthful.
7. Is cooperative and flexible in relating to family and friends.
8. Is self-confident in relationships with others.
9. Shows warm acceptance of others.
10. Can accept loving and caring feelings from others.
11. Has sense of propriety, good manners.
12. Is a good listener.
13. Expresses self spontaneously.
14. Is patient.
15. Has realistic expectations in relationships with others.
16. Has a sense of humour.
17. Has sense of satisfaction in role performance with others.
18. Has ability to maintain own personal boundaries in relationships with others.
19. Demonstrates comfort in sexual role/identity.
20. Demonstrates ability to forgive.
21. Is generous with time and money.
22. Is verbally fluent.
23. Is ambitious and industrious.
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24. Is resourceful.
Adaptation of the ROPES Model
Resources - focus on resources:

1. Personal
2. Family
3. Social environment
4. Organizational
5. Community
Options - focus on present, with an emphasis on a person's choice
Possibilities - focus on future, with an emphasis on imagination, creativity, a vision of

the future, and play
Exceptions - focus is on when the problem was better, or less of a problem
Solutions - focus is on constructive solution, not solving problems

[Graybeal, 2001]
The Strengths Perspective:
Honors:
• The innate wisdom of the human spirit
• The inherent capacity for resilience, healing, growth and development, and adaptation
• Rather than focus on problems, turn to possibility
Promotes Empowerment:
• Believing that people are capable of making their own choices and decisions
• Human beings possess the strengths and potential to resolve their own difficult life situations
Strategy:
• Mobilize client strengths (individual, interpersonal, and community resources) in the service
of achieving their goals and vision, and clients will have a better quality of life on their terms
• Need to balance strengths and challenges
1. Acknowledge pain
2. Look for seeds of resilience, courage, etc. in client stories
3. Encourage to act, link to resources as needed
4. Normalize strengths in client's new stories
[Saleeby, 1997]
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A Reflective/Inductive Model of Practice:
▪ Attempts to make sense of the situation without imposing preexisting expectations on the
phenomenon or setting under study
▪ Neutral investigation: no axe to grind, no theory to prove and no predetermined results to
support
▪ Identification of patterns and themes which culminates in a holistic understanding
▪ Each client problem situation is unique
❖ Elevation of art, intuition, creativity, and practice wisdom to essential places in professional
functioning
▪ Fit theories in classroom to work in the field

▪ Practice wisdom:
➢ Knowing in action: skillful practice
➢ Reflection in action: thinking on your feet
➢ Problem-solving: reflective-inductive collaborative
▪ Use a broad range of theoretical frameworks, eclectically and tentatively, as adjuncts to an

inductive problem-solving process
▪ The tendency to intellectualize, theorize, and second guess our instincts causes us to lose
our feel
Effective Practice:
▪ Natural, intuitive, interpersonal and creative problem-solving abilities

▪ Relationship skills
▪ Facilitative attitudes
▪ Wisdom based on experience
… interpersonal style and personal qualities are more important than theoretical
knowledge or technical proficiency
Coady, N. A reflective/inductive model of

practice. In Social work field education: Views
and visions (1995).
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Evidence-Based Practice (EBP)
“It is not enough to do your best; first you have to know what to do and then do your best”
[W. Deming in Fischer, Toward Evidence-

Based Practice, 2009]
• EBP is one of the most important developments in decades for the helping professions
[Briggs & Rzepnicki, 2004]
• EBP holds out hope for practitioners that we can at least be as successful in helping our
clients as the current available information on helping allows us to be.
• EBP represents the practitioner’s commitment to use all means possible to locate the best
(most effective) evidence for any given problem at all points of planning and contacts
with clients; all in close collaboration with clients, including sensitivity to socially and
culturally relevant approaches to intervention.
• “We believe the evidence-based practice model and the evaluation-informed practice
approach, in a sense, complete each other”.
[Fischer et al., 2009]
• Focus on the science of evidence-based and evaluation-informed practice is not intended

to rule out other crucial aspects of practice:
“the art and creativity of (and values & philosophy
undergirding) practice that make it humane and
caring we believe can be combined with the
empirical/scientific orientation”
[Fischer et al., 2009]
The Scientific Practitioner:
1. Using the results of research and evaluation to the extent possible to select
intervention techniques and other procedures that have evidence of effectiveness, and
use of techniques without such evidence, only with caution, this is the heart of
evidence-based practice [80% of published studies need to be positive before
concluding that a procedure is evidence-based]
2. Systematic monitoring and evaluation of practice with each and every client
3. Having the skills and attitudes – the commitment – to keep learning, to keep
searching for new and more effective ways to serve clients
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4. Above all, maintaining a commitment in words and deeds to the ethics and values of
the helping professions; a sensitivity, caring, and concern for the well-being, rights an
dignity of clients and consumers.
• www.cochrane.org
• The model is characterized by:
1. evidence-based
2. integrative
3. eclectic
4. systematic
5. accountable
6. way of thinking
Phase I Pre-Intervention
1. evaluate the context
2. process the referral
3. initiate contact
4. structure
Phase II Assessment
5. select problem
6. conduct assessment
7. collect baseline information
8. establish goals
Phase III Intervention

9. develop intervention plan
10. develop evaluation plan
11. negotiate contract
12. prepare for intervention
13. implement intervention
Phase IV Systematic Evaluation

14. monitor and evaluate results
15. assess and overcome barriers
16. evaluate goal achievement
Phase V Stabilize
17. stabilize and generalize changes
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18. plan and implement termination and follow-up
[Fischer, 2009]
Post-Modern Thinking
• Increasing pace of change and technological advances

• Instant access to information
• Uncertainty, risk, and fragmentation, complexity, diversity
• Consumption
• Influence of the media
• Concerns about objectivity, truth, power, and control
• Emergence of multiple realities and truths
• Reality and knowledge constructed through language
1. Dialetical thought [M. Basseches, 1989]

- Attempts to describe fundamental processes of change and the dynamic
relationships through which this change occurs
- Acquire a new ability [in young adulthood] to deal with fuzzier problems that
make up the majority of the problems of adulthood – problems that do not have a
single solution, or in which some critical pieces of information may be missing
2. Problem finding/postformal thinking [P. Arlin, 1990]

- Includes creativity, which is optimal for dealing with problems that have no clear
solution or that have multiple solutions
- A person that is operating at this stage is able to generate many possible solutions
to ill-defined problems and to see old problems in new ways
- Problem finding is a clear stage following formal operations, but that is achieved
by only a small number of adults (such as those involved in advanced science or
the arts)
3. Triarchic Theory of Intelligence [R. Sternberg, 1988]

i. Experiential intelligence – measured by IQ tests (correctness)
ii. Contextual intelligence – has to do with knowing the right behaviour for a
specific situation
iii. Componential intelligence – is a person’s ability to come up with effective
strategies (to arrive at decisions) **
** According to Sternberg, this is the most important component of intelligence
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SK 522 Social Work Practice with Individuals
Instructor: Jon Boyd
Oct 17, 2012
Values Clarification & Self-Awareness Essay
By Faruk Arslan
The Idealism of Social Work and Our Realities
The Social Work Profession focus on patterns of psychosocial relationships between
people, and between people and resources, target effective change at individual and social levels
based on humanitarian and egalitarian ideals which are intrinsic worth and dignity of every
human being, acceptance, self determination, respect for individuality, welfare of others, self
realization and social justice (CASW, 2005). Rather than a single Social Work approach, the
interdisciplinary nature of the Social Work practice is very appealing and fits many goals and
interests that several multiple, multicultural and multidimensional perspectives of practice
models useful towards social justice-oriented model in Canada. Our Code of Ethics are embraced
by a wide range of social workers in clinical, community and policy settings, such as feminist,
Marxist, critical, postmodernist, Indigenous-centered, post-structural, critical constructionist,
anti-colonial, anti-racist, anti-oppressive theories. Social workers should be humble, flexible and
enjoy using general eclectic, reflective-inductive strength-based models, learning order, object,
relational-cultural, ecological, conflict and change, concepts, and psychological, cross-cultural,
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biological and behavioral perspectives. As a RSW and a MSW candidate, I would like to
enhance my and clients self-determination and self-realization capacities, advocate for
distribution of resources, and collaboratively facilitate supportive counselling between people
and resources to continue to grow and develop ourselves and be accountable for our work in
order to the promotion of healthy living based on the Social Work ethics and values.
Before involved in social work practice, I have been an accomplished student, a
successful reporter and correspondent, and then a researcher—even a writer who has already
published 21 books. I’ve been able use the title of RSW since 2008 because I comply of all
requirements based on legislation (OCSW, 2008). As a sociology and a MSW student, I’ve been
always a passionate critical thinker and writer aiming to respond to the complex problems facing
our society, individuals and communities. As a matter of fact, develop and maintain a
professional self in terms of values, ethics, practices, professional relationships which adhere to
professional, legal, and ethical standards aligned to social work knowledge base are crucial to
work efficiency (CASW, 2005). I respect clients, staffs diversity and programs confidentiality
based on social work ethics, codes, and present material at an agency in-service. If I am a client,
I would want to know client rights, confidentiality about service/ programs, and ability,
accountability and credibility of my Counselor. Client maybe asks more something from me that
I can identify potential high expectaions and ethical dilemmas represented in assigned cases. I
work through possible resolutions with supervisior and report to him/her result with note, discuss
probable ramifications, that is important to work colloboratively with clients-co-workers-
managers and increase hope and expectancy. First, I will develop a trust relationship with client,
give her/him a positive space and atmosphere, identify strengths, emotions, reflect feelings,
resources, and challenge of individuals, families, groups, and communities to assist and empower
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them in achieving their goals. I’d actively and attend listening to client in order to pull out right
model, theory and practice from broad range social work theories. I will try to choose right
solution with client alliance and collaboration to meet their needs. I will attention power, rupture
and balance issues while encourage client to talk more comfortable, respect their stories and
maximize client contributions. I will engage in, and maintain social work relationships, and
recognize diverse needs and experiences of individuals, groups, families, stuffs and communities
to promote accessible and responsive programs and services (CASW, 2005). I will assess,
identify and formulate a shared understanding of strengths, gaps, needs and priorities to current
social policy, relevant legislation, and political, social, and/or economic systems and their
impacts on service delivery clearly and analytically to client. I will plan to describe and advocate
for appropriate access to relevant community resources to assist individuals, families, groups,
and communities, collaboratively develop several dynamic short, medium and long term goals
based action plans with client approval (CASW, 2005).
Furthermoer, I want to concentrate on psyhoterapy fileld because I want to help
individuals, families, groups, and research on a community-based problem solving and provide
solution-focus approaches. I am committed to achievement by recognizing roots of
discrimination and oppression usage and within my approach, critical and reflective thinking. It
is important to see all of the different ways in which the persons and systems are interrelated. I
have been influenced by the system + ecological theories = the life model in my social service
worker studies, and during my field placement at Centennial College, I was drawn to the
Germain’s ecological perspective for the same reasons. However, I found only one theory to be
lacking in practical application. Postmodernism and the Critical Theory are broad rubrics for
intellectual movements rather than specific theories, and postmodernism derives from Post-
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Structuralism and Deconstructionist, which were initially criticisms of the Structuralism
Movement of the 1960s. The Critical Theory was derived from the neo-Marxism and Feminist
theories, extended to include the Post-Colonial Theory, the Relational-Cultural Theory, the
Narrative Theory, the Queer Theory, the Mutally Colloabrative and the Strenght-Based
colloborative models that indicate client allience is crucial factor to help client, in which
solidifies the client-social worker partnership. Discourse and deductive thinking need a variety of
approaches assigned based on client needs and requests. The ecological structure needs nutrition
to adapt and evolve, and it depends on power and the structure of the society to have benefited
them. Based on the critical perspective, there are false conscious, deconstructive, and dominate
groups that benefit from consciousness such as capitalism, and historical facts were choices that
have influenced our lives.
Moreover, I searched several approaches, such as one reflective, which puts oneself in
someone else’s shoes to understand others. I am equally a kinaesthetic, visual, auditory, oral and
verbal learner, so I plan to take advantage of all the possibilities from these forms of learning that
encourage me to do intensive study and create therapeutic relationship allience. I like to use the
Critical Reflective Model, anti-racism and anti-oppression approaches to practice in the social
field in order to break down barriers. I do advocacy for social justice, confront the ideas of
discrimination and oppression, and create possibilities for multiple perspectives and develop
explanations as a critical reflector. Talking of this practice can put impact on community leaders
and psyhotherapists to challenge their minds to work on community-based solutions in order to
meet clients need. The less competent MSW is not interested in my work as a helper of people,
but rather as an expert of people in the way of working effectively for clients. I would look to an
anti-oppressive, empowerment, critical, reflective, and systemic life model, and also a contextual
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model for guidance in encouragement in order to collaboratively change the system and
intervene clients with problem solving focus. I will implement strategies, methods and practices
and collaboratively determine interventions based on the assessment and plan that will be
achieved by developing and maintaining positive working relationships with colleagues,
supervisors, and community partners. Networking and establishing professional relationship with
staffs will provide positive and warm work environment in terms of legal and ethical standard of
practice and use code of ethics in order to facilitate change, challenge and development (CASW,
2005).
In fact, my skills as a RSW and having sociological knowledge are adequate to help
people within a certain context; I have experience working in the Canadian Interfaith-
Intercultural Dialogue Center, Intercultural Dialogue Institute, Canadian Turkish Friendship
Community, Azerbaijan Turkish Regions Association, Sunrise Education Trust, Cummer Lodge
Senior Home Care as a community developer, an event organizer, as a consellor for refugees,
immigrants, new Canadians, and for persons with whom case management was necessary with
high-risk families, and with media and public relations, and I have also been successful doing
SSW works with families and children. At a certain point; however, I still am in need of
direction and supervision for a competence-based psyhotherapy. It is my hope that I will feel
more confident upon completing the Wilfred Laurier University MA Social Work field.
Ultimately, I feel it is important to know more about the approach to theories, have an idea of my
own biases, but to never let a certain perspective or technology limit to what I can do for a client.
Respect for human diversity has always been a core social work concern and value (CASW,
2005). It is the centerpiece of many of our best efforts to enhance human growth and potential. I
have respect that culture, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual diversity in Canada grow ever more
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inclusive. The social work profession works mostly with underprivileged segments of society
that include a large number of culturally diverse populations. I have assumed the task of
broadening my cultural competency to improve my ability to work with clients whose
backgrounds and culture are different from my own. My experiences living in other countries
(Azerbaijan, Turkey and Canada) have allowed me the perspective of being outside the
mainstream, also insider as a RSW in last four years.
In addition, frame alignments, gender segregations, frame extensions, transformations of
new ideas, public representations and cultural innovations are still limitations of and weaknesses
of social work in a practice level. Social Workers are encouraged to stand and work
transformative and revolutionary manner; however, Social Workers have increasingly and
dramatically require spending more time for paper work, completing standardized forms of every
type, keeping statistics, returning calls, and attending meetings rather than doing interactions
with clients and communities and organizing a collective action wherein individuals commit
themselves to their work. Of course, using informal letter and professional language is an
evidence of professionalism while sending and replying emails, phone calls. I will possibly be
taken intake work, co-leading a psycho-educational, support, or community action group or/and
community project integrate with particular population such as working with community,
adolescent support service, providing supportive counseling on a drop basis, advocacy work,
developing and facilitating some structured group programing for the teens, liaising with school,
mental health and addiction facilities. I will be documenting practice, notes, reports, proposals,
case recording, correspondence, minutes that lead to improve job performance, written work in a
competent, timely and organize manner and enhanced work relationships. I will evaluating and
engage in a constructive evaluation of the practicum and teaching experience within the process
23
collaboratively with getting feedback from all participants and inform them about final report
respectively and contribute to the development of the agency programs, policies and procedures
(CASW, 2005).
In conclusion, I prefer to collaborate and work with a group, transfer and apply my
professional skills and integrate different social group work and group facilitation skills across a
wide range of environments, support growth and development of individuals, families, and
communities. I want to work in a team to identify subsequent learning and growth and critically
reflect on my practice and keep co-workers informed regularly with self-assessment of my work
performance (CASW, 2005). However, I don’t want to fall into many existing social work
fallacies such as volunteer skepticism and the standardized work loads in our Social Work
practices and break any of our Code of Ethics (CASW) intentionally or unintentionally. This is
fact that our society is socially constructed , many of our programs and social workers have
enforced to offer only limited type of pro-market, business-like management solutions, using
effective and fast-track solutions with lesser cost efficiency, service sold to make a profit basis. I
would like to use transformative, radical, change-based models such as anti-oppressive, social
justice, equality, equity care, a public service ethos, non-market initiatives, change-like, stressing
social connection to individual, families and group, community basis or care-based approaches.
Collective actions can bring about kindness, respectfulness, generosity and above all else cultural
harmony, anti-oppressive, and positive environment. Leading social activities and actions,
speaking up for victims of the current society, and helping others to change their life from
socially constructed structures are important roles for social workers while use the code of social
work ethics within practices, which shows our entuhaism and empowerement on a variety of
social works collaboratively in a multiple scale clients, co-workers and supervisors. I am aware
24
of that social workers must heal themselves individually, remove egoism from their minds, souls
and hearts by helping others and establish a positive relationship with clients. I agree with that;
real inner peace can be achieved by sharing different perspectives, listening to each other
through the sphere of love, respect, tolerance, mercy, and compassion. Ultimately, I would like
to work in counselling fields, and collaborate with clients and communities closely to advocate
for change strategies that promote social and economic justice and challenge patterns of
oppression and discrimination. I could offer many multi-capacities case management,
counseling, research skills, involve in administrative support, attend workshops to learn how to
evaluate current programs and develop new programs, examine similar programs in community-
based, strength based programs may promote positive change for agency, and write grants and
establish communications within agency and between related agencies in order to effectively
bring direct practice situations, projects and social work relationship to a conclusion (CASW,
2005).
References:
Canadian Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics. (2005). Social Workers Code of
Ethics Manuel.
Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice Handbook. 2008. Second Edition. Ontario
College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers.
25
The Basics of Thesis Proposal
I think the first thing that helps is to imagine a thesis proposal in a few broad themes. This
structure will help organize your thoughts in a broad way so you don’t have to worry about what
to discuss where.
It also helps to remember that every research comes out of a specific orientation to knowledge
production. No method or theory drops from the sky. Every theory and every method has its deep
roots in specific philosophy (which is in turn rooted in specific epistemology and ontology). So
every question has a specific home to go back to.
Here now is the broad outline that I think would be important to organize your thoughts around. I
really like it when people use their own creative ways of organizing their proposal so I am a bit
divided in proposing a way of doing it here. But I propose it with a caveat. It is only one way of
organizing your proposal so follow it only if you really need some sort of a structure:
1) Introduction: introduce your proposed study in a very broad and generic way. What is the
issue? Who is affected? Why is it important to address it? How are YOU going to address
it? How would you position yourself vis-à-vis the topic and the research participants?
a. Introduce the issue (very broad and very brief, a couple of paragraphs)
b. Scope of the study (a paragraph of what you would do and what you would not,
what is included and what is not)
c. Rationale and significance of the study (why is this study so important at this
point in time? Very brief, one paragraph)
d. Positionality/social location (Why is this so important for YOU? What is your
own relationship to the topic and the participants? What influenced you to do this
research and what experiences do you bring into it?)
2) Literature Review: What do other voices in the literature say about the issue? What has
been done so far? How have others addressed it? What aspects of it are addressed? What
remains to be done? This identifies the gap in the literature so nicely and neatly leads to
your research question. In a way it carves a space for your contribution to knowledge
production.
3) Research question(s): State your overarching research question and break it down into the
sub-questions you would like to explore. This leads neatly to how you will address the
gap. The how addresses methodological questions…
4) Methodology: methodology deals with issues of research orientation (your

philosophical/conceptual approach) and research design issues. It is not methods only; it
is methods + ology (some even call it methodolatry → methods + idolatry, so much for
the fun of it!)
26
a. Research orientation (you discuss your paradigm, your philosophical approach).
You touch on your conceptual issues (theories) that come out of this philosophical
approach.
b. Research design issues: Here you discuss methods that come out of this
theoretical, conceptual orientation. Here again, methods don’t drop from the sky!
They are rooted in specific theories, which are rooted in specific philosophies,
which are rooted in…)
i. Participant selection strategies (Sample and sampling)

ii. Data generation (data collection/gathering)
iii. Interpretation (data analysis – coding, organizing, indexing, synthesizing)
5) Ethical considerations: Here you discuss briefly your ethical considerations. You don’t
clutter your proposal with info already in your informed consent. But try to address both
institutional ethics (REB – in your request for research ethics review form) and personal
ethics (addressing the issues of power and meaning)
6) Timeline – give a broad timeline within which you secure REB ethics approval, generate
data, analyze data, write up the findings, integrate advisor feedback, submit complete
draft to committee, secure committee approval, and defend dissertation. From past
experience, students have found this timeline helpful:
a. Secure committee approval of thesis proposal by May

b. Ethics Review Approval by May
c. Complete data generation and preliminary analysis by August
d. Complete analysis and writing by December
e. Integrate advisor and/or committee feedback on chapters by January
f. Submit complete draft to committee by February
g. Integrate committee feedback and secure committee approval by March
h. Submit defense copy and defend by April
i. Submit post-defense revision by May 1st
j. Convocate in June
7) Reference – Social work uses the APA citation and reference style. Use the latest edition.
8) Appendix – (append your interview guide. Conversation guide, focus group guide,
telephone conversation script, Participant Information Letter, Informed Consent Form,
etc.
Assessment questions for qualitative article
1. What paradigm appears to inform the study/article? What issues or concerns are raised
for you as you attempt to identify the researcher’s epistemological perspective?
2. What is the role of theory in this particular study/article? Support your opinion by
presenting an argument.
27
3. Are the objectives and audience clearly identified? If not, who do you think the audience
is?
4. What methodology is the researcher using in the study? Is it clearly identified? If not,
how can it be identified from the information provided?
5. How is the research design consistent, or not, with the paradigm?
6. What sampling strategy is used, and is it appropriate for the paradigm?
7. How does the data analysis establish credibility/believability? Does it place its meanings
in context? If so, how? How can we be sure that the study’s findings are representative
and not simply concocted by a biased researcher?
8. What sources of potential bias were identified? How were they addressed? What other
sources of bias can you identify?
9. What ethical dimensions were considered prior to the research endeavour?
10. What ethical questions have been considered by the researcher(s)? What other ethical
concerns do you see in relation to this research?
11. What are the study’s findings?
12. What limitations of the study were noted by the researcher? What suggestions does the
researcher offer for improving this research? What suggestions might you have in this
regard?
Assessment questions for quantitative article
1. What paradigm appears to inform the study/article? What issues or concerns are raised
for you as you attempt to identify the researcher’s epistemological perspective?
2. What is the role of theory in this particular study/article? Support your opinion by giving
an argument.
3. Are the article’s objectives and audience clearly identified? If not, who do you think the
audience is?
4. What research design is employed by the researcher? What rationale does the author offer
for choosing this design?
5. How is the research design consistent, or not, with the paradigm?
6. How does the design suit the research question?
7. What are the advantages and limitations to the sampling procedures? Does the
researcher(s) comment on this?
8. Comment on the study’s validity and reliability.
9. What sources of potential bias identified? What additional sources of bias, if any, can
you identify?
10. How are ethical dimensions considered prior to the research endeavour?
11. How does the researcher identify and address ethical dilemmas arising from the research?
What further ethical concerns, if any, do you see?
12. What are the study’s findings?
13. What limitations to this study are noted by the researcher? What suggestions for
improving the research, if any, does the researcher offer? Any suggestions might you
have in this regard?
28
FACULTY OF SOCIAL WORK
WILFRIDLAURIERUNIVERSITY
SPRING 2012
CLINICAL SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH AND DATA ANALYSIS

SK 615
SECTION 1, 4 & 6 SECTION 2, 3 & 5
Nancy Freymond Marina Morgenshtern
1. Contact inside MYLS 1. Contact inside MYLS e-mail

2. nfreymond@wlu.ca 2. mmorgenshtern@wlu.ca
3. 519-884-0710 x5266 – DO NOT 3. (289) 234 0471
LEAVE MESSAGES HERE
4. 905-520-6887 (for emergencies)
Office Hours: Wednesday 9-12:50 Office Hours: Monday 12-1 or

By appointment Tuesday 2-4 or by appointment.
Office Room 309
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course will focus on quantitative and qualitative research related to clinical questions and
practice.
Students will apply a range of analysis techniques to both quantitative and qualitative data. This
course is designed to assist students with developing a knowledge base of data handling,
computer use in analysis, and interpretation. This course emphasizes learning by doing. Students
will be active in analyzing data for a research project. Building on SK 504, this course will
enhance critical thinking skills, especially with regard to the use, production, and interpretation
of data relevant to professional social work practice
29
INTRODUCTION
Welcome research colleagues! We look forward to working together with you! We are a group
of faculty researchers concerned about social work research training.
Over the past 3 years SK 615 has become a research project. In this course we are using an
experiential or ‘learning-by-doing’ approach to social work data analysis. We are inviting you to
join our project for the upcoming nine weeks that we will spend together.
In 2009 the purpose of our research study was to understand graduate social work students’
attitudes toward research and to clarify factors that contribute to students’ research engagement.
We discovered the following:
(a) That the vast majority of students are convinced of the value of research in their personal
lives and professional practice
(b) In the context of learning research students reported considerable anxiety and negative
attitudes
(c) Students stress the difficulty of research, often equating it with statistics or mathematics
(d) Exposure to research in the classroom and social work settings, the enthusiasm of student
colleagues and professors for research and skilled instruction help to shape more positive
attitudes
In 2010, given the high anxiety reported about ‘doing’ research, we shifted our focus away from
an emphasis on attitudes toward looking at students’ perceived research abilities and the effect of
different learning activities on their interest in research. We discovered the following:
(a) Students experience tensions & ambiguity about what research is and what its purpose is
(or should be).
(b) Students arrive to graduate school with a perceived inability to do research. There were
significant differences between students’ research self-efficacy scores with regard to their
preparation skills compared to their implementation skills.
(c) 80% of students with average or higher outcome expectations had been previously
involved with research.
(d) Research methodology and statistics courses were found to contribute negatively to
interest in research.
(e) Reading professional journals as well as clinical social work and policy courses were
found to contribute positively to interest in research.
These findings underscored the importance of doing research in the context of a ‘real’ project
and gave us more information about helping students to understand themselves as able to ‘do’
research. We were dismayed to learn that that student research interest diminishes in the context
of research and data analysis courses. We wish to deepen our understanding of this. And we want
to do better.
30
Our Goal
We want social work students to graduate feeling able to undertake research in their social
work careers and confident in their research abilities should they pursue doctoral studies.
What We Hope To Do Together
You will be asked to analyze data collected from MSW students and FSW faculty about their
opinions on research and social work, and MSW students’ experiences in research courses, their
experience of research in field placement and their experience in conducting research.
You will be asked to submit a quantitative foundations assignment. You will also be asked to
submit a qualitative assignment that includes both the foundational material and an additional
part that reflects more intensive learning of qualitative analytic methods.
You will be supported by:
Nancy Freymond
Marina Morgenshtern
We are capable quantitative and qualitative researchers although we have different skill levels
and abilities. We will make these known to you. You can choose to access any one of us for
support, regardless of the section you are assigned to.
New Directions
Repeatedly students in SK 615 have communicated that they have learning needs that have not
been addressed. Specifically, we have some students who arrive with very minimal research
experience and the material covered in SK 615 is challenging. Alternatively, we have students
who express concern that the material covered in the course has already been learned in other
places. Sometimes students will arrive feeling confident about their quantitative skills but
without qualitative experience (or vice versa). This is a difficult teaching challenge.
We also will invite you to join an intensive qualitative stream, which begins after you return
from the Victoria Day holiday.
31
OVERALL COURSE OBJECTIVES
1 To discover some of the practical considerations when collecting, managing, and

analyzing data sets.
2 To explore the differences and similarities of the qualitative and quantitative research
traditions and the implications for data analysis.
3 To develop a basic understanding of the methods of data analysis most frequently used in
clinical social work research.
4 To do quantitative and qualitative data analysis.
5 To develop more in-depth knowledge about qualitative analysis.
For the data analysis foundations course requirements you should be able to:
a) Understand the uses of the following statistical procedures:
• Measures of central tendency, correlation, chi square, t-tests and ANOVA
b) Become familiar with SPSS
• Use SPSS to organize data and run the above tests

• Interpret the results from SPSS for the above tests and display them in an informative
manner
c) Understand the organization and interpretation of qualitative data:
• Code excerpts of qualitative data

• Describe the main themes in excerpts of qualitative data
• Interpret the meanings of analyzed qualitative data
d) Gain knowledge about the process of publishing research findings:

• Write up findings using a format that parallels a standard journal article
READING RESOURCES
1. Journal Articles as selected for each module
2. Web Resources
a) Qualitative Social Research:

http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/issue/view/26
b) The International Journal of Qualitative Methods

http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/iiqm/journals.cfm
c) The Qualitative Reports - great resource for qualitative coding and analysis information
32
and for grounded theory analysis –http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/
d) Online QDA – How to Code

http://onlineqda.hud.ac.uk/Intro_QDA/how_what_to_code.php
e) Video on quantitative data analyses –

http://www.learner.org/resources/series65.html#
3. Readings on Reserve
UNIVERSITY POLICIES
Office of Accessible Learning

Students are encouraged to review the WLU website for information regarding all services
available on campus. Students with disabilities or special needs are advised to contact Laurier’s
Accessible Learning Office for information regarding its services and resources. In order to
create a supportive learning environment a student should advise their instructor about any
special needs and considerations they may require. Please feel free to discuss with me
accommodations that will help to meet your learning needs.
Misconduct and Plagiarism

Students are advised to review the WLU website for information regarding academic
misconduct. Please note that Wilfrid Laurier University uses software that can check for
plagiarism. Students may be required to submit their written work in electronic form and have it
checked for plagiarism.
Generally, with the exception of the first week your 4 hour classes will be divided into 2 sections
1 Quantitative Data Analysis 2 hours

2 Qualitative Data Analysis 2 hours
33
CLASS SCHEDULE FOR FOUNDATIONS CURRICULUM
April 22, 23, 24
Module 1a -- Is Data Analysis Really Relevant for Social Workers?: Course Introduction
We want to know who you are - how you are approaching this course – and the experiences you
have had to date. It is good for us (and you) to have a broad sense of student strengths and
growth edges.
After attending this module you will:
1. Understand why it is important for social workers to have data analysis skills.
2. Be more oriented to the course syllabus and course structures.
3. Understand the logic behind the “learning-by-doing” pedagogy and why we think this
may be a useful approach for this course.
4. See how the learning modules are designed to equip you with the knowledge that you
need to analyze quantitative and qualitative data
Hopeful Outcome - reduced anxiety
Resources:
Syllabus – supplied in class
Patton, M., (2005). Two decades of development in qualitative inquiry: A personal experiential
perspective. Qualitative Social Work 1(3), 261-283
Module 1b– An Introduction to the Study
After attending this module you will be able to:
1. Appreciate the context for the research project and the data you will analyze
2. Purposefully establish your research learning group
3. Thoughtfully reflect on your own research self-efficacy
4. Locate quantitative data on SPSS
5. Locate the Qualitative Data.
Hopeful Outcome – engagement with ideas
Please note that you are expected to prepare a written summary of your opinions about research,
your research experience in research courses, field practicum and conducting research (if you
34
have ever done so), as well as to reflect on what do you expect other MSW students’ opinions
and experiences to be. Also, do you think faculty and students think differently about research?
If so, what do you expect the difference to be? This should be done between the first and second
classes! It is preferable if this is a group effort.
Resources:
Morgenshtern, M., Freymond, N., Agyapong, S., & Greeson, C. (2011). Graduate social work
students’ attitudes toward research: Problems and prospects. Journal of Teaching in
Social Work, 31(5).
April 29, 30, May 1
Module 2a Approaching Qualitative Data
Please prepare a written account of your own sense of research self-efficacy prior to class. This
may be a group account.
Please note that it is not mandatory to use NVIVO for this analysis but I will encouraging you to
develop familiarity with this software.
1. Understand options for data management strategies and organization.

2. Explain the differences between content analysis, thematic, and reflexive analysis
3. Describe the advantages and limitations of working with transcribed data
4. Articulate the implications of your dual relationship with this data.
5. Describe strategies for making the analytic process transparent.
6. Appreciate the function of NVIVO
Hopeful Outcome - A thoughtful foundation for engaging the qualitative data
Resources: *(indicates instructor’s picks)

*Transcription Protocol (you need to understand what directions were given to the transcriber of
the focus groups you are analyzing)
Gibbs G.R. & Taylor, C. (2005). How and what to code and how to write a journal
Hughes, I. (1996, 2000). How to Keep a Research Diary
*Rubin , J.& Rubin, S. (1995). Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data. Thousand
Oaks: Sage Publications. (What did you hear: Data Analysis, pp. 226-256)
35
Tutty, L., Rothery, M Grinnell, R. (1996). Qualitative research for social workers: Phases, steps,
and tasks. Needham Heights: Allyn and Bacon. (Analyzing your Data pp. 89-119)
*Bird, C. (2005). How I stopped dreading and learned to love transcription. Qualitative Inquiry,
11(2), 226-248.
Given & Olsen (2003) Knowledge organization in research: A conceptual model for organizing
data. Library and Information Science Research, 25, 157-17.
Module 2b Descriptive Statistics: Measures of Central Tendency, Variability around the

Mean
Remember reading research reports? How do researchers describe a sample of their study? Do
you know how to read this description? Do you know how to produce it? If you answered “No”
to at least one of these questions – this module is for you!
1. Explain the purpose of descriptive statistics.

2. Distinguish between inferential and descriptive statistics.
3. Obtain, read and interpret frequency distributions and display them using appropriate
graphs.
4. Read and interpret bar graphs and line graphs.
5. Calculate the mode, median, and mean.
6. List the strengths and weaknesses of the mode, median, mean and range
7. Explain positive skew and negative skew.
8. Explain the impact of skewness on the measures of central tendency.
9. Describe and interpret the different measures of variability around the mean.
10. Describe the spread of the distribution
11. Perform basic SPSS functions
Hopeful Outcome - You will feel confident in your ability to describe a study’s sample
Resources:
Rubin, A. & Babbie, E. (2008). Research methods for social work, 5th ed. Pacific Grove:
Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, pp. 478-491
Video 2 “Picturing distributions” at http://www.learner.org/resources/series65.html #
May 6, 7, 8
36
Module 3a: An Introduction to Qualitative Coding
1. Describe and apply the analytical skills for content and thematic (constant
comparison/grounded theory and phenomenological) analysis.
2. Develop a coding strategy
3. Use basic functions of Nvivo for coding focus group data
Hopeful Outcome - Knowledge and Confidence to proceed with the coding of the focus
group data.
Resources
*Attride-Sterling, J. (2001). Thematic networks: An analytical tool for qualitative research.

Qualitative Research 1(3) 385-405.
Ryan, G. and H.R. Bernard (2003) “Techniques to Identify Themes”, Field Methods 15(1): 85-
109.
Halkier, B. (2010). Focus groups as social enactments: Integrating interaction and content in the
analysis of focus group data. Qualitative Research, 10(1), 71
Warr, D.J. (2005). “It was fun . . . but we don’t usually talk about these things”: Analyzing
Sociable Interaction in Focus Groups. Qualitative Inquiry, 11(2), 200-225.
Module 3b: Describing and Testing Relationship between Variables
This module is relevant for you if you do not know how to describe and make inferential
decisions regarding relationship between two variables in the study. This module will
complement your understanding of describing variables and will teach you how to describe your
sample in a more sophisticated way. It will also be relevant to you if you are looking to learn
about the relationship between variables in your study.
1. Describe the Relationship between Variables

o Scatterplots
o Two-way Tables
2. Test Relationship
o Crosstabulation and Chi-Square Test
o Correlation
3. Explain how one variable is related to another variable
37
4. Your sample description will become more sophisticated as you make reference to the
relationship between variables in the sample
5. You are able to make inference conclusions regarding the relationship between two
variables, i.e. talk not only about the sample but also about the population.
Resources:
Lecture handouts and supplementary materials

Moore D. S. & McCabe, G. P. (2003). Introduction to the Practice of Statistics, 4th Edition.
Freeman: Chapter 2, 9.
May 13, 14, 15
Module 4a Autoethnography and Reflexive Writing
1. develop and apply the analytical skills for reflexive analysis

2. explore the ways of ‘writing the researcher in’ the text
3. practice skills of reflexive writing
Hopeful Outcomes
You will have a clear understanding of what the reflexive writing is and how to incorporate a
reflexive analysis in your qualitative foundations paper.
Resources
To be finalized – check MYLS
Module 4b Inference for the Mean
Remember the findings section of the research reports you have read? Do you tend to skip it and
read the discussion? Are you intimidated by the names of different tests? This module will teach
you some of the tests. If some of the research questions you defined deal with understanding
differences between groups (e.g. gender differences, differences related to education status, etc.)
– this module is right for you!
1. Make inference for the mean of a population

2. Test mean differences between two and more groups using:
38
• One-Sample T-Test
• Paired Samples T-Test
• Independent Samples T-Test
3. Make decisions regarding the relevance of each of the above tests
4. Interpret the results of each of the tests
Hopeful Outcomes - You will be able to choose, run and interpret tests relevant to your
research questions
Resources:
Anastas, J. W. (1999). Research design for social work and the human services, 2nd ed. New
York: Columbia University Press. Chapter 18 Inferential statistics – pp. 466-502
*Video 20 “Significance Tests” and video 21 “Inference for one mean” at

Moore D. S. & McCabe, G. P. (2003). Introduction to the Practice of Statistics, 4th Edition.
Freeman: Chapter 7-8, 12.
May 21, 22, 27 (Section 1 & 2 on the 27)
Module 5 a Creating an Argument, Writing Up, Evaluating your Analysis
1. Explore various lenses for evaluating and defending the qualitative analysis.
2. Appreciate the importance of words, context, frequency or extensiveness, internal
consistency, specificity
Hopeful Outcomes - A clear understanding of how to package and present qualitative

findings.
Resources
Vicsek, L. (2010). Issues in the Analysis of Focus Groups: Generalisability, Quantifiability,
Treatment of Context and Quotations. The Qualitative Report, 15(1), 122-141
Lietz, C., Langer, C., & Furman, R. (2006). Establishing trustworthiness in qualitative research
in social work: Implications from a study regarding spirituality. Qualitative Social Work, 5(4),
441-458.
39
Module 5b Bivariate Analysis: Studying Differences
1. Perform one way ANOVA and Multiple Comparisons Tests

2. Identify appropriate test using a decision tree
Resources
Anastas, J. W. (1999). Research design for social work and the human services, 2nd ed. New
York: Columbia University Press. Chapter 18 Inferential statistics, pp. 466-502
*Video 20 “Significance Tests” and video 21 “Inference for one mean” at

May 28, 29, June 3 (Section 1 & 2 on June 3) – Qualitative Intensive Begins
Taking Qualitative Inquiry a Little Closer to the Edge
Artistically crafted novels, poems, films, paintings, and photography have the capacity to awaken
us from our stock responses. – Elliot Eisner
Arts-based inquiry is uniquely positioned as a methodology for radical, ethical, and

revolutionary research that is futuristic, socially responsible, and useful in addressing social
inequities. – Susan Finley
The emergence of mixed methods as a third methodological movement in the social and
behavioral sciences began during the 1980’s - Tashakkori & Teddlie
There is a continuum of approaches to qualitative research. The foundations component of this

course took a more “objectivist” stance in analyzing qualitative data. In the intensive portion of
the course, we turn to the analysis of forms of qualitative data that are more likely to be used by
feminist and post modern researchers who tend to emphasize research subjectivities, voice(s),
participation and collaboration. The intensive portion of this course is designed to encourage
students to experiment with the production and analysis of arts based qualitative data. Students
will be urged to increase the transparency and persuasiveness of their work. Building on the
foundations qualitative analysis, the intensive is also designed to encourage students to critically
examine the contributions of multiple data forms (survey, focus group & arts based) to
uncovering the phenomenon (MSW student research self-efficacy) and how, in combination,
these data enrich our understanding.
Aims of the Qualitative Intensive

1. To develop and extend students’ knowledge of qualitative data analysis for social work.
2. To offer students the opportunity to inform the curriculum by proposing qualitative analysis
topics for study.
40
3. To increase students’ understanding of the processes involved in doing qualitative research
4. To endow students with the knowledge and understanding necessary to undertake and evaluate
the results of qualitative research
5. To increase students’ ability to analyze and synthesize findings from multiple forms of
research inquiry.
Topics
Please note that we are developing and refining the syllabus in relation to our reading and
thinking about this new direction for the course and also in relation to the ‘cues’ from students
about learning needs.
Introducing Arts Based Inquiry & Arts Based Analytic Strategies
1. appreciate the contributions of arts based inquiry in expanding the borders of what
constitutes social work research
2. have more information about how to approach the analysis of your arts based
contribution
Readings:
*Butler-Kisber, L. (2002). Artful portrayals in qualitative inquiry: The road to found poetry and
beyond. The Alberta Journal of Educational Research, XLV11(3), 229-239.
McNiff, S. (2008). Arts based research. In Knowles & Cole, (Eds.) Handbook of the arts in
qualitative research, pp. 29-40. Sage
If you are feeling lost, read the Schell article. This article discusses the experience of students
learning about photo-voice by doing it. It may stimulate ideas for you.
*Schell, K., Ferguson, A., Hamoline, R., Shea, J., & Thomas-Maclean, R. (2009). Photovoice as
a teaching tool: Learning by doing with visual methods. International Journal of Teaching
and Learning in Higher Education, 21, 3, 340-352.
*Szto, P., Furman, R., & Langer, C. (2005). Poetry and photography: An exploration into
expressive/creative qualitative research. Qualitative Research 4(2). 135-156.
Wang, C., Yi, W. K., Tao, Z. W., & Carovo, K. (1998). Photovoice as a participatory health
promotion strategy. Health Promotion International, 13(1), 75-86.
Some of you may be thinking about collage – here are two resources that may give you ideas
about your analysis:
Vaughan, K. (2005, March). Pieced together: Collage as an artist's method for interdisciplinary
41
research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 4(1), 1-21.
Leavy, P. (2009). Poetry and Qualitative Research. Method Meets Art (pp. 63-85). The
Guilford Press, New York, NY.
Lahman, M.K.E., Geist, M.R., Rodriguez, K.L., Graglia, P.E., Richard, V.M., Schendel,
R.K. (2010). Poking Around Poetically: Research, Poetry, and Trustworthiness.
Qualitative Inquiry 16(1), 39-48.
Stein, H.F., (2003). The Inner World of Workplaces. Accessing This World Through
Poetry, Narrative Literature, Music, and Visual Art. Consulting Psychology
Journal: Practice and Research 55(2).
June 11, 12, 17 (Section 1 & 2 on 17th) – Autoethnography & Advanced Reflexivity
We are wondering if advanced reflexivity will be too much. Perhaps this learning can be
accomplished at another time (PhD maybe?). We’ll ask you closer to the date how you are doing
with the demands of the course and consider your learning needs and energy at that time.
1. be encouraged to think more deeply about the representation of self in your research
Readings: To be announced (certainly Ellis & Bochner if you’ve not already read them in SK
504).
June 18, 19 24 (Section 1 & 2 on 24th) – Mixed Methods Analyses
1. explain the contributions of your survey, focus group and arts based analyses to your
understanding of research self-efficacy.
2. describe the contributions and limitations of each analysis
3. weave together the three analyses and describe how these analyses together deepen your
understanding of the phenomenon.
Readings:
Onwuegbuzie, A.J., & Teddlie, C. (2003). A framework for analyzing data in mixed methods
research. In A. Tashakkori & C. Teddlie (Eds.), Handbook of mixed methods in social
and behavioral research (pp. 351-383). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
42
Am I a Clinician-Researcher? Claiming Professional Identity
1. have a clearer sense of your researcher self
No readings
FOUNDATIONS ASSIGNMENTS
1. Quantitative Assignment 40% of

final grade
(due May 29)
2. Qualitative Assignment 40% of

For all submitted written(due
work,final
please
class)
adhere to the basic APA final
standards
grade including
• typed, double-spaced; correct grammar and spelling, pages numbered;
• coherent structure Intensive
and format,Assignment 20% of referenced
clarity, appropriate and properly
• all elements of the(due final assignment
required class) are covered final grade
• submit your assignment in MYLS using an attachment rather than cutting and pasting.
Reflecting on Learning by Doing 3% bonus
This will ensure that your formatting remains intact.
Quantitative Data Analysis
Please note that all data will be available to you in SPSS in the lab.
Length: 10 double-spaced pages maximum
With your learning group, prepare a paper that describes the research questions/hypotheses that
guided the quantitative data analysis of the data distributed in class
Please use the following structure for your assignment.
1. Describe Sample. This is a story about the people in our study.

2. Clearly identify your 2 research questions.
3. For each research question describe its specific variables (independent and
dependent)
Notes about describing variable;

Graphs and frequency distributions are the most popular approaches; both allow you to display the
distribution of cases across the categories of a variable.
The key question is: How are the cases distributed across the values of the variable?
Remember: The variable’s level of measurement is the most important determinant of the
appropriateness of particular statistics.
Get clear in your own mind what the level of measurement is for each variable. 43
Get clear about the type of measures of central tendency relevant to the analysis of specific
variables.
Measures of Central Tendency:
• Mode
• Mean
• Median
• Variability (aka: spread of
distribution):
o Range, Min and Max
value
o research
4. Thinking back to your Standardquestions,
Deviationidentify which test is required.
• for
Provide a rationale the appropriateness of the test.
Skewness
5. State the null and alternative hypotheses for each question.
6. Provide SPSS output and interpret it.
7. Provide a conclusion. What can you say about the findings?
8. Implications- i.e. What are the implications of this study? How might these
findings be useful for the profession of social work?
You must use APA format and a reporting format that is suitable for research in the social
sciences. Please refer to the grading rubric. This will help you to know what we are looking for
in this assignment.
Qualitative Analysis
Please note that all data for this assignment will be available to you in MYLS
You might examine published qualitative articles to consider how other researchers present their
findings.
1. Develop an abstract (approx. 300 words). These have a fairly standard format. Please refer to
journal articles for ideas.
2. Develop a brief introduction.
3. Identify two key themes and their accompanying subthemes that contribute to your overall
interpretation of the findings. Be certain that these themes address the broad research question.
Note that here you are not presenting your coding. . The emphasis here is on a higher or more
abstract level of analysis.
44
Support your interpretations using verbatim quotations from the data.
4. You will also be required to be reflexive in your analysis. We would like you to find a way to
represent your group’s voice in the process. For instance, it may be that you notice your attitudes
shifting because of your involvement in this research. It may be that you are surprised by how
different your attitudes are from your colleagues. Here you will rely on the statements that you
wrote after the first class about your relationship to research and research self-efficacy.
NOTE: Although this assignment is to provide you with some experience in doing qualitative
analysis, the focus in this assignment is definitely on the analysis itself. Here, you are presenting
your interpretations of this data only. You do not need to include any methods for establishing
the trustworthiness of the data (i.e. member checking) or any published research to further extend
your findings. However, if you were preparing a formal qualitative report, these strategies would
be included in your final research report.
5. Please submit your methodological journal as an appendix. It is not counted as part of the 10
pages.
Re: Preparing a Methodological Journal
You will review the data (supplied by the instructor) and develop a coding strategy.
The methodological journal is used to capture your coding strategy (this your decision-making
about how you will code the data), your evolving process as you code the data (i.e. any changes
to codes or the coding strategy as you work through the data), and your assumptions and biases
about the data as you begin to work with it.
In developing a coding strategy, there are a number of decisions that must be made, including
determining the units of analysis that will be coded (i.e. words, lines or smaller pieces of text,
sentences, or whole paragraphs) and whether you will use an apriori list of thematic codes or in-
vivo/intuitive coding.
Use the journal to:
- Record your initial ideas about the data as you read through this and begin to discuss
this with your group, especially any biases and assumptions arising from these
discussions.
- Record your initial set of codes and describe how these were developed and the
thinking behind the development of these codes
- Describe how your process of coding evolves (codes that are eliminated completely
or merged together, larger codes broken down into several smaller codes or changes
in the coding strategy and why).
- Document the addition of new codes and explain why these were added and/or
describe the emerging connections between various codes.
- Last, record any difficulties or challenges encountered and how you overcame these.
45
All of this will generate lots of notes. These will have to be organized and the relevant material
presented. Many students have found it useful to create a diagram that details the coding schema.
Another good idea to present the evolution of your coding is to present several coding schemes.
Intensive Qualitative Assignment

• Extend your qualitative foundations assignment. This is not intended to be a separate
assignment.
• Supply one more type of data about MSW student research self-efficacy in the form of
arts-based imagery which may include, but is not limited to,
photographs/drawings/creative writing/collage.
• Present an analysis of this imagery. It is not desirable that we give detailed instructions
about this analysis. We will ask that you keep the research question in mind. We will
also ask that you write a brief artist statement. By this, we mean, that you are not just
talking about the analysis of your representation, for example a photo, but that you are
also including how you, as the artist, found your way to the photo.
• Continue to use your methodological journal to document your process.
• Once you have completed the analysis of your arts-based piece, discuss the contributions
of the survey, focus group and arts based data. Discuss how these 3 forms of data
together enrich your understanding of research self-efficacy.
We would expect that the arts-based analysis and the mixed methods analysis may add 5-10
pages of text to your assignment. This number does not include visual representations.
Useful Links
International Journal of Education and the Arts

http://www.ijea.org/
Qualitative Social Research

http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/index
46
Introduction
This descriptive quantitative study (survey) was carried out at the Faculty of Social Work
of Wilfred Laurier University. Studies have shown that students’ attitude towards research will
have an impact on their learning and conduct, including their involvement and utilization of
research (Gal &Ginsburg, 1994). The survey targeted 100 (n=100) MSW students who were
taking the Clinical Social Work Research and Data Analysis Course (SK615) for the purposes of
learning and practising data analysis in the spring semester in 2013. However, 76 students
responded to the questionnaire and 11 responses were considered as missing data. So in effect,
the actual number of students who responded to the survey were 65 (n=65). The survey focused
on students’ opinion on research in social work, their experiences of research in research
methods or data analysis courses, field placement, and in conducting research. This paper delves
into analyses of four variables that were selected from the data collected from the survey and
made available to students in class by the course instructors. For the purposes of our group
assignment, we selected age, students’ concentration, and students who have taken a research or
data analysis course as the independent variables and students’ perception of usefulness of social
work research as the dependent variable. Three research questions and hypotheses were
formulated using the above-mentioned four variables. Statistical tests to establishment
relationships between the variables were run using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences
(SPSS) software program. The results of all the three statistical tests that were run uphold the
research hypotheses of the existence of a relationship between the variables. This paper has been
divided into the following sections: a description of the sample, the research questions,
hypotheses, methodology, findings and conclusion.
Description of the Sample
47
As earlier mentioned this sample consisted of 65 MSW students of the Faculty of Social
Work at Wilfrid Laurier University. Our sample description delves into some of the
characteristic of the students who took part in the research. The Council on Social Work
Education (1992) states that graduates of master’s degree programs should be able to “apply
critical thinking skills within professional contexts, including synthesizing and applying
appropriate theories and knowledge to practice interventions”(CSWE, 1992). Social workers are
often called on to make independent decisions that directly affect their clients’ lives. If they are
unable to make reasonable and sound decisions by using critical thinking skills, they may
unintentionally harm their clients (Gibbs & Gambrill, 1996).
Looking at the ages of the students in the sample, the age range was between 22 and 57
years. Ten of the students (13.2%) were 24 years old, seven (9.2%) were 28 years old, and
another seven (9.2%) were 29 years old. The age mean is 30.3077, the median is 28.0000 and the
mode is 24.00. The Histogram for the age distribution can be found on Figure 1 on the Appendix.
As far as the concentration of the students was concerned, the majority of the students 39
(51.3%) were in practice with Individuals, Families and Groups (IFG), 14 (18.4%) were in
practice in Community, Policy, Planning and Organizations (CPPO), and 12 (15.8%) were in
IFG/CPPO integrated. The concentration mean is 1.5846, the median is 1.0000, the mode is 1.00
and the Standard Deviation is 0.78844. The Pie Chart for this distribution can be found on Figure
2 on the Appendix. As far as students who have taken a research or data analysis course that was
not required by the Faculty is concerned, 15 students (19.7%) said “Yes” and 61 (80.3%) said
“No.” The mean is 1.8026, median is 2.0000, mode is 2.00, and the Standard Deviation is
0.40066. A Bar Chart of this distribution can be found in Figure 3 of the Appendix.
Research Questions
48
Our group formulated three research questions. They were:
1. What is the relationship between the age of students and their perception of usefulness of
the research in social work?
2. Is there a difference in students’ concentration and their perception of usefulness of
research in social work?
3. What is the relationship between students who have taken a research or data analysis
course and their perception of the usefulness of research in social work?
Looking at the first research question (What is the relationship between the age of students and
their perception of usefulness of the research in social work?), the independent variable is the age
of students and the dependent variable is perception of usefulness of the research in social work.
The test required for this question is the Pearson Correlation test. This test is required for this
question because the independent variable (age) and the dependent variable (perception of
usefulness) are all continuous variables. Age in this question is a continuous variable because
one of the features included in age signifies a true zero, and knowing a person’s specific age
meets the requirement for a ratio measure, allowing us to say that one person is two times older
than the other (Rubin & Babbie, 2008).
As far as the second research question is concerned (Is there a difference in students’
concentration and their perception of usefulness of research in social work?), the independent
(categorical) variable is students’ concentration, and the dependent variable is perception of
usefulness of research in social work. The one way ANOVA test will be suitable for this
question. One way is required for this question because the independent variable is a categorical
(discrete) variable which divides individuals into three or more groups or levels (Hinkle,
Wiersma & Jurs, 2003).
49
Looking at the third question (What is the relationship between students who have taken
a research or data analysis course and their perception of the usefulness of research in social
work?), the independent variable is students who have taken a research or data analysis course,
and the dependent variable is perception of usefulness of research in social work. The test
suitable for this question is the Independent Sample t Test. This test is required for this question
because it tests hypothesis about differences between two means on an interval or ratio level
variable ( ) However, the means are for the same variable but for two different populations (ref).
The next section of this paper will delve into the hypotheses.
Research Hypotheses and Null Hypotheses
This quantitative descriptive study focuses on the following three research hypotheses
(Ha) and null hypotheses (Ho):
Ha1: There is a relationship between the age of students and their perception of the usefulness of
research in social work.
H01: There is no relationship between the age of students and their perception of the usefulness of
Ha2: There is a difference in students’ concentration and their perception of usefulness of
H02: There is no difference in students’ concentration and their perception of usefulness of
Ha3: There is a relationship between students who have taken a research or data analysis course
and their perception of usefulness of research in social work.
H03: There is no relationship between students who have taken a research or data analysis course
and their perception of usefulness of research in social work.
50
Methodology
This study focused on the opinion and experiences of MSW students enrolled in Clinical Social
Work Research and Data Analysis Course (SK615) for the spring semester of 2013. Data was
collected by the use of an online survey and was made available to students in class by the
instructors of the course. Altogether, 100 students were targeted for the study, 76 students
responded to the questionnaire and 11 responses were considered as missing data. So in effect,
the actual number of students who responded to the survey were 65 (n=65).
Students were asked to sign an informed consent form to participate in this project. Their
responses were anonymous and their confidentiality was assured in that the instructors of the
course (SK615) did not have any way to know the students who participated in the study and
those who did not take part. Students’ participation involved the completion of an online survey
questionnaire, which was completely voluntary. The survey took about 40 minutes for the
participants to complete and it focused on students’ opinion on research in social work, their
experiences of research in research methods or data analysis courses, field placement, and in
conducting research. Information on students’ socio-demographic characteristics was also
collected. There was the use of a six-point Likert Scale- 1=Strongly Agree; 2=Moderately Agree;
3=Mildly Agree; 4=Mildly Disagree; 5=Moderately Disagree; and 6=Strongly Disagree. The
study was approved by the university ethics review board.
A total of two students participated in our group analysis. As a group, we examined three
constructs from the student data set that informed students’ attitudes towards research. They
included (1) testing the relationship between the age of students and their perception of the
usefulness of the research in social work; (2) the difference in students’ concentration and their
perception of usefulness of research; and (3) the relationship between students who have taken a
51
research or data analysis course and their perception of the usefulness of research in social work.
Three hypotheses were formulated to test the relationships between the variables.
The Pearson Correlation Test, one way ANOVA, and the independent Samples T-Test
were used to analyse the hypotheses with the aid of the SPSS.
Findings/SPSS Output
This section describes the results from the relationship between the independent and
dependent variables as well as the results from the hypotheses. The independent variables are
age, students’ concentration, and students who have taken a research or data analysis course. The
dependent variable is perception of usefulness of research.
Descriptive Analysis of Variables
The Relationship between Age and Perception of Usefulness of Research
Table 1 illustrates that the distribution of age is positively skewed, ranging from 30.3077 to
24.00, with only a few people having high age, and the majority of sample concentrated in the
low end of the distribution. The prevailing age for this sample (mode) is 24.00. The mean age for
this sample is 30.3077 with standard deviation of 10.04198. The median age for this sample is
28.0000 indicating that 50% of the sample’s age was lower than 28.0000, and 50% of the sample
had a higher age.
Table 1- Relationship between Age and perception of usefulness of research
Mean Std. Deviation N
Age: 30.3077 10.04198 65
usefulness of research 12.0000 4.67333 76
The mean for this sample group is obtained from the existing student data, and all sample ages
are divided into groups, with the age distribution of the sample provided in Table 1 on the
52
Appendix. The result is a sample population, of which the X of the median is 28.0000. Note that
the mean age in the sample population is 30.3077. The difference between any sample mean and
the population mean is the result of what is termed sampling error ((Rubin & Babbie, 2008). To
calculate the standard error of the mean, the sample standard deviation, 10.04198, is divided by
the square root of N-1. The resulting estimated value of the standard error of the mean is
28.0000 because 50% of the sample’s age was lower than 28.0000.
The Relationship between Students’ Concentration and Perception of Usefulness of
Research
Table 2 illustrates that the distribution of concentration is positively skewed, ranging from 1.00
to 1.0000, with only a few people having high concentration, and the majority of sample
concentrated in the low end of the distribution. The prevailing concentration for this sample
(mode) is 1.00. The mean concentration for this sample is 1.5846 with standard deviation of
4.45841.The median concentration for this sample is 1.0000 indicating that 50% of the sample
concentration lower 1.0000, and 50% of the sample has a higher concentration.
Table 2: Relationship between Students’ Concentration and perception of Usefulness of research
95% Confidence Interval for Mean
N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Lower Bound Upper Bound
IFG 39 11.6923 4.49651 .72002 10.2347 13.1499
CPPO 14 9.6429 3.15271 .84260 7.8225 11.4632
IFG/CPPO Integrated 12 13.2500 5.11904 1.47774 9.9975 16.5025
Total 65 11.5385 4.45841 .55300 10.4337 12.6432
The Relationship between Students’ who have taken a research or data analysis course and
Perception of Usefulness of Research
53
The mean for the perceived usefulness of research is 11.0667, the sample standard deviation,
4.18273 and the standard mean error is 1.07998 of those who responded “yes” (N=15). When
comparing responses with “no answers” (N=61), the mean is 4.79025, the sample standard
deviation, 4.18273 and the standard mean error is 61333. The denominator is the standard error
of the difference between two means, calculated one way or the other depending on whether or
not the variances in two samples are equal. Sampling error is at work when two means are
compared. Table 3 (in the appendix) shows that t statistic is thus a ratio of the actual, observed
difference between two means, compared to the expected variation in differences under the null
hypothesis ((Rubin & Babbie, 2008). Unfortunately, with the t- test a unique complication arises.
The Post Hoc test in Table 4 showed that t-test is different in each case, and the degrees of
freedom are calculated differently, also. The test itself is otherwise the same ((Rubin & Babbie,
2008).
Table 3: Relationship between Students’ who have taken a research or data analysis course and Perception of Usefulness
of Research
Have you ever taken a research methods or data analysis course
that was not required by your department? N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean
usefulness of research Yes 15 11.0667 4.18273 1.07998
No 61 12.2295 4.79025 .61333
The SPSS Analysis

The overall mean for all concentrations in this sample is 1.5846, with a standard deviation of
4.45841. The IFG concentration mean is 11.6923, the sample standard deviation, 4.49651 and
the standard mean error is 72002, whereas the CPPO concentration mean is 9.6429, the sample
standard deviation, 3.15271 and the standard mean error is .84260. The IFG/CPPO Integrated
concentration mean is 13.2500, the sample standard deviation, 5.11904 and the standard mean
54
error is 1.47774. N has the same minimum number, 5, but a different maximum number for the
confidence interval for the mean between two means, 16 and 21 for the CPPO (N=14) and the
IFG/CPPO (N=12) concentrations when compared. However, the IFG concentration (N=39) is
more popular than the other two concentrations, with the minimum being smaller than the other
two, and the maximum number the higher, at 24.
Findings from the Hypotheses
Pearson Correlation Test
A Pearson Correlation Test was run to test the relationship between the age of students and their
perception of usefulness of research in social work.
Table 4: Pearson Correlation Test between Age and usefulness of Research
Age Usefulness of Research

Age Pearson Correlation 1 -.037
Sig. (2-tailed) .772
N 65 65
Usefulness of Research Pearson Correlation -.037 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .772
N 65 65
Table 4 illustrates that the Pearson Correlation result is -.337. It indicates moderate negative
correlation. N indicates that 65 participants in the sample answered questions for the analysis.
P-value is having three digits after the period (.772) which shows the significant number of the
test. The result of the test reports as following: Pearson correlation test was performed to learn
the relationship between age and usefulness (r=-.037, p.772). We do not have enough evidence
to accept the null hypothesis. Therefore, we can state that there is some relationship between
the age of student and the usefulness of research: higher the age, the higher the usefulness.
However, if we use our knowledge of the coefficient of determination, r squared, we will find
55
that only (-.037X--.037= -0.001) of the variability is explained by the age level, thus it is
plausible to hypothesize that there are other variables associated with the age. The moderate
strength of negative correlation supports this hypothesis too.
One way ANOVA
One way ANOVA is used for testing bivariate relationships between two variables. We
compared the means of three groups. We have tested the differences in the perception of
usefulness of research in the different concentrations. The dependent variable here is continuous
at ratio level. The students’ concentration is the independent variable at the nominal level of
measurement having three categories.
Tables 5: Relationship between Concentration and usefulness of research
Descriptive
95% Confidence Interval for
Mean
Concentration
N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Lower Bound Upper Bound Minimum Maximum
IFG 39 11.6923 4.49651 .72002 10.2347 13.1499 5.00 24.00
CPPO 14 9.6429 3.15271 .84260 7.8225 11.4632 6.00 16.00
IFG/CPPO Integrated 12 13.2500 5.11904 1.47774 9.9975 16.5025 6.00 21.00
Total 65 11.5385 4.45841 .55300 10.4337 12.6432 5.00 24.00
ANOVA
Usefulness of Research Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups 86.382 2 43.191 2.258 .113
Within Groups 1185.772 62 19.125
Total 1272.154 64
For the interpretation of this output, we are interested in the values of df, value of F statistic and
56
p-value indicated as Sig. We can see that the F-value is high, F=2.258 and p-value is as low as
.113, indicating strong evidence against the null hypothesis. We report the following conclusion:
One-way ANOVA test indicated significant differences between concentrations between groups
(F (2,62)=2.258; p.113).
From this test we can learn that differences in concentrations exist, but we are not able to know
between which specific categories of concentration these differences are significant. These
categorical differences were found as significant. There were found differences between
Levene's Test for Equality
of Variances t-test for Equality of Means
95% Confidence Interval of
Sig. (2- Mean Std. Error the Difference
F Sig. T df tailed) Difference Difference Lower Upper
usefulness Equal variances 1.106 .296 -.862 74 .392 -1.16284 1.34918 -3.85113 1.52545
of research assumed
Equal variances not -.936 23.907 .358 -1.16284 1.24198 -3.72670 1.40101
assumed
concentrations between and within group regarding the usefulness of research. We also used the
Post Hoc Test (See on te appendix Table 2) to learn the differences between groups.
57
Independent Samples T-Test
Tables 6: Relationship between Research Methods or data analysis course and usefulness of Research
Group Statistics
Have you ever taken a research methods or data
analysis course that was not required by your
department? N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean
usefulness of Yes 15 11.0667 4.18273 1.07998
research No 61 12.2295 4.79025 .61333
Independent Sample Test
From the Group statistics, the mean response for students who have taken a research methods or
data analysis course that was not required by the department is 11.0667 with a standard deviation
of 4.18273, whereas the mean response for students who have not taken a research methods or
data analysis course that was not required by the department is 12.2295 with a standard deviation
of 4.79025. Looking at the Independent Sample Test, since the significance level (Sig.) of the
Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances (.296) is greater than .05 we can assume that Group
variances are equal and the need to use the first row of the t test results. The test output provides
us with the t obtained, degrees of freedom (df), the two tailed level of significance (Sig.), and the
mean difference (Group 1 mean - Group 2 mean). We see that we have a t obtained of -.862 and,
with 74 degrees of freedom (df = n-2), it is significant at the .392 level. Thus, we conclude that
there is a significant a relationship between students who have taken a research or data analysis
course and their perception of usefulness of research in social work, thereby refuting the null
hypothesis. Looking at the group means and the mean difference (Group 1 mean - Group 2
mean) we can see that students who have taken a research methods or data analysis course had
an average mean of -1.16284 compared with students who have not taken a research methods or
58
data analysis course that was not required by the department. Looking at the confidence intervals
for the difference between the group means, we can be 95% confident that actual difference
between students who have taken a research methods or data analysis course not required and
those who have not taken a research methods or data analysis course not required by the
department in the population is somewhere between (1.52545 and -3.85113).
Limitations of the Study
One limitation of this study is that the sample was a convenience rather than a random
sample. It would be inappropriate to generalize the results to students in other research courses in
social work education without replicating the study, which makes it difficult to generalize the
results to all MSW students in other universities taking a research methods or data analysis
course.
Research Implication and Outcome
Students have a close involvement in this research project that has multiple benefits. For
example, the study stimulated MSW students’ interest in the research and facilitated the
development of their data analysis skills and the findings may serve pedagogical purposes by
informing MSW research training curriculum, develop or improve research courses and teaching
strategies. In addition, the study might help students to acquire essential research and data
analysis skills, which are useful for social workers to become effective practitioners, to engage in
quality social work education, and have long-term positive effects on their integration of research
and professional practice.
Furthermore, this study aimed at increasing attention to the research training environment
and specifically how this environment shapes students’ relationship to learning and doing
59
research. The integration of research and social work practice would be perceived outcomes that
might help students acquire skills in research and practice integration. For example, the study
might help students to reframe their perceptions of social work. Social work is more than just
helping people. It is about making changes in large and small systems, from the community to
the individual. Interpreting the results of this study might encourage students to carry out
research in their future agencies to see what needs are not being met, how people view their
world, and how social workers can make changes to improve lives, families, and communities,
which can create a more balanced view of the world enabling social workers to find their place
within it.
Moreover, this study might also broaden students’ perspectives of social work. Students
might be encouraged to read professional journals, and feel more knowledgeable and better
equipped to read research findings in those journals. Prior to this exercise, we are sure there are
some student including us, who skipped the tables and numbers when reading research articles.
Now even though students may not understand everything in such reports, they may understand
certain concepts more than they did before, which might help them to feel more informed as
social workers. For example, they may be more informed about how to read and interpret data,
they are more aware of things to look for including terms like mean, median, mode, and standard
deviation, which expands their perspective of social work as a whole.
Conclusion
The first three hypotheses delineated at the beginning of the study were validated. First,
no differences were found between the age of students and the usefulness of research with regard
to their perception of research in social work. Most of the students were young students, median
age is 28.00. The Pearson correlation test indicated that there were no obvious differences in the
60
relationship between the ages of students and their perception of usefulness of research in social
work. Students who participated in social research and their perception research are not
necessarily by the age of students. The second hypothesis, that there is a difference in students’
concentration and their perception of usefulness of research in social work. One way ANOVA
showed some differences in perception of research between different groups of concentrations.
The table of descriptive indicates mean values and std. deviations for values of concentrations
for three groups of MSW students. The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level. Both
groups showed a little statistically significant difference in their perception and their
concentrations as measured by the SPSS. The third hypothesis, which stated there would be the
relationship between students who have taken a research or data analysis course and their
perception of the usefulness of research in social work. Age is not a significant factor when it
comes to the perception of the usefulness of research among MSW students in the FSW at WLU.
The relationship between students who have taken a research or data analysis course and their
perception of the usefulness of research data showed that many university departments do not
require these courses. The relationship between students’ concentration in groups and the
perception of the usefulness of research has a high degree of confidence interval for a mean, at
95%.
61
References
Engel, R. J. & Schutt, R.K. (2009). The practice of research in social
work (2nd Edition). Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage
Gibbs, L., & Gambrill, E. (1996). Critical thinking for social workers. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine
Forge Press.
Gal, I., & Ginsburg, L. (1994). The role of beliefs and attitudes in learning statistics: Towards an
assessment framework. Journal of Statistics Education, (22)2.
Hinkle, D. E., Wiersma, W., & Jurs, S. G. (2003). Applied Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences
(5th ed.). New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Rubin, A & Babbie, E.( 2008). Research methods for social work. (5th ed.). Pacific Grove:
Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
Appendix
Demographic Characteristics
Figure 1: Histogram of Age distribution of Participants
62
Figure 2: The distribution of Students’ concentration at the FSW in WLU
63
Figure 3: Bar Chart illustrating the number of students who have taken a research or data
analysis course
64
65
Table 1
Age Distribution of the Sample
Age:
Cumulative
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent
Valid .00 1 1.3 1.5 1.5
1.00 1 1.3 1.5 3.1
22.00 1 1.3 1.5 4.6
23.00 3 3.9 4.6 9.2
24.00 10 13.2 15.4 24.6
25.00 5 6.6 7.7 32.3
26.00 2 2.6 3.1 35.4
27.00 5 6.6 7.7 43.1
28.00 7 9.2 10.8 53.8
29.00 7 9.2 10.8 64.6
30.00 2 2.6 3.1 67.7
32.00 3 3.9 4.6 72.3
33.00 1 1.3 1.5 73.8
34.00 1 1.3 1.5 75.4
36.00 3 3.9 4.6 80.0
39.00 2 2.6 3.1 83.1
40.00 2 2.6 3.1 86.2
42.00 1 1.3 1.5 87.7
44.00 3 3.9 4.6 92.3
48.00 1 1.3 1.5 93.8
49.00 1 1.3 1.5 95.4
53.00 1 1.3 1.5 96.9
57.00 2 2.6 3.1 100.0
Total 65 85.5 100.0

Missing System 11 14.5
Total 76 100.0
66
Multiple Comparisons
Dependent Variable:usefulness of research
(I) What concentration are you (J) What concentration are Mean Difference 95% Confidence
in: you in: (I-J) Std. Error Sig. Lower Bound U
LSD IFG CPPO 2.04945 1.36253 .138 -.6742
IFG/CPPO Integrated -1.55769 1.44367 .285 -4.4435
CPPO IFG -2.04945 1.36253 .138 -4.7731
IFG/CPPO Integrated -3.60714* 1.72043 .040 -7.0462
IFG/CPPO Integrated IFG 1.55769 1.44367 .285 -1.3282
CPPO 3.60714* 1.72043 .040 .1681

Bonferroni IFG CPPO 2.04945 1.36253 .413 -1.3033
CPPO IFG -2.04945 1.36253 .413 -5.4022
IFG/CPPO Integrated IFG 1.55769 1.44367 .854 -1.9947
CPPO 3.60714 1.72043 .120 -.6263
67
*. The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level.
Table 2
Post Hoc Tests
68
Qualitative Data Analysis
Faruk Arslan
&
Margaret Ngaling
Wilfrid Laurier University
SK 615: Clinical Social Work Research and Data Analysis (Section 2)
Marina Morgenshtern
June 24, 2013
69
Abstract
Some Master of Social Work (MSW) programs do not provide the enabling environment
and significant structures that encourage research for everyone. Developing a social work
practitioner-researcher identity is important in social work because it enables social workers to
evaluate the wealth of existing knowledge, concepts, and theories as well as the effectiveness of
diverse interventions in order to explore different innovative methods when working with clients.
This study was carried out to evaluate Master of Social Work (MSW) students’ experience in
developing a social work practitioner-researcher identity at the Wilfrid Laurier University. The
participants were also asked to discuss some of the factors that contributed to or hampered the
development of that identity, the training initiatives available to students and to propose some
recommendations. Our study is based on an existing qualitative data collected by the use of an
interview in two focus group discussions. Ten MSW students were interviewed. The data was
intuitively coded in order to come up with two main themes accompanied by their sub-themes.
The two main themes we arrived at were first, MSW students’ feelings of frustration about the
manner in which research endeavours are being treated, and second the presence of structural
barriers to research in the MSW program. The accompanying sub-themes for the first theme
include: lack of clarity in research procedures, absence of a research culture, and lack of support
for research at the Faculty of Social Work. The sub-themes for the second theme include:
inaccessible structure to doing research, systemic issues between streams, a lot of gaps in the
structure of the program, and building in some components of research within the structure of the
MSW program. In spite of the presence of some negative attitudes and structural barriers to
creating a social work practitioner-researcher identity, students are interested in research and are
aware of the importance of research in the field of social work.

70
Introduction
The Canadian Association for Social Work Education (CASWE) and the Canadian
Association of Social Workers (CASW) have developed standards that advise social work
education, in which there is an increasing need for social workers to focus on multidisciplinary
practice. Most recently, these regulating bodies focused on the elements of knowledge, skill, and
ethics, including the mandate for research competence and self-efficiency (CASWE, 2008). As a
matter of fact, social work research education historically has attempted to prepare students to
become competent consumers of research. The last three decades have witnessed an increased
emphasis on practice evaluation, and most recently on preparing social workers to be
practitioner- researchers (Dietz et al., 2004). Although a majority of MSW programs in Canada
are using only student research projects to increase students’ research confidence, however, the
main structures of MSW programs are discouraged to participate in some type of research
project. However, specific guidelines and requirements for meeting this mandate are not
sufficiently provided and students are discouraged to be involved in the thesis option (Rubin et
al, 2010). Practitioners must have the ability for both ethical and pragmatic reasons, to develop,
select, and evaluate research in order to increase the quality of care at all levels of social work
practice (Gambrill, 1999, 2003; Proctor, 2003; Thyer, Isaac, & Larkin, 1997).
In this study, we analysed the existing data of two focus group discussions. The data was
provided by the instructors of the course. The data were intuitively coded to come up with two
main themes and their accompanying sub-themes. The two main themes that we identified in the
study were: MSW students’ feelings of frustration about the manner in which research
endeavours are being treated, and the presence of structural barriers to research in the MSW
program. This paper has the following sections: a description of the two main themes and the
71
sub-themes, implications of the study, conclusion, and a methodological journal for the study.
MSW students’ feelings of frustration about the manner in which research endeavours are
being treated
As far as this first theme is concerned, we realised that MSW students were expressing
feelings of frustration about the manner in which research endeavours are being treated. Students
felt frustrated by the prevailing attitude towards research in the faculty. The following is a
presentation of some of the sub-themes to illustrate students’ feelings of frustrated in developing
a social work practitioner-research identity in the faculty.
Lack of clarity in research procedures
Some participants revealed that it is not clearly stated in the program when students are to
start and complete their thesis, which discourages some students who intended to write a thesis
from pursuing that option:
I-I um when I-I, uh just word of mouth I think I heard that and there was really no set
time [emphasis] that you would have to put away for that which scares me [nervous
laughter]. I-I’d rather have a structured you know well, you would start now and you
would end here and ... (S4)
Another participant shared that making it clear that a research background is a pre-requisite in
order to get an admission into the program might help students to develop that social work
practitioner-research identity “if [emphasis] the faculty is going to set a tone [emphasis] for what
research means [emphasis] and its value [emphasis] here” (S2). In addition, another participant
said that it might be important to clearly separate qualitative and quantitative research, which
might help students to go deeply in order it connect it more to their work. This participant further
mentioned that even though research is practised at the FSW, there are no clear modalities for
this practice “but it’s hidden and you really have to dig and seek, seek it out” (S5). Another
participant mentioned that the research methods course is not clearly structured to suit social
work “I don’t feel like I am really [pause] uh getting like getting the confidence I need to [pause]
72
head out and actually practice or take on a project”( S6). Three participants recommended that
the Faculty of Social Work should clearly make it mandatory for the alumni to come back and
share their experiences of research in the field “ Cause I feel like I’m at Laurier and I don’t know
what people who took this program two, three, four, five years ago are doing. I don’t know how
they’re doing. If they’re doing research...” (S8).
Another participant revealed that he/she had not considered how complex and cumbersome the
research aspect of the MSW program was by the time he/she enrolled in the program. This
participant mentioned that “It’s complicated and it’s cumbersome and it feels cumbersome to me
and the language is tricky and-and it’s. So it’s a lot of, to me it’s a lot of thinking work” (S6).
The opinion of this participant resonates with that of our group members when we started this
course because we pointed out that one of our fears about doing a research methods course is the
fact that we found it difficult to read and understand concepts in research methods because the
language is difficult to understand.
Absence of a research Culture

A number the participants mentioned that there is no research culture at the FSW. Some
the examples they gave to support this point include the following: one of the participants shared
that the research culture should be presented differently during the orientation. The participant
said that emphasis is not placed on research during orientation “Um but even through orientation
and stuff again I think that the culture should be presented in a different way um and should be
emphasized [emphasis] as being a part” (S4). Another participant shared her experiences when
she was looking for a placement agency that was research- based and realized that the practicum
office was skeptical about any agency that was research- based in nature, which indicates the
absence of a research culture in the faculty:
And when I was looking for a research placement and even the placement office was um
73
very skeptical [emphasis] that that was even um you know, a practice area uh. So that
was something institutionally [emphasis] that was missing for me [long pause] (S2).
Lack of support for Research at the Faculty of Social Work
Some of the participants also mentioned that there was lack of support for research. Some
of the responses include the following: one participant mentioned that the design of the MSW
program makes it extremely difficult for students to do a thesis. The participant revealed that
there is little or no room for students doing research to support one another or for professors
interested in supervising students’ research “...they could learn [emphasis] from each other and
um support one another in doing their research and growing as researchers which really just
didn’t exist here” (S2). Another participant mentioned that there is a need for a re-evaluation of
the MSW program in order to make the requirements of the thesis option to be clearer so that
students can be encouraged to do research “... if that’s something that the faculty truly supports
because um it’s very difficult for people who want to do that to make it happen and it seems that
there’s very little support” (S3). This participant went further to state that it is hypocritical to
offer the thesis option when there is a little support to make it happen.
Another participant revealed that one of the main things he/she planned to do when
entering the program was research. However, the idea was dropped because there was no support
for it “...coming into this program, that was one of the top three things I wanted to have under
my belt when I left... it was a challenge ...” (S5). Another participant said that there is lack of
interest, information and support to help students who opt to do the thesis, which is rather
unfortunate. The participant said “... I, I think just more information, more and more support um
around that would be needed (S4).
Some of the participants revealed that some action needs to be taken to reduce the stigma
around research courses that they are going to involve Mathematics and Statistics, which most
social work students do not feel comfortable doing. One of the participants for example, said that
74
students’ perception of research courses as being involved with Mathematics and Statistics
change over time as they get involved with research and so it would be critical for the FSW to
support students by making them to be aware that their attitudes towards research would change
over time “I mean how do we recognize new trends in research? We’ve gotta be teaching
someone that and, and [pause] again the depth [emphasis] of that education is really important”
(S4). The feelings expressed by this participant, resonate with that of our group members when
we started this course. We expressed feelings of fear and anxiety about research courses
involving a lot of Mathematics and Statistics because they are beyond our comfort zones. The
next section focuses on the description of our second theme and its accompanying sub-themes.
The presence of structural barriers to research in the MSW program
The participants in this study also identified some structural barriers in the MSW
program that do not give room for them to develop the social worker practitioner-researcher
identity. Some of the structural barriers identified by the students include:
Inaccessible structure to doing research
One of the participants mentioned that the structure of the MSW program does not give
room for students who are interested in doing a thesis to meet that goal. The participant for
example revealed that:
Um so the way that the thesis is structured is very different than you would find in a lot of
other um graduate programs um where typically you would have like uh one year of
courses and another year for dedicated to research and writing uh for your thesis. So in
this program you get some exemptions um but it really isn’t uh a lot. And I found that was
extremely prohibitive for me to-to complete um a thesis (S2).
In addition, the above-mentioned participant shared that there is no structure available to students
to know which faculty is accepting students for supervision, which is somewhat confusing.
75
Another participant said that due to the structure of the program, many students struggle to find a
thesis supervisor. This participant further mentioned that there is the need for the structure to
ensure that instructors have the capacity to teach students who choose to do the thesis option and
should be motivated to do so (S5). The opinions of the above-mentioned participants resonate
with that of our group members because when we started the MSW program, we realised that the
structure of the program does not encourage students to carry out research. We were told up front
when we just entered the program that taking the thesis option might result in students spending
an extra semester in case they were unable to complete it.
Systemic issues between streams
The structure of the MSW program does not give an equal opportunity for all students to
engage in research. The program offers options for engaging in research depending on what
streams students are in. Pure IFG and CPPO students can choose the thesis option, but integrated
students are ineligible to engage in a thesis or research, which illustrates some of the structural
problems in the program. One of participants mentioned that “Well if you picked the thesis
stream you would have to be geared up to do research” (S8).
A lot of gaps in the structure of the program
Some of the participants feel that many research commitments are made and which are
not incorporated into the structure of the program, leading to the presence of gaps in the structure
of the program. For example, one of the participants said that “There seems to be a lot of gaps in
76
structure in a lot of different areas within this program, practicum being one of them.” (S3).
Another participant said that he/she has not had any research experience in the placement and
feels that IFG students should have the opportunity to be more involved in research. This
participant said:
Um I’m in the IFG stream and so far as what my experience has been um aside from
classes that I’ve taken within my undergrad and this program uh to do with research I
haven’t had any outside experience to do with research in my placements or anything like
that. So [pause] what I have taken is from [name of instructor}’s class last semester
when we took that um. I-I feel like it’s important for IFG stream especially to get like
more involved in research (S4).
Another participant said that before they started the program, emphasis was laid on the fact that
it was not essentially a clinical program and that there was a research component of it. However,
this participant shared that as she went through the program, there was more emphasis on the
clinical aspect of it. The participant said “...there’s not such an emphasis on [pause] on that
research piece and-and when we were told that [pause] I think that we’re not pumping out
clinicians.” Another participant mentioned that he/she feels that the research method course is
not structured enough to enable students to build the confidence that they need to be both social
work practitioners and researchers:
Um I do have uh research courses that I took in my undergrad. But I just, I feel like um
this research methods course that I’m taking now [pause] is um [pause] not structured
[pause] to social work enough. I don’t feel like I am really [pause] uh getting like getting
the confidence I need to [pause] head out and actually practice or take on a project (S6).
Building in some components of research within the structure of the MSW program
Some of the participants stated that it might be helpful to make some components of
research to be mandatory within the structure of the MSW program. One participant said that the
Research Forum could be made mandatory for all students to attend. The participant said it
77
worked in to their schedule when they were in the first year. However, during their second year,
it was not possible for them to attend. The participant said making this forum mandatory could
help students to have the chance to hear what researchers in the community are doing (S1). This
participant further said that he/she feels that the FSW should incorporate some training for
students to be Research Assistants (RA) because many students like to be RAs but do not have
the skills to do the job. The participant said: “... if there was something that the faculty offered in
terms of this is how to be an RA, this is how to get started... would make me [emphasis] more
comfortable...” (S1). Another participant said that increasing the number of RA positions might
help students get more involved in research “And I think there is very limited [emphasis] amount
of RA positions. So if, if there is more opportunities that could be a structural thing that-that
could um help [emphasis] students get more involved in research”(S5). From the preceding
analysis, it is clear that the students who participated in the two focus group discussions at the
Faculty of Social Work expressed some feelings of frustration at the manner in which research
endeavours were being treated, as well identified some structural barriers that hampered their
development of a social work practitioner-researcher identity.
Implication of the study
Based on the data on the focus group interviews provided by the instructors of the course,
we came up with the following implications of the study for social work and the development of
a social work practitioner-researcher identity for MSW students. First, there appears to be a
disconnection between academia and one of its basic tenets of knowledge creation. There are so
many barriers in the FSW that discourage students who are interested in carrying out research.
For example, lack of clarity in research procedures, and difficulties in getting supervisors for a
78
thesis. So how can knowledge creation be encouraged in the academic world if the conditions for
carrying out research are not conducive to students? Second, the data throw light on the shifting
attitudes/changing perceptions of social work students towards research method courses. Some
of the participants, for example, shared that there is the need to reduce the stigma that research
basically involves Mathematics and Statistics by raising the awareness of students that their
attitude towards research might likely change positively over time when they get involved in it.
Third, from the study it is apparent that funders might influence the interest that students have in
carrying out research. Some of the participants mentioned that their interest in research has been
increased by the availability of funding opportunities especially for evidence-based research. As
a result, students’ involvement in research might be encouraged if the FSW creates opportunities
for students to learn and practice how to write research proposals in order to benefit from the
funding opportunities as well develop the practitioner-researcher identity.
Conclusion
In spite of the felt need for social workers to be more efficient as practitioners and
researchers, there are growing complexities in the field that hamper the achievement of this goal.
For example, the analysis of the data from the focus groups illustrate that there are some
prevailing attitudes and structural barriers that negatively impact the creation of an enabling
environment for research. Some of the barriers identified by students include lack of clarity in
research procedures, lack of support for research, the absence of a research culture and some
systemic issues between the streams. However, the results from the data show that students have
both positive and negative attitudes towards research. For example, although the students felt
frustrated that the presence of the above-mentioned barriers affected their development of a
79
social work practitioner-researcher identity, some of these students displayed that hope is not
completely lost. For example, some of them revealed that the presence of funding opportunities
have heightened their interest in evidence-base research; others mentioned their changing
(positive) attitude towards research and the need for the FSW to raise students’ awareness that
research is not essentially Mathematics and Statistics; and others recommended some structural
changes like making students’ attendance mandatory in events like the research forum; training
students for Research Assistant positions; and incorporating research courses in the professional
development programs, which illustrate these students’ interest in research and their awareness
to develop a social work practitioner-researcher identity.
References
Canadian Association for Social Work Education (CASWE) (2008). Education policy and
accreditation standards. Retrieved June 9, 2013 from http://www.casw-acts.ca/en/about-
casw/intersectoral-initiative-introduction
Dietz, T. J., Westerfelt, A., & Barton, T. R. (2004). Incorporating practice evaluation
with the field practicum. Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work (9)2, 78–90.
Fabelo- Alcover, H. (2002). A model for teaching research methods based on cognitive
behavioral and social learning theories. Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work (8)1,
133–144.
Gambrill, E. (1999). Evidence- based practice: An alternative to authority- based practice.
Families in Society (80)4, 341–350.
Gambrill, E. (2003). Evidence- based practice: Sea change or the emperor’s new clothes?
Journal of Social Work Education (39), 3–23.
Proctor, E. K. (2003). Research to inform the development of social work interventions. Social
Work Research (27)1, 3–5.
80
Rubin, D., Robinson, B. & Valutis, S. (2010). Social Work Education and Student Research
Projects: A Survey of Program directors. Journal of Social Work Education (46)1, 39-55.
Thyer, B. A., Isaac, A., & Larkin, R. (1997). Integrating research and practice. In G.
Reisch & E. Gambrill (Eds.), Social work in the 21st century (pp. 311–316). Thousand
Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
Qualitative Data Analysis
Qualitative Data Analysis is lacking in Social Work Research
Faruk Arslan
&
Margaret Ngaling
Marina Morgenshtern
June 24, 2013
Abstract
Some Master of Social Work (MSW) programs do not provide the enabling environment and
significant structures that encourage research for everyone. Developing a social work
practitioner-researcher identity is important in social work because it enables social workers to
evaluate the wealth of existing knowledge, concepts, and theories as well as the effectiveness of
diverse interventions in order to explore different innovative methods when working with clients.
This study was carried out to evaluate Master of Social Work (MSW) students’ experience in
developing a social work practitioner-researcher identity at the Wilfrid Laurier University. The
participants were also asked to discuss some of the factors that contributed to or hampered the
development of that identity, the training initiatives available to students and to propose some
recommendations. Our study is based on an existing qualitative data collected by the use of an
interview in two focus group discussions. Ten MSW students were interviewed. The data was
intuitively coded in order to come up with two main themes accompanied by their sub-themes.
The two main themes we arrived at were first, MSW students’ feelings of frustration about the
81
manner in which research endeavours are being treated, and second the presence of structural
barriers to research in the MSW program. The accompanying sub-themes for the first theme
include: lack of clarity in research procedures, absence of a research culture, and lack of support
for research at the Faculty of Social Work. The sub-themes for the second theme include:
inaccessible structure to doing research, systemic issues between streams, a lot of gaps in the
structure of the program, and building in some components of research within the structure of the
MSW program. In spite of the presence of some negative attitudes and structural barriers to
creating a social work practitioner-researcher identity, students are interested in research and are
aware of the importance of research in the field of social work.
Introduction
The Canadian Association for Social Work Education (CASWE) and the Canadian Association
of Social Workers (CASW) have developed standards that advise social work education, in
which there is an increasing need for social workers to focus on multidisciplinary practice. Most
recently, these regulating bodies focused on the elements of knowledge, skill, and ethics,
including the mandate for research competence and self-efficiency (CASWE, 2008). As a matter
of fact, social work research education historically has attempted to prepare students to become
competent consumers of research. The last three decades have witnessed an increased emphasis
on practice evaluation, and most recently on preparing social workers to be practitioner-
researchers (Dietz et al., 2004). Although a majority of MSW programs in Canada are using only
student research projects to increase students’ research confidence, however, the main structures
of MSW programs are discouraged to participate in some type of research project. However,
specific guidelines and requirements for meeting this mandate are not sufficiently provided and
students are discouraged to be involved in the thesis option (Rubin et al, 2010). Practitioners
must have the ability for both ethical and pragmatic reasons, to develop, select, and evaluate
research in order to increase the quality of care at all levels of social work practice (Gambrill,
1999, 2003; Proctor, 2003; Thyer, Isaac, & Larkin, 1997).
In this study, we analysed the existing data of two focus group discussions. The data was
provided by the instructors of the course. The data were intuitively coded to come up with two
main themes and their accompanying sub-themes. The two main themes that we identified in the
study were: MSW students’ feelings of frustration about the manner in which research
endeavours are being treated, and the presence of structural barriers to research in the MSW
program. This paper has the following sections: a description of the two main themes and the
sub-themes, implications of the study, conclusion, and a methodological journal for the study.
Methodological Journal
Before we started our coding process, we decided to first of all read through the data for the first
time to pick out the themes that run through the data. Reading the data for the first time was a bit
tricky to identify two main themes. As a result, we decided to read the data for the second time in
order to identify those themes.
In developing the coding strategy, we used intuitive coding. We paid attention to states (general
conditions experienced by the participants), meanings, and concepts that the participants used to
82
understand their milieu. The units of analysis that we initially used were words, lines and
sentences. These words, lines and sentences were highlighted using different colours. Our units
of analyses were further reduced to words or lines as displayed below:
Opportunity for research Frustration
Lack of clarity Lack of a research culture
Lack of support for research No motivation to do research
Research not encouraged Lack of interest
Diversity in prior experience Lack of passion/drive of professors
Stigma regarding research Inaccessible structure to doing research
Unclear goals of training Lack of grant and funding
Disconnect between theory and practice Less information about doing research
Risk of having an extra semester Systemic issues between streams
Thesis is not mandatory for MSW program Lack of tools to do research properly
Research is not considered as part social work
No standard requirement for research in order to get into the MSW program
Later on, some of the words and sentences were dropped and others were grouped together. As
far as the first main theme is concerned, for example, phrases like “no motivation to do
research,” “research not encouraged,” “lack of passion” and “lack of interest” were grouped
under the sub-theme “lack of support for research.”
Looking at the second main theme, the first sub-theme initially was “inaccessibility to
supervisor.” However, we realised that the sub-theme did not encompass the problems faced by
both supervisors and students. For example, some of the students mentioned that it was difficult
get a supervisor; others said it was difficult to know which faculty is available to supervise
students; and another student said that there was the absence of appropriate structures to help the
faculty members who were available to supervise students to do their job efficiently. As a result,
that sub-theme was changed to “Inaccessible structure to doing research.”
The two main themes we arrived at were: MSW students’ feelings of frustration about the
manner in which research endeavours are being treated, and the presence of structural barriers to
research in the MSW program. The sub-themes were grouped under the main themes as
illustrated on the following table:
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Table 1: An illustration of how sub and main themes have been grouped in the research
MSW students’ feelings of frustration about Presence of structural barriers to research in

the manner in which research endeavours the MSW program
are being treated
Lack of clarity in research procedures Inaccessible structure to doing research
Lack of a research Culture Systemic issues between streams
Lack of support for research A lot of gaps in the structure

Building in some components of research
within the structure of the MSW program
Our group met in three times. Some of the challenges encountered in organizing the themes
include trying to distinguish some of the themes. For example, there were incidents that the sub-
theme of lack of a research culture cut across our main theme of the presence of structural
barriers to research. This problem was resolved through differentiating the themes by taking into
consideration the particular context within which the participant was making a reference to.
MSW students’ feelings of frustration about the manner in which research endeavours are
being treated
As far as this first theme is concerned, we realised that MSW students were expressing feelings
of frustration about the manner in which research endeavours are being treated. Students felt
frustrated by the prevailing attitude towards research in the faculty. The following is a
presentation of some of the sub-themes to illustrate students’ feelings of frustrated in developing
a social work practitioner-research identity in the faculty.
Lack of clarity in research procedures
Some participants revealed that it is not clearly stated in the program when students are to start
and complete their thesis, which discourages some students who intended to write a thesis from
pursuing that option:
I-I um when I-I, uh just word of mouth I think I heard that and there was really no set time
[emphasis] that you would have to put away for that which scares me [nervous laughter]. I-I’d
rather have a structured you know well, you would start now and you would end here and ... (S4)
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Another participant shared that making it clear that a research background is a pre-requisite in
order to get an admission into the program might help students to develop that social work
practitioner-research identity “if [emphasis] the faculty is going to set a tone [emphasis] for what
research means [emphasis] and its value [emphasis] here” (S2). In addition, another participant
said that it might be important to clearly separate qualitative and quantitative research, which
might help students to go deeply in order it connect it more to their work. This participant further
mentioned that even though research is practised at the FSW, there are no clear modalities for
this practice “but it’s hidden and you really have to dig and seek, seek it out” (S5). Another
participant mentioned that the research methods course is not clearly structured to suit social
work “I don’t feel like I am really [pause] uh getting like getting the confidence I need to [pause]
head out and actually practice or take on a project”( S6). Three participants recommended that
the Faculty of Social Work should clearly make it mandatory for the alumni to come back and
share their experiences of research in the field “ Cause I feel like I’m at Laurier and I don’t know
what people who took this program two, three, four, five years ago are doing. I don’t know how
they’re doing. If they’re doing research...” (S8).
Another participant revealed that he/she had not considered how complex and cumbersome the
research aspect of the MSW program was by the time he/she enrolled in the program. This
participant mentioned that “It’s complicated and it’s cumbersome and it feels cumbersome to me
and the language is tricky and-and it’s. So it’s a lot of, to me it’s a lot of thinking work” (S6).
The opinion of this participant resonates with that of our group members when we started this
course because we pointed out that one of our fears about doing a research methods course is the
fact that we found it difficult to read and understand concepts in research methods because the
language is difficult to understand.
Absence of a research Culture
A number the participants mentioned that there is no research culture at the FSW. Some the
examples they gave to support this point include the following: one of the participants shared
that the research culture should be presented differently during the orientation. The participant
said that emphasis is not placed on research during orientation “Um but even through orientation
and stuff again I think that the culture should be presented in a different way um and should be
emphasized [emphasis] as being a part” (S4). Another participant shared her experiences when
she was looking for a placement agency that was research- based and realized that the practicum
office was skeptical about any agency that was research- based in nature, which indicates the
absence of a research culture in the faculty:
And when I was looking for a research placement and even the placement office was um very
skeptical [emphasis] that that was even um you know, a practice area uh. So that was something
institutionally [emphasis] that was missing for me [long pause] (S2).
Lack of support for Research at the Faculty of Social Work
Some of the participants also mentioned that there was lack of support for research. Some of the
responses include the following: one participant mentioned that the design of the MSW program
makes it extremely difficult for students to do a thesis. The participant revealed that there is little
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or no room for students doing research to support one another or for professors interested in
supervising students’ research “...they could learn [emphasis] from each other and um support
one another in doing their research and growing as researchers which really just didn’t exist
here” (S2). Another participant mentioned that there is a need for a re-evaluation of the MSW
program in order to make the requirements of the thesis option to be clearer so that students can
be encouraged to do research “... if that’s something that the faculty truly supports because um
it’s very difficult for people who want to do that to make it happen and it seems that there’s very
little support” (S3). This participant went further to state that it is hypocritical to offer the thesis
option when there is a little support to make it happen.
Another participant revealed that one of the main things he/she planned to do when entering the
program was research. However, the idea was dropped because there was no support for it
“...coming into this program, that was one of the top three things I wanted to have under my belt
when I left... it was a challenge ...” (S5). Another participant said that there is lack of interest,
information and support to help students who opt to do the thesis, which is rather unfortunate.
The participant said “... I, I think just more information, more and more support um around that
would be needed (S4).
Some of the participants revealed that some action needs to be taken to reduce the stigma around
research courses that they are going to involve Mathematics and Statistics, which most social
work students do not feel comfortable doing. One of the participants for example, said that
students’ perception of research courses as being involved with Mathematics and Statistics
change over time as they get involved with research and so it would be critical for the FSW to
support students by making them to be aware that their attitudes towards research would change
over time “I mean how do we recognize new trends in research? We’ve gotta be teaching
someone that and, and [pause] again the depth [emphasis] of that education is really important”
(S4). The feelings expressed by this participant, resonate with that of our group members when
we started this course. We expressed feelings of fear and anxiety about research courses
involving a lot of Mathematics and Statistics because they are beyond our comfort zones. The
next section focuses on the description of our second theme and its accompanying sub-themes.
The presence of structural barriers to research in the MSW program
The participants in this study also identified some structural barriers in the MSW program that
do not give room for them to develop the social worker practitioner-researcher identity. Some of
the structural barriers identified by the students include:
Inaccessible structure to doing research
One of the participants mentioned that the structure of the MSW program does not give room for
students who are interested in doing a thesis to meet that goal. The participant for example
revealed that:
Um so the way that the thesis is structured is very different than you would find in a lot of other
um graduate programs um where typically you would have like uh one year of courses and
another year for dedicated to research and writing uh for your thesis. So in this program you get
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some exemptions um but it really isn’t uh a lot. And I found that was extremely prohibitive for me
to-to complete um a thesis (S2).
In addition, the above-mentioned participant shared that there is no structure available to students
to know which faculty is accepting students for supervision, which is somewhat confusing.
Another participant said that due to the structure of the program, many students struggle to find a
thesis supervisor. This participant further mentioned that there is the need for the structure to
ensure that instructors have the capacity to teach students who choose to do the thesis option and
should be motivated to do so (S5). The opinions of the above-mentioned participants resonate
with that of our group members because when we started the MSW program, we realised that the
structure of the program does not encourage students to carry out research. We were told up front
when we just entered the program that taking the thesis option might result in students spending
an extra semester in case they were unable to complete it.
Systemic issues between streams
The structure of the MSW program does not give an equal opportunity for all students to engage
in research. The program offers options for engaging in research depending on what streams
students are in. Pure IFG and CPPO students can choose the thesis option, but integrated students
are ineligible to engage in a thesis or research, which illustrates some of the structural problems
in the program. One of participants mentioned that “Well if you picked the thesis stream you
would have to be geared up to do research” (S8).
A lot of gaps in the structure of the program
Some of the participants feel that many research commitments are made and which are not
incorporated into the structure of the program, leading to the presence of gaps in the structure of
the program. For example, one of the participants said that “There seems to be a lot of gaps in
structure in a lot of different areas within this program, practicum being one of them.” (S3).
Another participant said that he/she has not had any research experience in the placement and
feels that IFG students should have the opportunity to be more involved in research. This
participant said:
Um I’m in the IFG stream and so far as what my experience has been um aside from classes that
I’ve taken within my undergrad and this program uh to do with research I haven’t had any
outside experience to do with research in my placements or anything like that. So [pause] what I
have taken is from [name of instructor}’s class last semester when we took that um. I-I feel like
it’s important for IFG stream especially to get like more involved in research (S4).
Another participant said that before they started the program, emphasis was laid on the fact that
it was not essentially a clinical program and that there was a research component of it. However,
this participant shared that as she went through the program, there was more emphasis on the
clinical aspect of it. The participant said “...there’s not such an emphasis on [pause] on that
research piece and-and when we were told that [pause] I think that we’re not pumping out
clinicians.” Another participant mentioned that he/she feels that the research method course is
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not structured enough to enable students to build the confidence that they need to be both social
work practitioners and researchers:
Um I do have uh research courses that I took in my undergrad. But I just, I feel like um this
research methods course that I’m taking now [pause] is um [pause] not structured [pause] to
social work enough. I don’t feel like I am really [pause] uh getting like getting the confidence I
need to [pause] head out and actually practice or take on a project (S6).
Building in some components of research within the structure of the MSW program
Some of the participants stated that it might be helpful to make some components of research to
be mandatory within the structure of the MSW program. One participant said that the Research
Forum could be made mandatory for all students to attend. The participant said it worked in to
their schedule when they were in the first year. However, during their second year, it was not
possible for them to attend. The participant said making this forum mandatory could help
students to have the chance to hear what researchers in the community are doing (S1). This
participant further said that he/she feels that the FSW should incorporate some training for
students to be Research Assistants (RA) because many students like to be RAs but do not have
the skills to do the job. The participant said: “... if there was something that the faculty offered in
terms of this is how to be an RA, this is how to get started... would make me [emphasis] more
comfortable...” (S1). Another participant said that increasing the number of RA positions might
help students get more involved in research “And I think there is very limited [emphasis] amount
of RA positions. So if, if there is more opportunities that could be a structural thing that-that
could um help [emphasis] students get more involved in research”(S5). From the preceding
analysis, it is clear that the students who participated in the two focus group discussions at the
Faculty of Social Work expressed some feelings of frustration at the manner in which research
endeavours were being treated, as well identified some structural barriers that hampered their
development of a social work practitioner-researcher identity.
Implication of the study
Based on the data on the focus group interviews provided by the instructors of the course, we
came up with the following implications of the study for social work and the development of a
social work practitioner-researcher identity for MSW students. First, there appears to be a
disconnection between academia and one of its basic tenets of knowledge creation. There are so
many barriers in the FSW that discourage students who are interested in carrying out research.
For example, lack of clarity in research procedures, and difficulties in getting supervisors for a
thesis. So how can knowledge creation be encouraged in the academic world if the conditions for
carrying out research are not conducive to students? Second, the data throw light on the shifting
attitudes/changing perceptions of social work students towards research method courses. Some
of the participants, for example, shared that there is the need to reduce the stigma that research
basically involves Mathematics and Statistics by raising the awareness of students that their
attitude towards research might likely change positively over time when they get involved in it.
Third, from the study it is apparent that funders might influence the interest that students have in
carrying out research. Some of the participants mentioned that their interest in research has been
increased by the availability of funding opportunities especially for evidence-based research. As
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a result, students’ involvement in research might be encouraged if the FSW creates opportunities
for students to learn and practice how to write research proposals in order to benefit from the
funding opportunities as well develop the practitioner-researcher identity.
Conclusion
In spite of the felt need for social workers to be more efficient as practitioners and researchers,
there are growing complexities in the field that hamper the achievement of this goal. For
example, the analysis of the data from the focus groups illustrate that there are some prevailing
attitudes and structural barriers that negatively impact the creation of an enabling environment
for research. Some of the barriers identified by students include lack of clarity in research
procedures, lack of support for research, the absence of a research culture and some systemic
issues between the streams. However, the results from the data show that students have both
positive and negative attitudes towards research. For example, although the students felt
frustrated that the presence of the above-mentioned barriers affected their development of a
social work practitioner-researcher identity, some of these students displayed that hope is not
completely lost. For example, some of them revealed that the presence of funding opportunities
have heightened their interest in evidence-base research; others mentioned their changing
(positive) attitude towards research and the need for the FSW to raise students’ awareness that
research is not essentially Mathematics and Statistics; and others recommended some structural
changes like making students’ attendance mandatory in events like the research forum; training
students for Research Assistant positions; and incorporating research courses in the professional
development programs, which illustrate these students’ interest in research and their awareness
to develop a social work practitioner-researcher identity.
References
Canadian Association for Social Work Education (CASWE) (2008). Education policy and
accreditation standards. Retrieved June 9, 2013 from http://www.casw-acts.ca/en/about-
casw/intersectoral-initiative-introduction
Dietz, T. J., Westerfelt, A., & Barton, T. R. (2004). Incorporating practice evaluation
with the field practicum. Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work (9)2, 78–90.
Fabelo- Alcover, H. (2002). A model for teaching research methods based on cognitive
behavioral and social learning theories. Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work (8)1,
133–144.
Gambrill, E. (1999). Evidence- based practice: An alternative to authority- based practice.

Families in Society (80)4, 341–350.
Gambrill, E. (2003). Evidence- based practice: Sea change or the emperor’s new clothes?
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Journal of Social Work Education (39), 3–23.
Proctor, E. K. (2003). Research to inform the development of social work interventions. Social
Work Research (27)1, 3–5.
Rubin, D., Robinson, B. & Valutis, S. (2010). Social Work Education and Student Research
Projects: A Survey of Program directors. Journal of Social Work Education (46)1, 39-55.
Thyer, B. A., Isaac, A., & Larkin, R. (1997). Integrating research and practice. In G.
Reisch & E. Gambrill (Eds.), Social work in the 21st century (pp. 311–316). Thousand
Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
Methodological Journal
Before we started our coding process, we decided to first of all read through the data for the first
time to pick out the themes that run through the data. Reading the data for the first time was a bit
tricky to identify two main themes. As a result, we decided to read the data for the second time in
order to identify those themes.
In developing the coding strategy, we used intuitive coding. We paid attention to states (general
conditions experienced by the participants), meanings, and concepts that the participants used to
understand their milieu. The units of analysis that we initially used were words, lines and
sentences. These words, lines and sentences were highlighted using different colours. Our units
of analyses were further reduced to words or lines as displayed below:
Opportunity for research Frustration
Lack of clarity Lack of a research culture
Lack of support for research No motivation to do research
Research not encouraged Lack of interest
Diversity in prior experience Lack of passion/drive of professors
Stigma regarding research Inaccessible structure to doing research
Unclear goals of training Lack of grant and funding
Disconnect between theory and practice Less information about doing research
Risk of having an extra semester Systemic issues between streams
Thesis is not mandatory for MSW program Lack of tools to do research properly
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Research is not considered as part social work
No standard requirement for research in order to get into the MSW program
Later on, some of the words and sentences were dropped and others were grouped together. As
far as the first main theme is concerned, for example, phrases like “no motivation to do
research,” “research not encouraged,” “lack of passion” and “lack of interest” were grouped
under the sub-theme “lack of support for research.”
Looking at the second main theme, the first sub-theme initially was “inaccessibility to
supervisor.” However, we realised that the sub-theme did not encompass the problems faced by
both supervisors and students. For example, some of the students mentioned that it was difficult
get a supervisor; others said it was difficult to know which faculty is available to supervise
students; and another student said that there was the absence of appropriate structures to help the
faculty members who were available to supervise students to do their job efficiently. As a result,
that sub-theme was changed to “Inaccessible structure to doing research.”
The two main themes we arrived at were: MSW students’ feelings of frustration about the
manner in which research endeavours are being treated, and the presence of structural barriers to
research in the MSW program. The sub-themes were grouped under the main themes as
illustrated on the following table:
Table 1: An illustration of how sub and main themes have been grouped in the research
MSW students’ feelings of frustration about Presence of structural barriers to research in

the manner in which research endeavours the MSW program
are being treated
Lack of clarity in research procedures Inaccessible structure to doing research
Lack of a research Culture Systemic issues between streams
Lack of support for research A lot of gaps in the structure

Building in some components of research
within the structure of the MSW program
Our group met in three times. Some of the challenges encountered in organizing the themes
include trying to distinguish some of the themes. For example, there were incidents that the sub-
theme of lack of a research culture cut across our main theme of the presence of structural
barriers to research. This problem was resolved through differentiating the themes by taking into
consideration the particular context within which the participant was making a reference to.
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Art-based Data: Two Poems
Faruk Arslan
&
Margaret Ngaling
Marina Morgenshtern
June 24, 2013
We used auto-ethnography and its technique of poetry as our art-based inquiry. Auto-
ethnography is a genre of writing and research that connects our personal to the cultural, placing
the self within this research course and social context. Our research also includes an account of
self-journeying experiences with two personal narratives that our interpretation of quantitative
and qualitative includes the use poetry. Our contribution is in the form of auto-ethnographic
research, making use of our poetical writings as two reflexive analyses.
In this paper, we have presented the two poems and their analyses, followed by a
discussion of the contributions of the survey, focus group and art-based data.
Wait a minute! Calm down!
Panicking, anxiety, headaches come with the thought of research
How do I go about this damn quantitative analysis?
Oh God! I am aware Math and Statistics are not my strength, far beyond my comfort zone
Those readings, that assignment must be done!
Energy levels, depleting, stress levels spiking
That assignment must be done!
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Faced with the complexity and pretence in human nature
Energy levels, depleting, stress levels spiking, deadlines approaching
This damn quantitative assignment must be done
But! Wait a minute! Calm down! Are you not the social worker in the making?
How do you ask your clients to take in deep breaths if you can’t practice that yourself?
Think of those resources at your disposal
That silver lining is always there despite the intimidating presence of the dark clouds
Wait a minute! Calm down! Think of those resources, there is no room for distressing thoughts
Oh! Our gentle instructor! Always there to take questions, give clarifications, offer suggestions
How wonderful is that experience! Take advantage of that!
I can see things changing
I might not be the expert in research, but definitely, there is a change
Quantitative assignment-submitted- deadline – respected
Qualitative assignment- almost done
And now! I can record a journey of that experience
How time flies, how tides change
Life is full of experiences.
Margaret Ngaling , 06/16/2013.
This poem basically describes how our experiences evolved when we started the course.
At the beginning of the course, I was terrified that it would involve some Mathematics and
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Statistics. My distress was intensified by the fact that the mainstream students did not want to be
in the same group with us (immigrant students). So I was not only anxious about the course but
also about what was going on in my immediate environment. At a certain point, there was only
person in this group because a fellow member got frightened of the manner in which the
immigrant students were being discriminated against, and quietly left the group without
informing me. As a result, I used to be distracted and stressed out in class.
However, at a certain point, I realised that it was up to me to change the situation by
critically thinking about what to do in order to tackle the assignments. So I started doing some
deep breathing exercises to manage the stress and anxiety as well as asking questions from the
instructor in order to get clarifications. When I engaged in these strategies, I realised that there
was a change. We completed our first assignment and I developed more interest in the course.
The Self-disclosure
Patience is half of the noble life of studentship
O Student! The other half thankfulness be
Teachers love the patient, have respect for the truthful
Surely God is beside the sincere and the loyal
Freed from all worries, from all due concerns
Many long, dark, nights filled with passion
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Our egos seek freedom from selfishness, ugliness
Self-reflecting and journaling start with awareness
Self-observation is a vital step toward truth
Research the way to un-darken your heart
A key course can open the doors of experience
Research trees of truth there are planted
The journey continues towards final mark
Act with sincerity, self-learning the goal
Mindful of speech, increasing in purity
Opposing your lower self: life’s only foe
Truth-speaking selfhood your true human home
Maintaining support toward others as natural
The speaking self turns to the soul found at peace
Feelings, emotions, take shelter, seek guidance
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Weakness prevents us meeting our needs
Everyone needs to be thankful to peers
Having no part of ostentation or show
Straightforward and loyal always in thought
Anxious about the assignments to come
How to be free from fret over research?
Where the self is enslaved and encaged by full data
True freedom is fleeing from the ego to the group
Guarding the rights of all in the group
Considering others’ happiness as duty
Showing warmth with words kind and soft
Not acting oppositely, selfishly, stingily
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Putting knowledge into practice by balancing it out
Correct judgment befitting the right time and right place
Right decision and judgment without reaching extremes
Group wisdom means unity of thought, will, and action
O Masters Students! Truthfulness sought is the solidest path
The truthful are one, both in public and private
You’re heroes of truth, in the hills of your hearts
As safely you swam the first year of journeying
Congratulations!
Faruk Arslan, 11 June 2013.
Faruk has personalized and drawn on his own experiences to extend understanding of this
research course, culture and related to the structure of MSW and MSW students in general in his
poem. It was basically the systemic observations of the self and watching of others. Faruk
believes in the integrity of individuals in a new country or a new faculty is not easy because of
diversity of culture, oppressive behaviour and marginalization of immigrant students. He says the
perfect human being must remove the ego from the self in order to reach true freedom. In his
poem’s definition, the heart plays an essential role in self-purification, doing research, having
group work, helping and understanding others for happiness. True Freedom from the self and
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selfishness may lead to the avoidance of egoism, sarcasm, and narcissistic self-centred behaviour
that prevent to have an effective research result. He encourages mindfulness, dealing with the
self and reaching the self-purification based on the heart-based attitude of helping others in a
group, work collaboratively and reduce stress level when involving group work. His poem and
his positive thinking pathways that address solutions for our MSW students in social work
practice and research who are in need of the solving their burdens, frustrations and fears. This
method is the use of poetry as narrative to construct of decolonizing all MSW lived experiences.
Contributions of the Survey, focus group and art-based data
The survey Data
The survey section of the data helped us to develop some basic skills in identifying variables,
choosing the appropriate statistical tests that could be run on a combination of variables, and
analysing and interpreting data using the SPSS. The experience gained during this process,
helped to reduce the anxiety and fear that we had about quantitative data analysis. We realised
that when a student can differentiate his/her variables as well as identify the level of
measurement for that variable, then it would be easy to analyse and interpret quantitative data.
Focus Group Data
The focus group section of the data helped us to develop some skills in critical thinking,
choosing the information that is of relevance, and in organizing our thoughts. It enabled us to be
able to identify and differentiate themes that were closely related to each other and organize our
thoughts logically in a manner that would make sense to the reader. It also gave us the
opportunity to be reflective on the data that we are working on in order identify our biases as
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well as how the thoughts of the researched reflect those of the researcher. Reflecting on the data
might give the researcher an opportunity to mobilize others to advocate for a change in some
institutional practices that are not helpful to the members. For example, some of the students
shared that they were interested in writing a thesis when they enrolled in the MSW program, but
were discouraged to pursue that option because they were told that they could spend an extra
semester in case they do not complete their thesis on time. In our group, we reflected on this
opinion shared by some of the students. We realised that when we enrolled in the program, we
were also told that there is a risk of spending an extra semester in case we do not complete our
thesis if we chose to write one. As a result, we posed questions like: How could social work
students adequately develop a social work practitioner-researcher identity when there is not
much support for research endeavours in the faculty? Thus, we would recommend that the FSW
should organize sensitization activities to reduce the stigma against research as well as create
incentives like funding opportunities for students in order to motivate them to be involved in
research, which might enable them to appropriately develop the social work practitioner-
researcher identity.
Art-based Data
Art-base piece of the work helped us to reflect on our journey through the course. It helped us to
understand how our attitudes towards research are likely to change as we engage in the process.
For example, when we started the quantitative data analysis section of the course, we felt so
frustrated and scared because we thought that it was all Mathematics and Statistics. However, as
time went by, we were given the manuals on how to work on SPSS and how to run all the
statistical tests, which made the process to be quite easier than we thought. We also realised that
we are not supposed to be very good at Mathematics and Statistics in order to do quantitative
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data analysis in social work research. Again, this piece of the data gave us the opportunity to be
creative and to think of the method that would be appropriate to share our experiences with
others.
The three forms of data have enrich our understanding of research self-efficacy in that we
now understand that in engaging in research, we need to have some skills in identifying and
differentiating variables in order to choose the appropriate procedures for data collection and
analysis. In addition, we need to be able to select the information that best suit our findings; and
we have to be creative in devising the means through which our findings will be presented in
order to make it interesting to the reader.

Faculty of Social Work
Course Outline: SK500 Fall 2012
Human Growth in Context (Section 2)
SK500: Human Growth in Context
Section 2: Tuesday 9:00 – 11:50 a.m.
Room: 201, Kitchener Campus
Instructor: Michelle Skop-Dror, MSW, RSW, PhD Candidate
E-mail: mskopdror@wlu.ca
Office Hours: Tuesdays 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. or by appointment (Room 415)
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Students with disabilities or special needs are advised to contact Wilfrid Laurier’s Accessible
Learning Office for information regarding its services and resources. Students are encouraged to
review the Graduate Calendar for information regarding all services available on campus.
Please note that Wilfrid Laurier University uses software that can check for plagiarism. Students
may be required to submit their written work in electronic form and have it checked for
plagiarism.
Course Description:
This course will focus on theories pertaining to the social context of identity and personality
development. Emphasis is placed on the evolution of these theories and how they help us to
understand the human condition and social work practice. Topics may include life span,
ecological systems, contemporary psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioural, feminist, social
constructionist, and critical theories.
This course attempts to bridge theory and practice. Practice and theory have a reciprocal
relationship in that one informs the other. How this reciprocity is articulated is crucial to
understanding the ‘how’ of clinical practice. This course, along with SK522 Social Work with
Individuals, will help prepare you for your upcoming practicum.
Learning Objectives:
1. Theory and practice are inextricably bound and each informs the other. Hence, this
course will focus on developing the capacity to integrate theories of social and
psychological human growth and development into practice. Specific case studies will be
used in an effort to develop this skill.
2. To introduce biopsychosocial assessment and formulation in social work practice and
explore the ways in which developmental and psychosocial theory inform formulation
and intervention planning.
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3. To understand biopsychosocial formulation as a way to articulate the relationship
between theory and practice.
4. To learn how to apply critical lenses such as disability, class, race, gender, sexual
orientation, and culture to social work practice theories.
5. To challenge, expand, and deepen the understanding of one’s existing views of theory
and the application of theory to practice.
6. To contextualize the use of theory within the helping relationship.
7. To formulate a personal understanding of how biases and subjective interpretations of
theory impact on practice.
Student Generated Learning Goals and Objectives:
Student generated learning goals and objectives will be created during the first and second class
as will a Fears, Concerns and Anxieties contract.
Learning Contract: Learning and teaching are interactive processes. A learning contract will be
co-created during the first class.
The safety of the learning environment will be augmented by respecting the confidentiality of
personal and case material, abiding by rules of clear and direct communication, and by
respecting the communications of others. Problems should be discussed directly with the course
instructor. Because interactive processes are participatory, it is important to attend classes.
Missing more than two classes without prior notification or discussion with the instructor may
result in a reduction of the final mark.
Student Generated Leaning Goals and Objectives (completed on Sept 11/12)
What are my learning goals and objectives for this course?
1. My learning goals and objectives include applied learning:

a. Learn how to apply theories to individuals in the upcoming practicum
b. Develop familiarity with theories in order to use these theories with clients
c. Develop increased confidence through practicing application of theory
d. Learn how to apply theory to the macro level (e.g. social policy)
2. My learning goals and objectives include critical inquiry:

a. Understand theory in order to analyze “what is missing” from the theory
b. Analyzing “use of self” in theory – “getting at a deeper level of meaning”
c. Learn how to analyze theories “holistically”
d. Learn which theories are complimentary
e. Learn how to justify using an eclectic approach
f. Learn from each other and ourselves – how theories “hit home”
How can this best be facilitated?

1. Using case studies
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a. Developing guidelines for case studies
2. Small group discussion
3. Feeling comfortable asking questions
What would I like to have learned by the end of this class?

1. I would like to have learned how to use theory:
a. The application of theories to “real life situations”
b. The application of theories to case examples related to mental health
c. How to apply theories to the macro level (e.g. policy, organizations, etc.)
d. Feel well-rounded in the application of theory and practice
e. To learn that theories are not “monolithic”
2. I would have liked to have learned “use of self” techniques:
a. To learn about my own expectations, values, and biases
b. To learn how to “cage” these expectations, values, and biases in practice
3. To walk away with knowledge
What are my expectations of the class and myself?

1. I expect myself and others to develop a safe class environment:
a. Challenge others in positive, warm and respectful manner
b. Obtain positive feedback from others
c. Learn how to defend my own position in a respectful manner
d. Feel safe to ask “why” (e.g. ask if we can change that)
e. Be open-minded
f. Preserve confidentiality of group discussion and case material
2. I expect myself and others to have manners:
a. Listen to others
b. No cell phones
c. No interruptions
What are my expectations of the instructor?

1. I would like the instructor to collaborate and work together because learning is a two-way
street
2. I would like to feel safe and free to respectfully challenge the instructor
3. I would like the instructor to be patient, understanding, and open
4. I would like the instructor to not get frustrated
5. I would like the instructor to facilitate challenging dialogues and to be open to being
challenged
Student Generated Fears, Concerns, and Anxieties Contract
I am fearful of:
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1. Asking basic questions in class (because we are all coming from different educational
backgrounds we are unfamiliar with social work terminology)
2. Being misinterpreted and offending others
3. Growing at a slower pace because we’re grappling with so many theories
4. Feeling unsafe in class
5. Being uncertain of expectations related to the assignments
6. Not having case examples
7. Overcoming the first term
In order to overcome these fears:

1. I will share these fears with the instructor
2. I will share these fears with the class
3. I will take things one step at a time
4. I will learn about my learning style
5. I will promote a safe and open dialogue in class
6. I will call out if/when the classroom feels unsafe
7. I will show my instructor a draft of my paper if I feel stuck
8. I will start my assignments as early as possible
9. I will request flexibility
10. I will ask to go at a slower pace
Format:
The course will combine lecture and discussion formats along with films and case examples.
Lecture: Each week the first two hours will consist of a lecture and question-and-answer format
and will introduce one or two social or psychological theories as well as a case study.
Seminar: The third hour will consist of small informal group tutorials. Case material will be
used to further the understanding of theory, discuss practice in terms of case formulation, and
discuss the specifics of formulation relevant to a particular case, which can be best understood
through the lens of a particular theory or theories.
Readings:
Course package (required): Readings will be compiled in a course package to be purchased from
the bookstore. Readings will be sorted according to class lectures. Readings that are not in the
course package are available through the Course Reserve Catalogue at http://library2.wlu.ca/ares/
Search by course: SK500:WLUSW and instructor name: Skop-Dror, M.
Required Text: Johnstone, L., & Dallos, R. (Ed.) (2006). Formulation in psychology and
psychotherapy: Making sense of people's problems. New York, New York: Routledge.
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Recommended Text: Robbins, S.P., Chatterjee, P., & Canda, E.R. (2012). Contemporary human
behavior theory: A critical perspective for social work. (3rd Ed.). Boston, MA.: Allyn and Bacon.
Recommended Text: Coady, N. & Lehmann, P. (Eds.) (2008). Theoretical Perspectives for
Direct Social Work Practice: A Generalist-Eclectic Approach (2nd Ed.). New York, New York:
Springer Publishing Co.
Please Note: Although buying these texts is optional, it is important to realize that we cover a
limited number of theories in class due to obvious time constraints. These texts cover many more
theories than we can cover in class and are especially helpful in understanding social theories.
Assignments:
1. Midterm assignment - 30%

Due Date: Tuesday October 16, 2012
Length: 5-7 pages single spaced (or 10-14 double spaced)
Present an atheoretical formulation of a case study using the Outline for a Biopsychosocial
Assessment and Formulation. Your assignment need not follow an essay format in that several
sections can be done in point form. Your assessment will be in point form as will your
interventions. However, your formulation, which will contain precipitating, predisposing,
perpetuating, and constructivist/relational factors, will be in paragraph form.
The case study must be based on cases other than those studied in class and may be derived from
your own practice, personal experience, a movie, a book, or another source. It is not
recommended that you use a family member or yourself as this interferes with the learning
experience and makes any measure of objectivity impossible. The veracity of the case material is
not as important as the inclusion of necessary information and the ways in which you are
formulating your ideas about the case. Organize the assessment information according to the
relevant sections listed and described in the Outline for Biopsychosocial Assessment followed by
your formulation. The 5-7 pages is the formulation only and does not include the assessment
which is separate and can be either placed before the formulation or following as an appendix.
There should be some information included under each of the following major headings:
1) Agency Name
Social Worker's Name
Dates: This would include the period of time it took to get a solid initial formulation. You
might see a client several times before you have sufficient information.
2) Identifying data (disguised for confidentiality if it is a genuine case).
3) The client’s experience of the presenting problem.
4) History and background of the problem.
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5) Experience and observations of the interviewer (use your imagination).
6) Psychotherapist’s attitudes and feelings.
7) Formulation (the focus of the assignment). Your formulation will consist of six sections:
a) Presenting problem;
b) Precipitating factors;
c) Perpetuating factors;
d) Predisposing factors;
e) Protective factors;
f) Constructivist/relational factors.
8) Intervention goals that flow from the assessment and formulation. This section can be
written in point form.
Create a clear heading for each of the above sections and when necessary create subheadings as
indicated in the outline for biopsychosocial assessment and formulation. With the exception of
the formulation section, everything can be written in point form with relevant information
preceded by either a bullet or dash.
The formulation, however, which is the focus of the assignment, should be written in a well-
structured narrative manner incorporating the relevant information from the outline.
Including the introduction, there are five distinct sections of the assignment:
1) An introduction;
2) An assessment which will be in point form and consist of a listing of pertinent
information on your client(s) and will follow the outline given in class;
3) A case formulation which will consist of: the presenting problem; precipitating factors;
predisposing factors; perpetuating factors; protective factors; and intersubjective factors;
4) A list of interventions;
5) A brief conclusion that summarizes your case formulation and intervention plan.
Marking:
The midterm assignment will constitute 30 percent of your final grade. The breakdown of the
marking for the midterm assignment is the following:
30%: Identifying information, presenting and/or identified problems, history and background of
the problem, experience and observations; and intersubjective observations;
50%: The formulation;
20 %: Interventions.
(Line spacing for the assessment is single spaced, except between sections, and line spacing for
the formulation portion of the paper is 1.5.)
Remember, this assignment involves a 5-7 page atheoretical formulation and therefore it is
unnecessary to draw on theory for this assessment and formulation. This atheoretical
formulation, suggested interventions, and conclusion alone will be 5-7 pages. The assessment
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will follow the outline provided and will be separate from the 5-7 pages that make up your
formulation.
Be certain to make connections between the various elements that contribute to the presenting
problem, as well as what protects against it, and predisposes the individual toward the problem,
as well as perpetuates it. While the grid is simply your worksheet and would not be included in
an agency chart, for the purpose of this assignment please include your grid. Be aware that a
listing of the various factors from your grid does not constitute a formulation. In order to
constitute a formulation, the connections between the factors must be shown across biological
and developmental, psychological, current and past systemic and familial factors, as well as
diversity, and contextual/socio-cultural factors.
In this assignment the only references that are relevant are those having a direct bearing on
formulation.
2. Final Paper - This assignment constitutes 70 percent of your final grade.

Due Date: Tuesday November 27, 2012
Length: 15-20 pages
Building on the previous assignment, write an essay based on one psychological and one social
theory that are specifically relevant to an in depth understanding and formulation of your case
study. You are not to do two formulations. Your final assignment will consist of one formulation
where you have integrated a social and psychological theory to help you intervene effectively
with an individual, couple, family, or community. This formulation will incorporate the
psychologically and socially relevant theoretical material into a single formulation using the
precipitating, predisposing, perpetuating, protective, and constructivist/relational categories to
organize your thinking. You may choose a case study of an individual, couple, family, group, or
community, recognizing that the formulation of a case study becomes more complex as more
people are included.
1) Write an introduction: A paragraph that introduces the format described below (3%).
2) Present an assessment in point form of an individual, family, couple, or group with a

presenting or identified problem as explained in the Outline of Biopsychosocial Assessment and
Formulation handout (5%). This can be identical to what you handed in for your midterm
assignment unless it was incomplete or in need of revision and you will be informed of this when
your midterm is returned.
3) Present two theoretical models of understanding, which inform your case formulation, and
incorporate them into one formulation. Include one psychological model and one sociological
model. Some theories may have implications for both psychological and sociological models and
both of these should be explored. LGBTQ theory would be one example and feminist theory
would be another. Relational-Cultural Theory (formerly known as Self in Relation) has both
psychological and sociological implications for understanding women’s development. If you
choose to use a comprehensive model, you must be clear about how the model incorporates both
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psychological and sociological components relevant to an understanding of the presenting
problem (25%).
4) Present a formulation integrating these theories with an understanding of the case using the
formulation handout (30%). Again, this section will be organized under the headings: presenting
problem; precipitating factors; perpetuating; protective; and constructivist/relational factors.
5) Present intervention recommendations, which flow from the assessment and formulation. This
section may be done in point form. The intervention recommendations must be consistent with
the models you have chosen. For example, you would not choose a psychodynamic
psychological model and then present cognitive behavioural interventions (10%).
6) Present a relevant critique of the theories applied to the case formulation based on whether or
not your theories take into account the following critical dimensions: race, gender, class, culture,
age, sexual orientation or dis/ability, etc. (10%).
7) Summary and conclusion of the formulation (2%).
Additional factors that will be considered in the marking scheme are as follows:
1) Structure of the assignment indicated by section headings (5%).

Introduction; assessment outline; theoretical models; formulation; critique of theories;
intervention recommendations; summary; and conclusion.
2) Writing style (5%)

Are the sentences well-structured?
Are the paragraphs well-structured?
Are the grammar, spelling, and punctuation correct?
Is the reference style correct (i.e., does the paper follow A.P.A. reference format)?
3) Instructor’s overall impressions (5%)

This subjective impression will be based largely on whether the formulation represents an in-
depth level of understanding about the nature of the presenting problem.
Class Schedule
All readings are available in either the course package, texts, or through an on-line database
search. You will note that each week has a number of readings. Because this course is an
overview of a multitude of practice theories, it is necessary to include literature on a variety of
theoretical framework. The expectation is NOT that you read everything. Rather, as an adult
learner in a master’s program, you are expected to focus on those readings that interest you the
most and that you believe will best prepare you for practice.
Tuesday, September 11: Introduction and Course Overview
Hours one, two, and three:

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• Purpose of the course;
• Course outline;
• The relevance of theory to social work: Why study theories?
• The relationship between assessment, theory, and critique;
• Generate group learning objectives and learning contract;
• Generate fears, concerns, and anxieties contract.
Tuesday, September 18: Evolving Metatheories of Human Growth and Development
Hours one and two:

• Modernism/postmodernism and beyond;
• General and dynamical systems theory;
• Critical Theory;
• Continuous and discontinuous models of development.
Hour three:
• Small group discussion: Values clarification
o determinism/resilience
o nature/nurture
o intrapersonal/interpersonal
o macrosystems/microsystems
Readings: Postmodernism
• Best, S. & Keller, D. (1997). The time of the posts. In S. Best & D. Keller, The
Postmodern Turn, New York; Guilford Press, pp. 3-37.
• Peters, H. (2009). Navigating the shifting sands of social work terrain: Social work
practice in postmodern conditions. Journal of Progressive Human Services, 20(1), pp.
45-58 (Available on line).
• Chambon, A., Irving, A., & Epstein, L. (Ed.) (1999). Reading Foucault for Social Work.
New York, New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 51-81.
• Foucault, M. (1995). Discipline & punish: The birth of the prison. New York, New York:
Vintage Books. pp. 3-31.
• Martin, J. & Sugarman, J. (2000). Between the modern and the postmodern: The
possibility of self and progressive understanding in psychology. American Psychologist,
55(4), pp. 397-406. (Available online)
Readings: Critical Social Work

• Fook, J. (2003). Critical social work: The current issues. Qualitative Social Work, 2(2),
pp. 123-130. (Available online)
• Morley, C. & Macfarlane, S. (2012). The nexus between feminism and postmodernism:
Still a central concern for critical social work. British Journal of Social Work, 42, pp.
687-705. (Available online)
Readings: Systems Theory

• Warren, K. & Franklin, C. & Streeter, C. (July, 1998). New directions in Systems
Theory: Chaos and complexity. Social Work, 43 (4), pp. 357-372. (Available online)
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Readings: Continuities and Discontinuities
• Rutter, M. (1984). Continuities and discontinuities in development. R. Emde & R.
Harmon (eds). New York: Plenum Press. pp. 41-68.
• Doidge, N. (2007). The brain that changes itself: Stories of personal triumph from the
frontiers of brain science. New York, New York: Penguin Books. pp. xvii-xx, 1-26.
Tuesday, September 25: Formulation and Assessment with Informal Theory
Hours one and two:

• Assessment and formulation
Hour three:
• Small group discussion: Application of formulation through a case study - Who’s Afraid
of Virginia Woolf?
Readings: Outline for Bio-Psycho-Social Assessment and Formulation

• Weerasekera, P. (June, 1993). Formulation: A multiperspective model. Canadian journal
of psychiatry, 38, pp. 351-358.
• Dallos, R., Wright, J., Stedman, Jaqui, & Johnston, L. (2006). Integrative formulation. In
L. Johnston and R. Dallos (Eds). Formulations in psychology and psychotherapy: Making
sense of people's problems. New York, New York; Routledge. (Text)
• Iversen, R., Gergen, K., & Fairbanks II, R. (2005). Assessment and social construction:
Conflict or co-creation? British Journal of Social Work, 35, pp. 689-708. (Available
online)
• Dean, R., Poorvu, N. (2008). Assessment and formulation: A contemporary Social Work
perspective. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, 89(4),
• Sprenkle, D., Blow, A. (2004). Common factors and our sacred models. Journal of
Marital and Family Therapy, 30(2), pp. 113-129. (Available online)
Tuesday, October 2: Assessment and Formulation with Formal Theory
Hour one:
• An example of primary theory: Mahler’s Theory of Separation-Individuation
Hour two:
• An example of applied theory: Mahler’s Separation-Individuation Theory applied to
couples therapy: Bader and Pearson
Hour three:
• Small group discussion: Assessment and formulation with theory - Who’s Afraid of
Virginia Woolf?
Readings:
• Mahler, M., Pine, F. & Bergman, A. (1975). Overview. In M. Mahler, F. Pine & A.
Bergman. The psychological birth of the human infant: Symbiosis and individuation.
New York: Basic Books, Inc. pp. 3-17.
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• Bader, E. & Pearson, P. (1988). A developmental model of relating. In E. Bader & P.
Pearson In quest of the mythical mate: A developmental approach to diagnoses and
treatment in couples therapy. New York: Brunner/Mazel, Inc. pp. 1-15; 244-250.
Tuesday, October 9: Feminist Theory; Disability Theory; LGBTQ Theory
Hour one:
• Disability Theory
Hour two:
• Feminist theory
Hour three:
• LGBTQ theory
Readings: Feminism
• West, C. (2005). The map of Relational-Cultural Theory. Women and therapy, 28(3/4),
• Jordan, J. (2004). Relational awareness: Transforming disconnection. In J. Jordan, M.
Walker & L. Hartling The complexity of connection: Writings from the Stone Center's
Jean Baker Miller Training Institute. N.Y.: Guilford Press, pp. 47-63.
• Weedon, C. (1999). Feminism, theory, and the politics of difference. Malden, MA.,
Blackwell Publishers, pp. 178-197.
• Robbins, S.P., Chatterjee, P., & Canda, E.R. (2012). Contemporary human behavior
theory: A critical perspective for social work. (3rd Ed.). Boston, MA.: Allyn and Bacon.
pp. 107-133. (Recommended Text Chapter 5)
• Philips, D. (2006). Masculinity, male development, gender, and identity: Modern and
postmodern meanings. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 27, pp. 403-423. (Available
online)
Optional Readings:
• Hekman, S. (1997). Truth and method: Feminist Standpoint Theory revisited. Signs
22(2), pp. 341-365.
Readings: Disability
• Mackelprang, R. & Salsgiver, R. (1999). Disability: A diversity model approach in
human service settings practice. New York, New York: Brooks/Cole Publishing
Company. pp. 57-79.
• Koch, T. (2001). Disability and difference: Balancing social and physical constructions.
Journal of Medical Ethics, 27(6), pp. 370-376. (Available online)
• Prilletensky, O. (1996). Women with disability and feminist therapy. Women & therapy,
18 (1), pp. 87-97. (Available online)
• Pardeck, J. (2002). A critical analysis of the social work literature on disabilities. Journal
of social work in Disability & Rehabilitation. pp. 1-5. (Available online)
• Weeber, J. (1999). What could I know of racism? Journal of Counseling & Development,
17, pp. 20-23. (Available online)
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Readings: LGBTQ
• Gonsiorek, J. & Rudolph, J. (1991). Homosexual identity: Coming out and other
developmental events. In J. Gonsiorek & J. Weinrich Homosexuality: Research
implications for public policy. Newbury Park: Sage. pp. 161-176.
• Troiden, R. (1989). The formation of homosexual identities. In R. Troiden Gay and
lesbian youth. New York: Haworth Press, Inc. pp. 43-73.
• Garnets, L.D. (2002). Sexual orientations in perspective. Cultural diversity and ethnic
minority psychology, 8(2), pp. 115-129. (Available online)
• McPhail, B.A. (2004). Questioning gender and sexuality binaries: What Queer theorists,
transgendered individuals, and sex researchers can teach social work. Journal of gay &
lesbian social services, 17(1), pp. 3-21. (Available online)
• Social work practice with the transgender community. Social Work, 52(3), pp243-250.
(Available online)
• Pachankis, J.E., Goldfried, M.R. (2004). Clinical issues in working with lesbian, gay, and
bisexual clients. Psychotherapy: Theory, research, practice, training, 41(3), pp. 227-246.
(Available online)
Tuesday, October 16: Attachment Theory (AUDITORIUM)

• Guest Speakers: Elizabeth Tuters, MSW, RSW and Sally Doulis MSW, RSW
MIDTERM ASSIGNMENT DUE

• Attachment theory
Readings: Attachment Theory

• Shilkret, R., & Shilkret, C. (2008). Attachment theory. In J. Berzoff, L. Flanagan & P.
Hertz (Eds). Inside out and outside in: Psychodynamic clinical theory and practice in
contemporary multicultural contexts. Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson. pp. 189-
203.
• Schore, J. & Schore, A. (2008). Modern attachment theory: The central role of affect
regulation in development and treatment. Clinical Social Work Journal, 36, pp. 9-20.
(Available online)
• Fonagy, P. (2001). Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis. New York, New York: Other
Press. pp. 19-46.
Tuesday, October 23: Psychodynamic Theory
Hours one and two:

• Ego Psychology
• Object Relations Theory
Hour three:
• Self Psychology
• Relational Theory and Intersubjectivity Theory
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Readings: Ego Psychology
• Goldstein, E. (1995). The ego and its functions. In E. Goldstein Ego psychology and
social work practice. NY: The Free Press, pp. 53-71.
• Goldstein, E. (1995). The ego and its defenses. In E. Goldstein, Ego psychology and
social work practice. NY: The Free Press, pp. 72-85.
Readings: Object Relations

• Flanagan, L.M. (2008). Object relations theory. In J. Berzoff, L. Flanagan & P. Hertz
(Eds). Inside out and outside in: Psychodynamic clinical theory and practice in
contemporary multicultural contexts. Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson. pp. 121-
160.
Readings: Self Psychology

• Lessem, P. (2005). Self Psychology: An introduction. New York, New York. Jason
Aronson. pp. 26-62.
• Elson, M. (1986). A fragmentation-prone single mother. In M. Elson Self Psychology in
clinical social work practice. New York: Norton & Company. pp. 135-151.
• Donner, S. (1993). The treatment process. In H. Jackson (Ed.). Using Self Psychology in
psychotherapy. Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson Inc. pp. 51-70.
Readings: Relational Theory and Intersubjectivity Theory

• Mitchell, S. (1988) The relational matrix. In S. Mitchell Relational concepts in
psychoanalysis. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 17-40.
• Stolorow, R., Atwood, G., Brandchaft, B. (1994). (Eds.), The intersubjective perspective.
Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson, Inc. pp. 3-14.
• Stolorow, R. (1997). Dynamic, dyadic, intersubjective systems: An evolving paradigm
for psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 14(3), pp. 337-346. (Available online)
Tuesday, October 30: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

• Guest Speaker: Karma Guindon, MSW, RSW

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Readings: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
• Cobb, N. (2008). Cognitive-Behavioural theory and treatment. In N. Coady and P.

Lehmann (Eds.). Theoretical perspectives for direct social work practice: A generalist-
eclectic approach. New York, New York: Springer Publishing Company. pp. 221-248.
(Recommended Text)
• Corey, G. (2005). Theory and practice of counseling & psychotherapy (7th Ed.). Belmont,
CA. Brooks/Cole – Thomson Learning.
• Robbins, S.P., Chaterjee, P., & Canda, E.R. (2012). Contemporary human behavior
theory: A critical perspective for social work. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
(Recommended Text: Chapters 9, 12)
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• Atwood, J., Donnelly, J. (2002). The children's war: Their reactions to devastating events.
The family journal: Counseling and therapy for couples and families, 10(1), pp. 11-18.
(Available online)
Tuesday, November 6: Humanistic and Transpersonal Theories
Hour one:
• Humanistic Theory:
o Person Centered Therapy;
o Gestalt Therapy.
Hours two and three:
• Transpersonal Theory:
o Existential Psychotherapy;
o Transpersonal Psychotherapy.
Readings: Humanistic Theory

• Payne, M. (2011). Humanistic social work: Core principles in practice. Chicago, Ill.,
Lyceum Books, Inc. pp. 1-31.
• Hoffman, L., Stewart, S., Warren, D., & Meek, L. (2009). Toward a sustainable myth of
self: An Existential response to the postmodern condition. Journal of humanistic
psychology, 49(2). pp. 135-173. (Available on line)
• Rothery, M. & Tutty, L. (2008). Client-centered theory. In N. Coady and P. Lehmann
(Eds.). Theoretical perspectives for direct social work practice: A generalist-eclectic
approach. New York, New York: Springer Publishing Company. pp. 299-320.
(Recommended Text)
Readings: Transpersonal Theory:

• Randall, E. (2008). Existential theory. In N. Coady and P. Lehmann (Eds.). Theoretical
perspectives for direct social work practice: A generalist-eclectic approach. New York,
New York: Springer Publishing Company. pp. 321-342. (Recommended Text)
• Robbins, S.P., Chaterjee, P., & Canda, E.R. (2012). Contemporary human behavior
theory: A critical perspective for social work. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
(Recommended Text: Chapter 13)
• Kasprow, M., Scotton, B. (1999). A review of transpersonal theory and its application to
the practice of psychotherapy. The journal of psychotherapy practice and research, 8, pp.
12-23. (Available online)
Tuesday, November 13: Multicultural Theory from a Dynamical Systems Perspective
Hour one:
• General Systems Theory:
o The historical foundation for social work practice
o Dynamic Systems Theory
Hour two:
• Multicultural Theory
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Hour three:
• Case study and formulation
• Small group discussion: Application of formulation through a case study
Readings: Systems Theory

• Von Bertalanffy, L. (1968). The meaning of General Systems Theory. In L. Von
Bertalanffy General Systems Theory: Foundations, development and application. New
York: George Braziller, Inc. pp. 30-53.
• Hudson, C. (2010). Complex systems and human behaviour. Chicago, Ill., Lyceum
Books, Inc. pp. 3-45.
• Bronfenbrenner, U. (1992). Ecological systems theory. In U. Bronfenbrenner (Ed).
Making human beings human: Bioecological perspectives on human development.
London, Sage Publications, pp. 106-173. (AVAILABLE ON RESERVE – FSW
LIBRARY)
• Rothery, M. (2012). Critical ecological systems theory. In N. Coady & P. Lehmann
(Eds.) Theoretical perspectives for direct social work practice: A generalist-eclectic
approach. New York: Springer Publishing Company. pp. 89-118. (Recommended Text)
Optional Readings:
• Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). Basic concepts. In U. Bronfenbrenner The ecology of human
development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 16-42.
• Darling, N. (2007). Ecological systems theory: The person in the center of the circles.
Research in human development, 4(3-4), pp. 203-217. (Available on line)
Readings: Multiculturalism
• Paniagua, F. (1998). General guidelines for the assessment and treatment of multicultural
groups. In F.A. Paniagua Assessing and treating culturally diverse clients: A practical
guide (second edition). Multicultural aspects of counseling series 4. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage Publications. pp. 5-19.
• Robbins, S., Chatterjee, P. & Canda, E. (2012). Theories of assimilation, acculturation,
and bicultural socialization. In S. Robbins, et. al. Contemporary human behavior theory:
A critical perspective for social work. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. pp. 134-170
(Recommended Text)
• Williams, C. (2006). The epistemology of cultural competence. Families in Society: The
journal of contemporary social services, 87(2), pp. 209-220. (Available online)
• Dean, R. (2001). The myth of cross-cultural competence. Families in Society: The journal
of contemporary social services, 82(6), pp. 623-630. (Available online)
• Abramovitch, H., Kirmayer, L. (2003). The relevance of Jungian psychology for cultural
psychiatry. Transcultural psychiatry, 40(2), pp. 155-163. (Available online)
Tuesday, November 20: Formulation and Assessment for Communities and Social Theories
and Social Work Practice
Hour one:
• Formulation and Assessment for Communities
115
Hour two:
• Conflict Theory
• Structural Theory
Hour three:
• Case study and formulation: Africville
• Small group discussion: Application of formulation through a case study
Readings: Conflict Theory and Structural Theory

• Mullalay, R. (2002). Anti-oppressive social work practice at the personal and cultural
levels. In R. Mullalay Challenging oppression: A critical social work approach. Toronto:
Oxford University Press, 170-192.
• Tew, J. (2006). Understanding power and powerlessness: Towards a framework for
emancipatory practice in social work. Journal of social work, 6(1), pp. 33-54. (Available
online)
• Hall, S. (1996). Ethnicity: Identity and difference. In G. Eley and R. Suny (Eds.).
Becoming national. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 339-349.
• Ahmed, S. (2000). Strange encounters: Embodied others in post-coloniality. New York:
Routledge, pp. 38-54.
• Cronick, K. (2002). Community, subjectivity, and intersubjectivity. American journal of
community psychology, 30(4), pp. 529-546. (Available online)
Tuesday, November 27: Social Constructionism and Narrative Therapy: A practice model;
Principles of Applying Theory to Practice; Wrap Up and Course Evaluation
FINAL ASSIGNMENT DUE
Hour One:
• Social Constructionism and Narrative Therapy
Hours two and three:
• Case Study and small group discussion;
• Course Evaluation
Readings: Social Constructionism and Narrative Therapy

• Granvold, D.K. (2008). Constructivist theory. In P. Lehmann & N. Coady (Eds).
Theoretical perspectives for direct social work practice: A generalist eclectic approach.
New York: Springer Publishing Co., pp. 401-428. (Recommended Text Chapter 16)
• Applegate, J.S. (2000). Theory as story: A Postmodern tale. Clinical social work journal,
28(2), pp. 141-153. (Available online)
• Yi, K., Shorter-Gooden, K. (1999). Ethnic identity formation: From stage theory to a
constructivist narrative model. Psychotherapy, 36(1), pp. 16-26. (Available online)
• Buckman, R., Reese, A., Kinney, D. (2008). Narrative therapies. In P. Lehmann & N.
Coady (Eds). Theoretical perspectives for direct social work practice: A generalist
eclectic approach. (2nd Ed.). New York: Springer Publishing Co. pp. 369-400.
(Recommended Text Chapter 15)
116
Michelle Skop-Dror, PhD Candidate, and Kristin Trotter, PhD
Revised September 19, 2012
SK500 Human Growth in Context

Fall Term 2012
Assessment and Formulation
Theoretical Background
"Assessment procedures in social work emerged within the historical context of modernist
empiricism. They are lodged in assumptions of objectivity, measurement accuracy, value
neutrality, and scientific expertise. Within the context of postmodern constructionism, the
grounds for traditional assessment are thrown into question" (Iversen, Gergen, & Fairbanks,
2005, p. 689) as the postmodern perspective challenges the fundamental notions of objectivity,
realism, reason, superior knowledge, and universalism upon which modernism and the act of
assessing another is based.
The very essence of the helper/being helped relationship is rooted in modernism and assessment
is a large and definitive aspect of that relationship. The way a social worker asks questions,
interprets information, and creates ideas about how to work with the person and the presenting
problem is always a matter of cultural, political, gendered, ethnic, racial, and social location that
may or may not coincide with that of the client.
There have been many attempts over the years to define assessment and formulation and, again,
these attempts derive from the traditions in question. There have also been attempts to define
assessment and formulation according to a more integrative approach.
Weeresekera (1966) defines formulation . . . "as a provisional explanation or hypothesis of how

an individual comes to present with a certain disorder or circumstances at a particular point in
time. A number of factors may be involved in understanding the etiology of the disorder or
condition. These include biological, psychological, and systemic factors. . . . All these variables
interact under certain conditions to produce a specific condition or phenomenon . . . A
comprehensive formulation then needs to examine all three models carefully (p.4).
This definition and Weeresekera's biopsychosocial model has been criticized (Johnstone &
Dallos, 2006, p.166) however, and falls short of a postmodern perspective as it does not include:
• An emphasis on the therapeutic relationship;
• Room for wider contextual considerations such as diversity and socio-cultural factors;
• Consideration for the subjectivity of the therapist;
• Clarity around how to combine models;
• An emphasis on the personhood of the client.
117
Hence, one might expand Weeresekera's definition of a formulation to include all of the above
such that formulation might be defined as follows: "A co-created provisional explanation or
hypothesis of how an individual comes to present with a certain disorder or circumstances at a
particular point in time. A number of factors and their interaction may be involved in
understanding the etiology of the condition. These include biological, psychological, systemic"
(p.4), diversity, and contextual socio-cultural factors. All of these factors are present in both
the client and the therapist.
Moreover, formulation varies according to the therapeutic tradition in question. Hence, the
cognitive behavioural therapist will ask different questions and co-create different interventions
than the psychodynamically oriented therapist, and the humanistically oriented clinician will
approach issues differently than either of the above.
However, no matter what the tradition, assessment instruments used, the questions asked, the
way they are asked, and the conclusions drawn, they are located within the reality of those who
developed them and may differ significantly from the reality of the client (Iversen, Gergen, &
Fairbanks, 2005; Unger, 2004).
But, in spite of the fact that different orientations will result in completely different formulations,
all formulations are similar in that they:
• Summarize the client's core problems;
• Show how the client's difficulties relate to one another, by drawing on psychological
theories and principles;
• Explain, on the basis of psychological theory, why the client has developed these
difficulties at this time and in these situations;
• Give rise to a plan of intervention which is based in the psychological processes and
principles already identified;
• Are open to revision and reformulation (Johnston & Dallos, 2006, p. 11).
All formulations differ in:

• The factors they see as most relevant (thoughts, feelings, behaviours, social
circumstances);
• The explanatory concepts they draw on (schemas, the unconscious, discourses);
• The emphasis they place on reflexivity;
• The degree to which they adopt an expert as opposed to a collaborative stance;
• Their position in relation to psychiatric diagnosis;
• Their position about the 'truth' versus 'usefulness' of the formulation (Johnston & Dallos,
2006, p. 11).
Different models convey different meanings and point toward differing interpretations. A
psychodynamic model might focus on the individual and the family history, whereas a medical,
psychopharmacological model might focus on medication and signal to the individual and the
family that "Jane is ill."
118
Assessment and formulation, from a modernist perspective, is a complex process that uses
information provided by the client which is then filtered through the training, skills, expertise,
and ‘self’ of the health care provider. From a postmodern perspective, however assessment and
formulation is the process whereby the client and the social worker co-determine what can be
known about the client's presenting problem. It is a fluid process which draws on notions of
reflexivity as defined by the capacity of the therapist to be self-aware and transparent about
assumptions, motives, cultural attitudes, and interpretive lenses (Johnston & Dallos, 2006,
p.168).
A constructivist perspective assesses "the viability (utility) rather than the validity (truth) of an
individual's unique worldview" (Neimeyer & Neimeyer, 1993, p.2). As Butler (1998) states, "a
formulation does not have to be correct but it does have to be useful" (p. 1). Formulations
are not statements of facts but are a co-constructed representation of reality that represents one of
many possible versions of reality.
The relationship between client and clinician is seen to be mutually influenced by the interaction
with another, thus creating a jointly constructed or co-constructed narrative where meaning is
recognized as socially, culturally, and politically constituted (Neimeyer & Neimeyer, 1993).
From a postmodern perspective, assessment is based on a collaborative, always changing,
dynamically flexible process (Woody et al., 2003; Bisman, 2001; Fox, 2001; Burrow, Horton &
Bucy, 2000).
Moreover, it is widely understood that "clients shape all aspects of professional dialogue"
(Strong & Sutherland, 2007, p. 95) and mutual influence is most efficacious when conversational
interactions with clients are mutually meaningful.
Moreover, formulation is seen to happen within a social context which means that formulation
takes place within what is perceived to be normal, legitimate, and appropriate forms of thought,
feeling, and action that define the limits and the contextual frames of reference.
Formulation is also seen to be influenced by structural constraints such as available funding,

services, and organizations (Johnston & Dallos, 2006, p.173).
Serious dysfunction is not excluded, but the clinician is asked to give up "an expert-based,
individualistic orientation in favor of a self-reflective, culturally attuned, and egalitarian
orientation toward the subjective creation of the counseling act" (McAuliffe, & Eriksen, 1999,
p.268).
Although the diverse orientations represented within the modern and postmodern paradigms can
be considered oppositional, it makes far more sense to look for converging lines of thought
between traditional assessment procedures and constructionist writings rather than dismiss the
two completely or deem them totally incompatible.
Biopsychosocial Assessment and Formulation
119
The following biopsychosocial model of assessment and formulation attempts to look for
converging lines of thought between traditional assessment procedures and constructionist
writings. In the modernist tradition, information on the individual, couple, family or community
is gathered, assessed, analyzed, and categorized. The very act of listing information and
characteristics and creating interventive measures from that information is recognized as
modernist in nature.
From a postmodern point of view, however, constructing knowledge is viewed as being possible
only through relationship and the relational experience. Hence, assessment and formulation,
when co-constructed within the relationship, can be viewed as being postmodern in nature in
that:
• The concept of co-constructing the client's narrative is elevated in light of the
understanding that assessment and formulation are fundamentally a relational
experience;
• The client's need to construct his or her personal story is privileged (Cowger, 1994; Fox,
2001).
• The emphasis on interaction and co-construction between the therapist and client is seen
to occur within a socially, culturally, and politically contextualized framework and
therapeutic contributions are presented as food for thought rather than the final say on
meaning (Strong, et al., 2007).
Assessment
Assessment constitutes the necessary conversation that client and therapist have in order to
generate and gather information. At its best, assessment is a collaborative and co-created
dynamic dialogue of the presenting problem within a contextualized person-in-environment
paradigm where paradigm is defined as a set of assumptions about what exists, how it works and
functions, and how it can be understood.
Assessment and formulation, in the broadest sense, are like a road map in that they co-creatively
help to detail why a person, a couple, or a family come to therapy (i.e. where the therapeutic
journey begins); where the individual, couple, or family ultimately want to end up (i.e. where the
therapeutic journey ends), and how the individual, couple, or family get there (i.e. the
interventions). It is a dynamic process and is the primary focus of at least the first several
meetings where exchanges between client and therapist results in information about the problem,
the individual, the family, and/or the group.
That information is discussed in a way that the meanings of the concerns that brought the
individual, family, or couple to therapy are probed, explored, and assigned new meaning.
Information gathered in an assessment is what helps client and therapist generate the formulation
necessary to co-create goals and outcomes that will facilitate the change and transformational
process as it is understood in the context of the therapeutic setting.
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The process of assessment involves a collaborative exchange about the client's experiences
throughout the life span, where the client's narrative is given primacy and the therapist
determines where his/her story converges and diverges and is, therefore, vulnerable to biases that
might not be helpful and may be at variance with the client. Assessment reflects the iterative
processes that enfold, absorb, and reabsorb information.
Each social worker and client must find areas of the narrative that create and sustain the narrative
flow and the unique character of the relationship. Although distinctive lines of inquiry reflect
individual client/therapist dyads, the social worker must also gather information about client’s
perceptions in the following areas:
• The presenting problem;
• Identifying information;
• History of the problem;
• Interview observations and experiences including therapist's self-reflections on the
experience. (Appendix I contain questions that might be useful in assessment.)
Further, there are fundamental and overarching questions that one asks in an assessment and a
formulation, such as:
• How do we understand what is going on?
• How do we define the presenting concerns?
• How and in what context is meaning being made both in general and around the distress
that is being experienced?"
The Client's epistemological underpinnings can be explored by asking such questions as:
• What lets you know that this is (good, right, important)?
• Why is that important to you?
• What's at stake here?
• What makes you most (nervous, angry . . .) about that?
• If it were to turn out another way, what would be the cost for you?
• How would you have liked this to turn out? Why? (McAuliffe, 1999, p. 274).
N.B. The Appendices are designed to choose only those sections that are relevant to
understanding a particular client or client group. The categories outlined in the
biopsychosocial assessment and formulation grid (Appendix II) are continuous rather than
discrete and as such flow in and out of one another in a dynamic way.
Formulation
Central to a good formulation is the relationship because formulation is how we come to know
and engage with our clients.
Formulation consists of the efforts of client and therapist to integrate the material gathered in
the assessment into a cohesive and contextualized understanding of the nature of the presenting
concerns, the context within which those concerns arose, and interventions that encourage,
uphold, and support the client and the change process.
121
Formulation includes addressing "sociocultural issues and the larger sociocultural context, sees
each client's uniqueness and reality, and provides specific procedures that facilitate clinicians and
clients to co-create therapeutic environments" (Rigazio-DiGilio, 2000, p.1018). At the forefront
of informing interventions is considering the impact of variables and factors such as
biological/developmental, psychological, current and past systemic and familial factors, diversity
and socio-cultural beliefs, norms, and values (Rigazio-DiGilio, 2000) on factors that precipitate,
perpetuate, predispose, and protect. This is understood to be reflective of a co-constructed reality
between the therapist and the individual, couple, or family as they attempt to deal with the
presenting problem. The therapist's subjectivity as well as the client's impact how these factors
are interpreted.
The formulation needs to be seen as fluid, dynamic, relational, and open to alternative
explanations. It is a cross-sectional snapshot in time that will change with time.
Moreover, in keeping with Heisenberg's Principle which states that the act of observing changes
what is being observed, the clinician is consciously and actively involved in constructing how
the client tells his or her story and the meanings the client makes of that story.
Context is seen as deeply embedded in how a formulation is constructed and the focus is on
understanding how the client interacts with her or his social world, current, past, and present.
Distress is always expressed in context and, therefore, is relational.
A formulation is not a diagnosis. A diagnosis pertains to symptoms of illness as described in

the DSM-IV-TR and is based on a mental status examination. Diagnosis implies the existence of
"fixed conditions and traits that lead to procedures and instruments focused on identifying and
treating individual problems and deficits."
Increasingly, diagnosis has been criticized for inattention to environmental factors that may
contribute to or exacerbate problems such as economic injustice and societal discrimination
(Iversen, et al., p. 691, 2005). In short, diagnosis decontextualizes an individual and usually
indicates medication and medical/psychiatric care.
Moreover, social structures impose definitions of problems as well as definitions of normality on

clients and these are the definitions that are more likely to be heard due to the relations of power
between institutions and agencies and individuals, families, and couples. The power of these
institutions is not only externally and socially driven but it is also internalized as oppression.
Information is based on several sources including narrative information that comes to the
clinician from the client, collateral information gleaned from external reports, information that
comes from the clinician's external and internal experience and observations, and information
that is inferred through material that is co-constructed by both the client(s) and the social worker.
The formulation is a summary of the situation resulting in co-created hypotheses about the
problem and its meaning and how it might be solved.
122
In a formulation, therapist and client co-create connections and relationships in light of all the
available information and work toward making dynamic and on-going sense and meaning of
clients' distress. Information is then focused in five primary areas of thought: i)
biological/developmental; ii) psychological; iii) current and past systemic and familial factors;
iv) diversity factors; and v) contextual and socio-cultural factors.
These five dimensions are further considered in relationship to five factors as they relate to the
presenting problem in terms of what: i) precipitated; ii) predisposes; iii) perpetuates; and iv)
protects the individual, family, or couple as well as v) constructivist and relational factors.
The result is a grid (see Appendix II) which helps the clinician and client, couple, or family
organize large amounts of information and co-construct meaning around the presenting problem
and what to do about it.
The fifth factor, constructivist and relational, concerns the therapist's response to the client(s),
the situation, and the problem. The therapist's contribution to the intersubjective space and the
level of self awareness the therapist exercises is germane to this column. As well, this fifth factor
is about the relationship you and the client are creating.
In short, this column, to a large degree, is self reflexive. It is an articulation of the clinician's
conscious and active involvement in constructing how the client tells his or her story and the
meanings the client makes of that story. It is your reactions and responses to the client(s) and
his or her story as well as your understanding of the relationship that is developing. What do you
emphasis? What do you avoid? What do you feel? What in your experience will inform as well
as prejudice you in dealing with events of the client’s life and the meaning she/he makes of those
events. What do you understand about the relationship that is developing between you and this
individual, couple, family, or community?
The two operations that are used in creating a formulation are selection and synthesis.
Select those perspectives and factors that both you and the client consider to have significant
bearing on the problem. Synthesize the information in a way that helps to understand the
problem and formulate ways to work with it. The presenting problem is always considered from
multiple perspectives and across all dimensions and factors of functioning.
Biological/developmental factors might include things like illness, disability, developmental

delays, and biological components of mental health issues with some degree of heritability (e.g.
major depression, alcoholism, drug abuse). Factors like depression can have biological,
psychological, and social components and, therefore, can occupy multiple squares emphasizing
the continuous nature of the categories in the grid (Weerasekera, 1996).
Psychological factors can include current individual psychological problems, past trauma such
as severe abuse as a child and anything else that falls into the psychological realm.
Current and past systemic and familial factors include current patterns of family dynamics
and extended family systems, marital problems, disagreement over parenting, intergenerational
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conflicts, families as participants in the wider environment, and families as the primary
socialization context for individual members.
Diversity factors include influences of culture, race, religion, gender issues, and sexual
orientation.
Socio-cultural factors create the context within which the presenting problem occurs and would
include things such as poverty/socio-economic status and issues of class, education, and job
status. This also includes such things as cultural discourse around beliefs, expectations, social
norms, and social and cultural views of the problem as well as available services and resources.
All of these dimensions serve to locate the client and the clinician within a contextual domain.
To contextualize is to challenge us "to step beyond the dichotomy of traditionally defined
notions of health, distress, and disorder, and view clients as unique, competent, and capable of
constructing their own meanings within a cultural setting" (Rigazio-DiGilio, 2000).
Contextualizing allows client and clinician to open the field of explanation and intervention to a
much wider vista.
The presenting problem is further contextualized through situating it within its precipitating,
perpetuating, predisposing, and protective factors (4Ps). The 4Ps are located along the y-axis
along with constructivist and relational factors and are incorporated within the five x-axis
variables in order to create a formulation. The movement in the grid is first down and then
across.
The formulation begins with a summary of the nature of the presenting problem. In the rest of
the formulation, relationships between the biological, psychological, systemic-familial, diversity,
and socio-cultural are connected to relationships between the 4Ps or those factors that
precipitate the problem, historically predispose the individual toward the problem, perpetuate
the problem, and protect against the problem. The constructivist relational dimension is also
considered.
Precipitating factors are those events that have a temporal relationship with the onset of the
disturbance or problem (i.e. it occurs immediately or relatively prior to the development of the
problem). For example, a precipitating factor might be the loss of a significant relationship either
through death or divorce, loss of a job, an assault or an attack. The immediate precipitants of the
problem would fall into this category.
Predisposing factors are those factors that make an individual vulnerable to a specific condition
or phenomenon. Examples might include family history, genetics, prenatal/postnatal
complications, developmental issues, and characterological or temperamental issues. Usually this
dimension relates to antecedent conditions that predate the disorder or disturbance (Weerasekera,
1996). These are events that have occurred early in life and might predispose an individual in a
particular way.
Perpetuating factors are those factors that become pervasive and aggravate or maintain an
ongoing or presenting problem. Perpetuating factors may be difficult to determine as they are
124
often chronic in nature and sometimes actively lied about or denied such as binging and purging
or addiction. They may also represent secondary gain that results from a problem such as the
family taking over for someone who is depressed and leading them to feel increasingly more
helpless. Marital discord, illness, occupational stress, undiagnosed learning disability, ongoing
unemployment, and chronic social isolation are all examples of perpetuating factors. However,
these variables are technically distinct but not mutually exclusive and operate along a continuum.
Protective factors outline the strengths the client brings to the presenting problem. These factors
ameliorate risk factors and might include such things as good health, intelligence and/or adaptive
cognitive schemas, some ability for introspection, an adequate or satisfactory relationship, good
social support, job security and satisfaction, an ability to set clear boundaries, and financial
security (Weerasekera, 1996).
Carr (2000) proposed an alternative to problem-focused formulations by suggesting that

formulations should not only consist of problems but also exceptions to those problems.
Determine when the problem has been successfully dealt with and by whom? How, precisely,
was that accomplished? This dimension of the grid helps to clarify all protective factors: those
concerning self and others; those gleaned from lived experience and social circumstances;
protective values and beliefs; and exceptions to the problem. These are the forces that can be
called into service to help change or ameliorate the presenting problem.
Constructivist and relational factors would include observations and experiences of a self-
reflexive, intersubjective, and relational nature. Exploration of meanings ascribed by client and
clinician, as well as the relational matrix, which includes the intrapsychic and interpersonal
realms, would be incorporated into this dimension of thought.
Formulation, which occurs on many different levels (i.e. individual, dyadic, familial, extended
family systems, communal, cultural), is always guided by theory and is geared toward
answering questions such as, “Why is this individual presenting with this problem at this point
in time?” and, "What kind of meanings and images are being ascribed to the presenting
problem?". A mere listing of these various factors is not a formulation. In order to be a
formulation, the connections between the factors must be shown across biological,
psychological, systemic, diversity, and socio-cultural dimensions and these must be related to
the precipitating, predisposing, perpetuating, protective, and relational aspects. All of this must
then be applied to the presenting problem or concern.
The value of any assessment and formulation and the theoretical foundations upon which it is
based are ultimately judged by the power of the interventions to effect healing changes. The
formulation grid is a worksheet and, for our purposes, is to be included in the formal assessment.
The formulation is derived from the data on the grid and should be long enough to explain the
case adequately but not longer than necessary to connect various facets of information in a
meaningful way. Interventions are closely linked to the formulation.
In modernist models of understanding the formulation is derived as an independent opinion

developed by the clinician. In postmodern models of understanding the formulation is
125
understood to be co-created by client and social worker in interaction and in the context of the
relational matrix.
All aspects of such a formulation are not necessarily included in a hospital clinical chart, or
community notes and depends on the wishes of the client, the nature of the material being
disclosed, the purpose the formulation will serve, legal considerations, and personal inclinations.
The formulation grid is a worksheet only but should be handed in with your paper. The entire
grid represents the factors that contribute to the presenting problem and its amelioration.
The perceptions and factors in the grid are continuous rather than discrete and will
naturally flow in and out of one another, sometimes in a repetitive manner. Moreover, this
dynamic flow within assessment and formulation broadens to include intervention.
Feedback from interventions is then used in an iterative way to co-create, with the client, a
reformulation which hopefully creates more efficacious and healing interventions, and so
on. And, this is enacted within a cultural and social context (Johnston & Dallos, 2006).
Revised September 2011

Kristin Trotter
Bibliography
Butler, G. (1998). Clinical formulations, in A. Bellack and M. Hersen, (Eds.) Comprehensive

Clinical Psychology, Oxford, UK: Pergamon.
Carr, A. (2000). Family therapy: Concepts, process and practice. Chichester, UK: Wiley.
Cowger, Ch.D. (1994). Assessing client strengths: Clinical assessment for client empowerment.
Social Work, 39(3), pp. 262-268.
Fox, R. (2001). Elements of the helping process . New York, New York: The Hawthorn Press.
Iversen, R. R., Gergen, K. J., & Fairbanks, R. P., II (2005). Assessment and Social construction:
Conflict or co-creating? The British Journal of Social Work, 35(5), pp. 689-708.
Johnston, L., & Dallos, R. (Eds.) (2006). Formulation in Psychology and Psychotherapy. New
York, New York: Routledge.
McAuliffe, G., & Eriksen, K. (1999). Toward a constructivist and developmental identity for the
counseling profession: The context-phase-stage-style model. Journal of Counseling &
Development. 77, pp. 267-280.
Rigazion-DiGillio, S. A. (2000). Relational diagnosis: A co-constructive-developmental

perspective on assessment and treatment. Psychotherapy in Practice, 56(8), ppp. 1017-1036.
126
Strong, T., & Sutherland, O. (2007). Conversational ethics in psychological dialogues:
Discursive and collaborative considerations. Canadian Psychology, 48(2), pp. 94-105.
Ungar, M. (2004). Surviving as a postmodern social worker: Two Ps and Three Rs of Direct
Pracxice. Social Work, 49(3), pp. 488-496.
Weerasekera, P. (1996). Multiperspective case formulation: A step towards treatment

integration. Malabar, Florida: Krieger Publishing Company.
Appendix I
Outline for a Bio-psycho-social Assessment and Formulation
Adapted from the work of
Dr. Judith Levene,
Faculty of Social Work,
1) Presenting Problem
2) Identifying Information
Date;
Name, address, telephone number;
Referral source;
127
Date of birth;
Primary social supports (i.e. partner, family, institutions);
Sources of collateral information.
3) History of Current Difficulties

Has there been previous therapy/counseling (names, dates, problem definition, and what has
been tried in the past to solve the problem? Was it helpful)?
In depth description of the problem:
When did it begin?
What is the context of the problem (home, work, personal, social, familial, other areas)?
Does the problem include drug or alcohol abuse?
Does the problem involve physical, emotional, or sexual abuse?
What makes the problem better or worse?
What has been tried in the past to solve the problem?
What has helped the problem? Where has the problem been handled successfully (i.e.
find the exceptions to the problem)?
What has made the problem worse?
Is the client depressed and suicidal?
Medical and Psychiatric History

Describe any previous medical problems?
Describe any previous psychological problems?
What has happened in the past in terms of how those problems were solved or dealt with?
What kinds of medical and psychological problems have other members of your family dealt
with?
Are there any recent stressors in your life that might have contributed to your current
problem?
Personal and Family of Origin History

Where were you born and where did you grow up?
Who were the members of your family?
Who raised you (i.e. parents, stepparents, grandparents)?
What is your culture of origin?
Describe your family's cultural, racial, and/or religious affiliation? How important are these
affiliations to you?
Describe your family's customs and beliefs?
Describe your childhood experiences and your relationships with your:
Mother and/or primary female caretaker;
Father and/or primary male caretaker;
Siblings;
Friends;
Teachers
Important relationships in the extended family such as your grandmother, grandfather, uncles,
aunts, and close family friends etc.).
Describe your family's structure (i.e. same sex, heterosexual, single parent, mixed race,
divorced, extended family, nuclear, blended, etc.).
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Describe your parents' relationship.
Were your parents separated or divorced?
If so, describe your experiences of the separation/divorce.
Describe your adolescence.
Describe your relationships with friends and peers throughout your childhood and
adolescence.
To what extent do you feel your physical needs were met in your family of origin?
How were emotions dealt with in your family of origin?
To what extent do you feel your emotional needs were met in your family of origin?
How were opinions expressed in your family of origin?
How were decisions made in your family? Was this consistent with your culture?
How were women treated/viewed in your family of origin? Was this consistent with your
culture?
How were men treated/viewed in your family of origin? Was this consistent with your
culture?
How were children treated/viewed in your family of origin? Was this consistent with your
culture?
Describe your current relationship with your parents, siblings, and extended family. How do
you get along together?
How would you describe your family's cohesiveness or closeness and distance in childhood
and now?
How would you describe your family's flexibility or ability to adapt to changing family roles
and rules in response to situational and developmental stress?
How did your family communication with each other? Could family members listen and speak
to one another?
How was emotion shared in your family of origin? Were family members able to express a
range of emotions?
Describe the important relationships in the family in terms of who was closest and who was
most distant.
Describe the major traumatic events/incidents in your family of origin and how they were
dealt with?
Describe your family's strengths.
Describe any important early love relationships in your life.
Describe your hobbies and interests.
Apart from your current problem, what do you consider to be the other, if any, major stressors
in your life?
Describe your relationships with friends.
Describe where you see yourself going in the future.
Educational History
How far did you go in school? Was this as far as you wanted to go?
What did you enjoy, if anything, about school? Did you have any problems at school?
What was your language of origin and what was your language of instruction?
How did you do at school academically and socially?
How did you get along with friends and classmates?
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Employment History
Do you work outside the home or at home?
What type of work do you do?
How do you like your work?
Is your work stressful?
Is your work consistent with your abilities, your dreams, and your goals in life?
Current Family Context

Describe your current family structure (single-parent, two parent, same-sex, heterosexual, step
family, separated, divorced, etc).
If separated or divorced, describe the separation/divorce and its current status.
Describe how you and your partner first met.
Describe the quality of your relationship with your partner (i.e. level of overall satisfaction,
level of sexual satisfaction, ability to be supportive of one another both generally and in times
of stress).
Describe the kinds of activities you and your partner share (i.e. recreational, work related,
family related).
How is conflict dealt with in your relationship? Do conflicts lead to problem solving,
avoidance, abuse, family violence?
How do you and your partner deal with individual differences?
How did/does your family of origin respond to your partner?
How did/does your partner's family of origin respond to you?
Describe the distribution of tasks and roles within your family.
Describe how decisions are made within your family?
How is money managed?
Describe any significant losses in your current family and discuss how they were/are dealt
with.
How did you and other members of your family cope with the loss?
Children
Describe your child(ren) (sex, ages, who they are) and your relationship to him/her/each of
them?
If applicable, describe your relationship to your grandchildren.
If there are two parents, do the children have a relationship with both parents? If so, describe
your children's relationship to your partner.
Describe your parenting techniques.
If these parenting techniques differ from your partner, how is this difference handled?
Describe how decisions are made around the children.
Are childcare duties primarily the responsibility of one parent or are they evenly distributed?
Describe your children's relationship with you and your partner's extended families of origin.
What kind of family activities do you and your children enjoy?
If there are losses and trauma within the family, how have your children coped?
Describe how your children were conceived (i.e. single birth parent, two birth-parents,
adopted – domestic/international, born to relatives, foster child, step child, in vitro
fertilization, sperm implant, surrogate – domestic/international).
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Describe the nature of the pregnancy and birth experience, if possible, and the physical,
financial, and psychological conditions at the time of the birth(s).
Describe the current personal and financial resources in your family.
Describe your family support system.
Has anyone in the family had contact with the courts or police?
Has anyone in the family had contact with community/social agencies?
Socio-political Context
What is your country and culture of origin?
How long have you been in Canada?
Under what circumstances did you immigrate to Canada (i.e. immigrant, refugee, political
asylum, etc.)?
Describe what life was like for you in your country of origin?
Describe the circumstances that lead up to your leaving your country of origin?
Describe your experience of flight.
What is your current citizenship status?
Describe any experiences of racism, homophobia, sexism, ethnic, cultural religious or political
oppression in your country of origin or in Canada.
Describe your community (e.g. diverse ethnic/racial composition or same ethnic/racial
composition, crime rate, degree of community cohesiveness).
Describe your involvement with community activities.
Are you in contact with other members of your cultural group?
Describe any experiences of political abuse or torture in your country of origin.
Describe any experiences of war in your country of origin.
Describe your experience of resettlement in Canada.
Describe your proficiency in English.
Describe your home life in terms of how you maintain customs and rituals from your culture
of origin.
Developmental history (if relevant to the adult and if working with a family and/or children)
Describe the pregnancy, delivery, neo-natal period.
Describe the early temperament of your child(ren).
Describe your child's developmental milestones (i.e. walking, talking, toilet training).
Describe the quality of your early relationships with your children.
Describe any physical/emotional problems that your children encountered including any
illnesses and hospitalizations.
Describe the relationships between siblings and family members.
Describe your child's school history, relationship with teachers, and relationship with peers.
4) Interview experience and observations

Is there evidence of major mental illness?
Is there impairment of reality testing (i.e. does this person see things or hear things that are not
present and are inconsistent with cultural or religious beliefs)?
Is the person's thought flow fragmented and incoherent?
Is there a disturbance of consciousness and disorientation for person, place, time (i.e. Do you
know who you are, where you are, and what day of the week it is?).
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Is there evidence of severe, moderate, or mild depression (i.e. sleep disturbances such as
sleeping too little or too much, lack of initiative, excessive feelings of guilt, lack of energy,
inability to concentrate, and changes in appetite and excessive weight loss or gain).
Is the person suicidal and do they have a plan?
Does this person display a capacity for empathy for others?
Does this person have the ability for self-empathy?
Does this person have the capacity for self-reflection, insight, and introspection?
Does this person have the ability to acknowledge the other person's point of view?
Does this person have the ability to identify inner emotional states?
Does this person have the ability to express emotion, verbally, or does the client act out
emotion behaviourally or somatically?
Describe the client's emotional range and intensity.
Describe the client's ability to modulate and regulate emotion.
Can this person remember recent and remote events?
What do you think this person feels toward you?
Do you believe this person is open to engagement and attachment with you?
Is this person able to accept differences between his/her needs and those of others?
Describe this person's ethical values.
Is this person able to set short and long term goals?
Describe this person's attitudes toward responsibility to others.
Does this person have a conscience and/or a sense of guilt?
Is this person prone to shame and guilt reactions?
Is this person aggressive and abusive toward others?
Describe the client's relationship style including the quality of her/his relationships with
others, especially close attachments. Are they secure or insecure (avoidant, ambivalent,
disorganized)?
Has this person experienced significant loss?
What is the client's capacity for closeness and ability to trust? If not, what prior experience has
predisposed them to mistrust and distance?
Is this person able to elicit the responsiveness of the other?
Does this person feel like she or he can effect changes in life (i.e. sense of efficacy)?
Is this client excessively focused on him/herself to the exclusion of others?
Describe this person's characteristic defensive style (i.e. denial, blaming others, blaming self,
repression, dissociation).
Describe this person's characteristic coping style (i.e. somatizer, meds oriented, activity
oriented, flexible or rigid, isolation and withdrawal, etc.).
Client's Self-Reflexive Attitudes

Describe your feelings about yourself, your self-image and self-esteem.
Describe the way others see you and is there consistency between your image of yourself and
how others see you?
Describe your experience of being alone with yourself.
How stable or variable is your self-esteem and sense of efficacy?
How stable or variable is your mood?
Are you able to feel empathy for others?
Can you use your close relationships to feel better when you are down?
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What kind of situations make you feel vulnerable?
Therapist's Self-Reflexive Attitudes

Describe your feelings about being with this person and your impressions of this person.
Describe your thoughts about this person.
What kind of emotions did you experience during your time with this individual
(countertransference)?
Was the majority of the session flowing and comfortable or was it awkward and stilted?
Are you open to engagement with this client?
Think about your own background and early relationships including your primary
attachments, as well as your family, cultural, religious, and political life and the ways in
which these experiences might intersect in both complementary and conflictual ways with
those of the client's to create potentially problematic areas of relatedness, and areas of
potential for empathetic understanding.
Do you understand that the "truth" about the client is a mutual construction that is always
interpretive or do you believe you have "answers" for this client's problems?
In what ways do you influence this client?
In what ways does the client influence you?
What do you see as your role with this client (i.e. that of expert or curious witness and
listener)? Do you believe the client sees you as the expert?
Your language and tone of voice communicate values, criticism, positive regard, moral
attitudes and sensibilities. What do you believe you communicated, for the most part, to your
client?
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Matrix for Biological/ Psychological Current Diversity Contextual
Assessment Developmental Factors and Past Factors Socio-
134
and Factors Systemic/ Cultural
Formulation Familial Factors
Factors
Precipitating
Factors
Predisposing
Factors
Perpetuating
Factors
Protective
Factors
(including
exceptions to
the problem)
Constructivist/
Relational
Factors
Appendix II: Matrix/Grid for the Formulation of the Presenting Problem

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Final Assignment
Faruk Arslan
SK500 Human Growth in Context
Instructor: Michelle Skop-Dror
Due date: November 27, 2012
Agency Name: Hope For A Future Home
Client name: Bahar Sahin
Dates of Assessment: January 21, 2012, March 17, 2012 and August 5, 2012; I’ve met with the
client, gathered data three times from her, and have gained sufficient information.
(I’ve changed all the names, addresses and other identifying factors to protect the client and
respect our confidentiality agreement)
Address: 500 Apple Avenue, Toronto, ON M21 2M4
Tel: (Home) 416-555-5500 (W): N/A (Cell): N/A
D.O.B: August 2, 1987
Introduction
Since January 2010, I have been working as a RSW and Director of Interfaith Affairs at
Intercultural Dialog Institute, a Toronto-based organization, and have been working for interfaith
and cross-cultural institution programs and a consulting service. I have provided everyone with
an opportunity to develop their interest(s) to channel their energy toward constructive activities; I
did this work to build positive relationships between diverse communities. I have been in charge
of a multi-faceted role; as a counselor, I have met with Aygun Kurbanova and later on Bahar
Sahin, who were walk-in clients who asked for help. In the beginning, my manager requested
that I work with Aygun, who was Bahar’s high school friend, in order to collect reliable data and
take action if necessary. Aygun was a referral source I had taken up as a client for my agency,
giving me the specifics about Bahar. Aygun first called my agency and talked directly to the
supervisor about Bahar’s condition, as she was a client who didn’t want to go the police or to any
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other agencies about her abusive relationship in her family. Aygun arranged an appointment with
me after receiving the guarantee that the agency would be able to counsel her in her own
language and keep Bahar’s information confidential, especially from her husband and the
Azerbaijani Community in Toronto. The agency become involved in this case because the client
didn’t trust anybody and wanted to talk to someone who knew her language, culture and religion,
and therefore would be able to show her the right direction. I have made interviews both with
Aygun and Bahar together several times and I will first provide a comprehensive assessment of
Bahar’s problem and psychosocial history, formulating a diagnosis of Bahar’s issues. I will then
describe my intervention goals, outline an assessment of Bahar’s situation, and thereafter
formulate five factors involved in her case and summarize the intervention plan and treatment
goals.
Bio-psychosocial Assessment
Bahar is an adolescent female who recently migrated through the family union category in the
immigration system from Azerbaijan with her son. During portions of her first year, she
experienced periods of depression, anxiety and loneliness because of her abusive partner. She is
a disconnected person, tired and lacking interest in many of her favorite activities. She has only
one friend, Aygun, and she prefers to stay at home, eat and sleep and not interact with her own
community and other people. Her abusive relationship makes her feel moody, unhappy and
unworthy. Fear and loneliness have impacted Bahar’s life psychologically, economically,
culturally and socially in a number ways, such that she fears losing her son, returning back to her
home country, and regularly being beaten up by her husband. The influence of guilt, anger and
self-blame in her life have never changed because her husband has continued to accuse her of
cheating on him and having a child who is not from him. Bahar and her son have been badly
treated, and alongside each history of violence and oppression they have faced, Azer, her
husband, has also been a heavy drinker and an excessive substance/drug user since their marriage
relationship started. Threatening her is emotional abuse and harms her self-worth by putting her
at risk of serious behavioral, cognitive, emotional, social and mental disorders. Causing the
social isolation of his spouse, exploiting his dominating power in the home, and terrorizing
Bahar and her child verbally and physically have caused a deep trauma in the home and have
proven the abusive nature of Azer. His oppressive behaviour has disconnected her from self-
realization and her individual identity, and locked her within a lonely lifestyle, which can also be
devastating for their three-year-old son, Taleh.
Bahar exhibits symptoms of depression, anxiety and several physical damages on her face, head,
chest, legs and arms. The classical symptoms of depression and loneliness observed on her
include:
• A depressed mood, including compulsive hair pulling and skin pinching;

• Problems with concentration;
• Feelings of worthlessness and guilt;
• Lethargic physical and emotional energy levels;
• Abnormal sleeping patterns;
• A loss of interest in previously enjoyed daily activities;
• Recurrent thoughts of death and suicide;
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• A significant weight gain of twenty pounds.
From a postmodern point of view, there are relational and deeper emotional experiences in their
relationship, whereby Bahar explains that she feels easily distracted, sad and pessimistic, and has
feelings of irritability and other mood disturbances, such as seeing strangers around her and
hearing scary voices. There are severe hallocinations in her life, which are her interpretations of
her bad dreams come to life, such as invisible fairy creatures that always suround her. She has
difficulty making any decision in her life; and she constantly says, “I’m stuck, a dead person,
there’s no life for me.” Out of her anxiety, Bahar avoids eye contact, starts to stutter to the point
that she can’t speak, and shakes her hands violently. In time, Bahar calms down enough to tell
me that Azer beats her every day. She had once called the police, but he had beaten her severely
the day he returned from jail and threatened to kill her son, if she ever called the police again. He
also assured her that he would find her and kill her if she tried to leave him. Bahar had no family
in the area and felt trapped, frustrated and helpless.
Two Theoretical Models
The Self-in-Relation Theory, currently called the Relational-Cultural Theory, and the Self
Psycology Theory have both psychological and sociological implications for understanding
women’s development in case of Bahar. The relational model affirms the power of connection
and the pain of disconnection for women, and states that relationships are both internal and
external, and can also be real and imagined, while intrapsychic and interpersonal perspectives are
central (Aron, 1996, p. 18). Relational-Cultural Theory addresses the importance of relational
exchange and is related to development. It emphasizes on health and elaborates on some of the
most basic feminist principles, since it has “emerged from dialogues about therapeutic
relationships, considering the voices and experiences of women in therapy” (West, 2005, pp. 93,
109). At the practical level, instead of the “self” as a primary focus, the primary focus of
attention is on relational development. Experiences of connection and disconnection are central
issues in personality development, with repeated disconnections having psychological
consequences. Relational theorists are in favour of social constructivism and claim that
knowledge and meaning are created through dialogues, social institutions and interpersonal
negogiations based on context. Jean Baker Miller mentioned that a woman’s path to maturity is
different than that for men. A woman’s primary motivation is to build a sense of connection with
others, and women develop a sense of self and self-worth when their actions arise out of, and
lead back into, connections with others. Connection, not separation, is the guiding principle of
growth for women (Miller, 1986, p. 3). Miller suggests that true connections are mutual,
empathic, creative, energy-releasing, and empowering for all participants (Miller, 1988, p. 5).
Such connections are so crucial for women that women’s psychological problems can be traced
to disconnections or violations within relationships. Mutuality and empathy has different
meanings in Relational-Cultural Theory that both empower women not with power over others,
but rather power with others. After her empirical study, Carol Gilligan observes that “the
disparity between women’s experience and the representation of human development, noted
throughout the psychological literature, has generally been seen to signify a problem in women’s
development. Instead, the failure of women to fit existing models of human growth may point to
a problem in the representation, a limitation in the conception of the human condition, an
omission of certain truths about life” (Gilligan 1982, pp. 1,2).
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Previously, according to Mahler’s attachment theory of separation and individuation, “two
separate individuals are different species,” harm occurs if the need to attach is not met, and
people outside the self are not subject to the awareness of such things as fears and desires
(Mahler, Bergman, 1975, p 44). According to a devolopment model of relating, the couple
(Bahar and Azer) is in the symbiosis-hostile stage, and this dependent system is “dominated by
anger and conflict,” and going through the autistic stage, Bahar never had experienced oneself as
the unique individual one is (West, 2005, p. 10).
Based on Mahler’s application, the symbiosis is the first stage of couplehood, they are being
feeling “madly” in love for attachement that characterized by passion, nurturance and giving
unconditionally to the other. There are mutual nurturance and the agreement to form a couple
leads to a solid foundation. In this stage, differentions emerges on couple’s mental comparison of
different feelings and thoughts in order to the desire to stand out as a unique individual. As a
result, individuals are taken off their pedestals couples may want to spend more time apart that
they emerge from symbiosis by reestablishing boundaries. Developmental goals are autonomy
and individuation as well as rediscovery of individuality. Each partner engages in individual
activities and relationships in the external world. They may not be as empathically attuned to
each other and act more self centered. Power, self-esteem, being worthwhile, increased conflict
arising issues between couple, a healthy resolution of conflict required to maintain emotional
connection while developing themselves. Rapproachmant occurs when each partner looks
towards the relationship for emotional intimacy and comfort after the development of a well-
defined identity.Reemergence of vulnerability could be a case for struggling with “me” vs. “we”
and both intimacy and independence can be threatening. Couple struggles with anxiety and
individual identity can be reduced if the couple has established conflict resolution skills. Mutual
interdependence occuts when integration is attained and the balance of individual growth outside
of the relationship coupled with the belief that they are loved leads to a phase of constancy
(Skop-Dror, 2012). Development of mutual bond based on growth rather than need, so“the
perfect is reconciled with the real and the stage of mutual interdependence is attained” (Bader &
Pearson, p. 11).
This theory is outdated, so the Relational-cultural theory is more applicable now; in fact,
disconnection from others is one of the primary sources of human suffering, the sense of
interconnectedness is crucial for a healthy psychological develeopment instead of the separate
self paradigm (Jordan, 2004, p 47). The Relational-Cultural theory is based on mutual, empathic,
and empowering relationships, which produce five psychological outcomes. All participants
gain: 1) increased zest and vitality, 2) empowerment to act, 3) knowledge of self and others, 4)
self-worth, and 5) a desire for more connection (Miller, 1986, 1997, p. 25). These outcomes
constitute psychological growth for women. Mutuality, empathy, and power with others are
essential qualities of an environment that will foster growth in women.
By contrast, Miller (1997) has described the outcomes of disconnections—non-mutual or abusive

relationships—which she terms a “depressive spiral.” These are: 1) diminished zest or vitality, 2)
disempowerment, 3) unclarity or confusion, 4) diminished self-worth, and 5) a turning away
from relationships. All relationships involve disconnections, times when people feel their
separateness and distance. However, growth-fostering relationships are able to allow
disconnections that, with effort on each person’s part, can be turned into connections. In non-
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mutual and/or abusive relationships, disconnections are not turned into true connections (Miller,
Stiver, 1997, p. 35). Borden (2000) formulates the relational paradigm as is “ongoing effort to
connect biological, psychlogical and social domains of concern, to enlarge conceptions of person
and enviroment, and to deepen appreciation of interactive processes at multiple systems levels”
(Borden, 2000, p. 367).
The Self Psychology Theory has challanged Freudarian Drive Theory by Heinz Kohut, which id,
ego and superego has been replaced and shifted to structural theory and more Interpersonal
theory and relationships. Bowlby’s concepts of attachement focuses on more human relatedeness
on a primary footing of its own and argues that species survival necessitates complexd systems
of behaviour, hierarchically organized through internal control and feedback mechanism
(Bowlby, 1969, p. 23). In terms of reversal means and ends, Fairnbarn also disagreed with
Freudrian libido theories by saying that with a slogan” Libido is not pleasure-seeking but object-
seeking” is crucial (Fairnbarn, 1954; Mitchell, 1988, p. 24). Bowlby and Fairbairn regarded
object seeking and notion of attachement and portrays as an automatic mechanism, the product
of instictive, reflective behavioral systems, theraby Sullivan’s notion of interpersonal field
similar with them and focused connectedness and propel human relationships. Mclanie Klein
develops a reparation model to reflect on human beings are self-conscious, maintain a self-
awareness, self-images, self-esteem, and person’s external world with others and choices play a
significant role (Mitchell, 1988, pp. 28, 29, 30).
Winnicott empahised on coherent and cohessive sense of self that the sense of being a separate
entity is a important a person’s development of his/her own identy and for a cohessive, well-
integrated and balanced self of sense to develop (Winnicott, 1965, p. 47). The “good enough”
holding enviroment exists when mother cares child properly in the early childhood years;
however, failing the respond occurs to the child result in chronic disorder to self in later life
(Winnicott, 1965; Kohut 1977).
The Interpersonal theory of the self seeks to understand the interaction between intrapsychic,
dynamic and interpersonal relationship from birth onward individuals relate to other people and
form of attachement. The self is at the centre as the initiator and organizer of the experience, in
which the self is driven by ambition, ideals, and the need for recognization. In order to
understand he power of the situation in the person, every individual has connection to internal
world of relations betwwen self to others that are soothing, and there are complex realities and
external relationships with other. The self can be understood through empathy rather than insight
to self is as social construct (Skop-Dror, 2012). Boundries are critical in the growth and the
integration of psychological life where the cohessive self-center is the health self which derived
from experiences in relationships with self objects in person’s internal and external worlds. Self
objects are a source of mirroring, giving the self what it needs in order to energetic and
cohessive, every individials has similar to feel at one with others, examples would be emulated
from others with interactions (Kohut, 1977). Benjamin (1988), Stolorow, Brandchaft and
Atwood (1987) have been brough the concept of intersubjevtivity and empahasis on the self
develops in relation and connection to other selves on the psychic world of individuals who
interaact each other constantly (Atwood, Stolorow, 1997). Benjamin (1988) argued we need to
negogiate and relate others with objects of our own need in order to contexualize separation and
individuation, connection and mutuality happen at the same time ” (Benjamin, 1999, p. 186).
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Therapists are no longer neutral with her/his subjective understanding to “recognize others in
return-mutual recognition” (Berman 1997; McLaughlin, 1991). In this psychodynamic
psychological model, I would use the narrative thearpy intervention and formulation to focus on
meaning and understanding of client’s perspectives. Bahar’s assesment of ego strengths and
functions haves diffrent degree of regresssion, stability, variability in the situtation context, her
nature of needs and internal capacities depends on the relation to the conditions of the
surrounding enviriment (Goldstein, 1995, pp. 70,71).
A Formulation of Integrating Two Theories
Presenting Problem
The client’s marriage was an arranged married; there is no evidence of major mental illness in
her family history or developmental syndromes from her childhood. However, her post trauma
stress and mood changes from time to time after having given birth to her son added on to her
marital dilemma. Her son had never been hospitalized nor had any serious illness; even though
she herself went to hospitals several times for her physical problems. Her childhood was healthy
and regular, and her relationships with her relatives were fairly good until her marriage, which
ultimately led to her separation from her own family members. Her teachers and peers described
her as a shy person who never had experienced violence before. Bahar, after her marital
traumatic experiences, claimed that she sees and hears things that are somehow related to her
cultural beliefs and her dreams; on the other hand, her impairment of reality was not present
visibly, and her thought flowed as fragmented pieces and was incoherent. There is no disturbance
of consciousness nor is there disorientation in her way of thought; however, there are severe
evidences of depression, including anxiety, frustration, excessive feelings of guilt and shame, the
lack of energy, inability to concentrate, sleeping too little and eating too much. She had planned
for a suicide, as the thought of death and the strong feeling of unworthiness were beginning to
overwhelm her. She displays a capacity of empathy for others, as well as self-empathy, self-
reflection, insight, and introspection and she acknowledges the other person’s point of view.
Bahar had difficulty identifying her inner emotional states such as expressing her emotions
verbally and acting somatically. She never had sexual satisfaction from marriage, neither through
intercourse nor orgasm; she is shy to express herself to her husband about sexuality and her
disappointments. She is open to engagement and attachment to me because I have actively
listened to her problems, I didn’t judge her by any of her feelings, and she was comfortable to
talk with me in three sessions. She didn’t have the ability to trust others or the capacity for
closeness, or the choice to put some distance between any person because of her husband’s
accusations, blames and prejudices. She has still a sense of guilt and shame in herself, is not
aggressive toward others, and feels responsibility toward only her son. She has a rigid and
isolated personality type and character, excessively focuses herself on her son and tends to
attempt excluding herself from others. People can often feel isolated and disconnected from
relationships when faced with problem, and ready to make commitment with somebody else help
(Morgan, 2000, p. 85).
Precipitating Factors:
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There is considerable evidence if events in the past which are likely to create Bahar’s
vulnerability. These includes physical abuse, family disintegration, family violance, an alcoholic
and substanse user husband, financial problems, loss of contact with her father and loss of
contact with the cultural network and spiritual life. Bahar has changed from a bright, capable
young female to someone with multiple experiences of loss, failure of disintegration, which
could have shifted her sense of security from a relatively secure one very eraly in her life to
much more insecure and anxious attachment style now (Crittenden, 1998). The client was
married in early age and gave birth when she was 19. Her overburden of responsibility in her
early life stage and the psychological hardships of being a mother is related her depression
because she has always felt herself to be lonely and sad. She was isolated from her own family,
forced to adapt her husband’s family for two years and her husband locked and isolated her from
life in Toronto. Formation of self identity, racial and ethnic idenity is problematic. She has
difficulty communicating with others, and has only one friend, Aygun, who states that she is a
shy person and hard to make friends with. She has no choice to prefer, always stays alone, and
doesn’t have any type of support from any family members. Out of a set psychological mood,
she states that she often sleeps at home a little and eats a lot when angry and depressed. Azer has
been unemployed since immigrating to Canada, and not having a job increases his frustration and
introduces anger into his personal relationship that would otherwise be supportive, according to
Aygun’s opinion. Bahar accepts and internalizes responsibility for the violence because the
abuser has convinced her that she is to blame as a familial and socio-cultural factor. The client’s
abuser is overly controlling in their relationship and there are severe power inequalities that exist
in their current and past family situation, a familial factor that led to Bahar’s present situation.
She economically depends on her husband, and historically this factor impacted the client’s
decision to stay that long with her obnoxious husband. Bahar grew up in a home where
witnessing violence between her parents was a way of life and there is nowhere to escape this
cultural fact, as the diversity and socio-cultural factor determines the patriarchal role in the
customs of her culture. The family feels overwhelmed, threatened and inadequate when the
couple has lost their important and supportive connection with the Azerbaijani community in
Toronto.
Predisposing Factors:
Social inequalities and opression exists based on race, gender, sex, ethnicity class in the Bahar’s
world, and she is unable to access resources such as money, status and power (Williams and
Watson, 1988, p. 292) According to the client’s information, Azer assaults and asserts power and
control over his partner, and attempts to isolate Bahar. Physical abuse is seen and observed on
Bahar’s body, although biologically her husband depends on alcohol and introduced defects to
their relationship from the very beginning. Their relationship is symbiotic-hostile, as he is stuck
with alcohol and apologizes every time when he shows his aggression. There is the masculinity
of men and power struggle issues present, domestic violence functions in this case as a means of
which the role of women within customary society is rendered weak, even if the woman is
economically dependent or not, such as in Bahar’s position. The self psychology of Bahar would
be consistent with expresses emotion theories which suggest that high levels of negative feelings
and hostility can trigger psycotic episodes and Bahar’s paranois symptoms such as hallonications
(Leff and Vaughn, 1985, p. 10). The post-structural psychoanalytic position create “the
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production of individual subjectivity (sense of self), feminine identity, and society” (Philip,
2006, p. 404).
There is no objectivity with one-sided information, for instance when two close friends give
narratives on their own perspectives to tell the story, even when different sources aren’t available
to confirm or justify that data accrued. Bahar depends on her husband economically, but a
culture of silence reinforces the stigma attached to the victim rather than condemning the
perpetrator of such crimes. She may become confused and angry, withdraw herself from others,
and suffer and hide physical injuries such as minor cuts, scratches and bruises. Psychologically,
Bahar has low self-esteem and finds it difficult to trust others; her anger and stress may lead to
her imminent state of depression and other emotional dysfunctions, leading to suicidal thoughts
as she had experienced. An abused child, Taleh, may grow up not to trust other people, get into
relationships with an aggressive mode and temperament and be afraid to have an intimate
relationship if he grows up in an abusive environment. Both parents are from the same culture
and religion; however, their marital relationship is lacking support systems and trust because of
her husband’s jealous character and violent behaviour. He exhibits harmful behaviour regarding
his health like excessive alcohol abuse, putting both Bahar and Taleh at risk in their Canadian
sociocultural context. Canada doesn’t allow this couple to raise their child in such a hostile
position.
Perpetuating Factors:
Bahar’s problems are likely to be maintained by her low self esteem, her negative beliefs about
herself and her insecure attachment style. Her view of herself as inadequate, failed and ill is now
likely to be maintained by her position as a ‘psychiatric patient’. Bahar in in-environment
perspective informs by ecological systems, which my holistic, multi-level of relational
assessment focuses on issues of diversity, oppression, and strengths (Coady, Lehman, 2010, p.
92). Azer is a jobless newcomer, a low-skilled and uneducated person with a lack of English
fluency, similar to his wife’s condition. His employment position and substance and alcohol
addictions maintain the problem being presented, and they label his acts of domestic violence
and his accusation of his wife’s cheating on him as a provocative effect to break down this
marriage. Azer dependences on drug and alcohol and not using any medication. The
psychological factor may be persistent when it comes to primitive defense mechanisms of
masculinity and repetitions of a destructive relationship when he constantly uses his power on
her physically (Weerasekera, 1993, p. 354). The object-relation theory states the complex
relationship of self over other that can be helpful to understanding Azer’s position of having
undertaken power to abuse his position as father and head-of-family, taking a superiority position
over his wife and son. His jealous behaviour seems traditionally and culturally accepted in both
the diversity of cultures and their socio-cultural factor of Azerbaijani customs. Bahar is having
delusive, moody, flat and persistent, narrowing thoughts, due to the fact that she is stuck with her
gender role and feels frustration and rage, while her husband undergoes unpredictable behaviour
as the past and current systemic familial factor. Her powerlessness over the situation and her
gender role combined make her feel diminished and too weak to make amendments in her
situation and confront it correctly or powerfully enough. Their chemistry may not match, they
may not know one other in order to sympathize; however, she has no power and is economically
dependent on her husband, while on the other hand divorce is an unacceptable decision in
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Azerbaijani culture that her family will never be accepting towards. They may not ever welcome
her to their house again when she returns to her own home, according to my client Aygun and
Bahar herself. The familial and socio-cultural factors thereby both play a role in this situation
and show that her depression may lead her to suicide if she will lose her son. Her dignity has
already been traumatically trampled on and her humiliation seems to be permanently engraved
into her conscious. There are combination of factors maintain the problems of depression and
loneliness such as social support, disadvantages of power relation with her dominant cultural
values, gender equalitity, and involement of acitivities are lowest (Ghuman, 1999).
Protective Factors:
She was born in a Muslim culture and belongs to the religion of Islam, within the sect of Jaferi,
Shia. Suicide is forbidden in Islam and the person who commits suicide is destined to go to hell.
Suppose a person is suffering from a severe case of depression, anxiety or some other mental
disease and cannot go to hell even if the person commits suicide because a depressed person is
not in full control of his/her senses (Munir, 2008, p 3). The Prophet Muhammad is reported to
have said, ‘‘None amongst you should make a request for death, and do not call for it before it
comes, for when any of you dies, he ceases [to do good] deeds and the life of the believer is not
prolonged but for goodness’’ (Muslim Ibn Al-Hajjaj, 1955, p. 2065). Suicide in Islamic law is
intentional self-murder by the believer. Bahar is not a religious person, but she believes in God
and Islam is still a serious protective factor for her. During the interview, Bahar mentioned that
she doesn’t want to go to Hell and wanted to learn more about God, who may help her. She
wants to connect with her own community in Toronto and spend some time at any national and
religious holidays with community members. Bahar speaks with her mother on the phone every
week, and she misses her mother a lot. Bahar had explained that she has a stronger emotional
connection to her mother than her father and three brothers because a female cannot contact with
any male persons and talk openly on any issues with their relatives according to Azerbaijani
culture. She relies on only her high school friend Aygun, who is single and has connections to
the Azerbaijani community in Toronto. In her culture, a woman’s role is defined by her capacity
to nurture, have and bear children, as well as take care of her husband carefully like a baby for a
lifetime. Bahar experiences only great pleasure celebrating the Nevruz holiday with her
husband’s friends in her house and makes special Azerbaijani deserts and food for every March
21. Her son is her protective factor and she apparently lives for him and his well-being. Losing
him is comparable to death for her. According to Bahar’s explanation, Azer doesn’t want divorce
and displays care and concern about his family which perhaps indicates potential for forming a
therapeutic alliance in the future. However Azer was not able to tell his family about his
abussive relationship, and adapted a strategy of keeping things to himself and worrying them but
they are already stretched to the limit and Bahar wants separation. Given Bahar’s traumatic
experiences to date, it seems likely that Bahar may need time and feel safe and to have strategies
in place for how to manage Azer and get help when she needs it. Action orientated techniques
might wait until mutual, empathic, and empowering relationships produced betwwen partners
(Johnstone, Dallos, 2010, p. 165).
Constructivist/ Relational Factor
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Bahar had been witnessed and the victim of domestic violance. She has left her family in early
age and had a child without completing her human growth and development stages emotionally
and psychologically. She thinks that her son is not safe and can not rely on own parents to
protect and comfort her. Bahar can only rely on herself. Her family relationships is lacking.
Talking is dangerous and leads to more violence, and her parents will not satify her needs. She
has a lack of knowledge about legal rights, potential criminal consequences, and community
resources for spousal abuse. A language barrier prevents the victim from seeking assistance that
is available in the community and from the Children’s Aids Society, family shelters or other
government or not-profit social assistance organizations. Fear of deportation (her husband was
her sponsor) and her weak status as an immigrant compared to a Canadian citizen also dissuade
her from undertaking protective measures from assault and seeking assistance that the criminal
justice system can offer. Bahar was visibly anxious, said nothing unless spoken to, and avoided
eye contact. After interviewing her and discussing an issue calmly with the client’s language, I
was provided with more information about her inside feelings and the history of abuse. There are
possible surviving oppourtunuties in Canada as she felt sentiments of safety and security with me
and was able to explicitly describe to me her inner feelings. She was hospitalized two times, due
to physical harm by her husband. She went to the hospital with her friend Aygun, who translated
to the doctor and police that she fell from the stairs. The client came to the agency with a black
eye, bleeding nose and lips, and a small cut in the head. She used anti-depression pills and
Tylenol 3 for headaches and backaches. Bahar moved from the abusing relationship to safehaven
now. Attachment and relational narrative approach takes this furtherby considering how this
family crisis is resolved. Bahar’s narrative skills may have been underdeveloped, had little
experiences of discussing her emotions and feelings with others. A narrative talking cure
methods may helpful and strip away her defensive strategy of avoiding painful suicidal thoughts
and thought of danger, abondenment, lack of comfort and rejection.
In the Postmodernist discourse, she needs to reconstruct her reality and change her abussive
relationship patterns and rescue herself from torture and punishment. Oppresseed person
sometimes defend oppressors and stuck in between a hate-and-love feelings. Foucault describes
about how a victim is confused about horror, for example, a shame may be inflicted on both the
executioner and victim and condemn the victim into pity and glory. A trauma arises that brings
about a hate-and-love relationship, even while a punishment often turns the legal violence of the
executioner into shame (Foucault, 1995, p. 9). Bahar’s husband has the idea that men are
inherently superior to women, and what a man decides, wants, needs, and believes is more
important than what a woman decides, wants, needs, or believes. Bahar needs to discover the
true self and reconstruct her identity.
Intervention Recommendations
The flexible use of a problem-solving process needs to provide structure and guidance to work
with clients collaboratively. First of all, I recommend the solution focus model because of
emercency condition of Bahar’s and her son’s safety needed a concrete goal implication
urgently. The first goal is Bahar’s and her son’s security. She needs to move out, and leave her
husband right away that’s why I asked Bahar to talk with a representative of a woman’s shelter
on my office phone with my translation. The client agreed to go to a family shelter with Aygun’s
help. The Children’s Aids Society was also informed about the client, her son, and their situation
145
in the home. The experience of dealing with spousal abuse case and helping the victim is one that
gets into the victim’s life and intervenes in order to present an otherwise impossible solution.
Through direct counselling, I helped a client to identify her real concerns, provide concrete
information, help her to consider further solutions with the narrative therapy with intervention
goals, and find resources that will provide further assist her in the future. She has been through a
painful process; first confrontation, as well as anger, resentment, guilt and shame, which
characterise the condition of “the true self” (Kohut, 1977). As a counselor, I could give free
space to her as co-author in order to recreate her story, talk positively to empower clients, and
encourage her for her survival. Using the narrative therapy, which provides me an useful
formulas to devoid of any form of domestic violence over women and children. Cultural beliefs
may relate to her problem. After building a healthy trust relationship with my client, I was able
to ally with my client to focus on a non-violent enviroment for her and support, “back up her by
deconstruct her particular ideas, beliefs and principles” (Morgan, 2000, p. 45).
Early-Phase Goals:
1. Create opening and space for Bahar’s story to be told.

1. Provide an open, inviting space for for Bahar’s story to be verbalized.
2. Maintain a sene that Bahar is the privileged author of her story while I am as a co-
author of her story.
3. Ask about Helen’s life before marriage, listening strenghts, interests, and a sense
of identity apart from the marriage.
4. Ask questions to clarify meaning and ensure understanding of Bahar’s
perspectives.
5. Situate myself in relation to client age, culture, gender, and so on.
6. Begin listening for openings and unique outcomes in Bahar’s problem-saturated
story.
7. Obtain a rich description of Bahar’s life and identity since the marriage, after
which depresion and loneliness have been dominant; then identity possible
alternative and preferred account of her life and identity.
1. Begin the externalization process by inuiring about when Bahar is not
taken over by the depression and loneliness.
2. Inquire about she was before the marriage. Obtain rich account of what
she did and how she viewed herself.
3. Use relative-influence questioning to map the influence of the depression
and loneliness in her life and relationships. Then map the influence of
Bahar to identify times when she resisted the depression and loneliness,
thereaby further opening space forv externalization.
4. Begin externalizing depression by presenting externalizating questions and
allow her to discover contexts, things in order to avoid depression take
over.
5. Begin to identify unique outcomes and times when depression and
loneliness were not a problem, while ensuring these are preferred
experiences.
Middle-Phase Goals
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1. Reduce the effect/influence of depression and loneliness in Bahar’s life by encouraging a
proactive stance.
1. Use externalization language and questions to separate Bahar from depression and
loneliness and help her to see how she interacts with each of them.
2. Map the effect of depression and loneliness on the client and have her map how
she has affacted the lives of depression and loneliness. Identify specific strategies
that have helped her to be in charge her problems.
3. Check in weekly about her progress in taking a stand against and outsmarting
regarding depression and loneliness.
4. Use letter writing to document her progress and respond to setback about her
depression and loneliness.
5. Thicken plot of Bahar’s active identity, focusing on new possibilities she may not
have considered since her marriage broke down. Work with Bahar to identity
ways to move toward enacting her preferred account of herself and her life.
1. Identify a time before the marriage when she felt sehe was living a active
life. Plot this unique outcome in the lanscape of action and inquire how
Bahar was able to do this; plot the story in the lanscape of consciousness
by inquiring about the meaning this abussive relationship holds for her and
her future.
2. Each week identify small steps Helen was taken to enact her active and
preferred life narrative.
3. Inquire about how the abussive relationships has changed her view of
herself, and interpretted her suicidal though and mean how she was closer
to death.
4. Introduce and invite reflecting teams to expand Bahar’s viw of her
situation.
5. Invite audince to witness the emerging alternative narrative, possibly
Bahar’s close friend Aygun.
Late-Phase Goals
1. Restory personal identity to make sense of age and loss of motion in a way that creates a
greater sense of autonomy and living.
1. Invite her friends in to witness new account and discuss implications for her life
and her son.
2. Have Bahar link prior life history, her abussive marriage and future accounts.
3. Ask Bahar questions to extend her new narrative into the future and explore new
interpretations of specification of her family expectation.
4. Invite a reflecting team to generate new prespective on her situation.
5. Identify significant rituals, activities, and tradition in community services.
6. Bahar’s preferred self-narrative, such as involvement in community services.
7. Identify strategies for sustaining an active life and define preferred narrative.
1. Send Bahar a letter changes she has made. Advise her about journaling.
2. Help her to identify how to create and maintain support from family,
friends.
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3. Have her list out the mst succesful strategies for fighting off depression
and loneliness.
4. Have her identify the actions that are most closely assiciated with living an
active life and speficity how she can continue with these (Gehart, Tuttle,
2002, pp. 228, 229, 230).
Relevant Critique of the Thories and Intersubjective Observations
As a matter of fact, I felt often helpless emotionally; especially because some conflicted areas
create potential problematic situations when we are talking about her sexuality and deeper
emotions. I have critically examined the client’s socio-cultural environment and shown my
subjective perspective, which may have been more empathized than the psychological factor in
this case. My empathetic understanding of the present problem is clear to me, although I would
have an answer for the client with my own biases; however, the truth about the client is
changeable in time. She may return to her husband in the future. Two theories aren’t enough to
contextualize and comphrhensive understand issue. The Feminist theory is also useful to
understand Bahar’s condition as a social theory. The intersectionality of race and gender has
been impacting on domestic violance, especialy women in colour. The intersectionality
experience within Muslim coloured women is more powerful than the sum of their race and sex,
that any observations that do not take intersectionality into consideration cannot accurately
address the manner where minority women are subordinated. She has never heard of feminism,
“yet the project of feminism is far from restricted to women” both in developed and so-called
Third World countries (Weedon, 1999, p. 178).
As a counselor, I need more collaboration, time and alliance with the client, as mutual
construction sometimes is interpretive, non-objective and more subjective. Immigrants,
especially first generation immigrants like Bahar, find themselves isolated from the support and
counsel of family and friends that were left behind. Due to geographical isolation and financial
constraints, the victim is trapped in the home, as there is nowhere else to turn. Her socio-cultural
environment is oppressing and impacting her negatively.
Bahar can progress through stages of normal development but conflicts occur when couples are
unable to separate in order to complete the developmental stage that is referred to as the
“separation and individuation phase” (Bader, Pearson, 1988, p. 245). The symbiosis-hostile
dependent system seems to be applicable in this case because the couple is still in the first stage
of intimacy and forming a trust relationship; they need more time to understand their
differentiation and unique individuality. This will be progressed, well-defined and identified in a
long period of time only when the couple observes each other’s behaviour and character, and
thereby rediscover their external world and lean toward emotional intimacy before reunion.
Bahar needs a long perido time to cope with problem and her husband will be invited to session
if she will approve and comfortable to deal with him. This domestic violence is associated with
financial disparities, power inequalities and disconnections to any influences of laws, as is the
case with uneducated women and couples. I was able to cope with this situation because of my
past familial, cultural, religious, and political experiences in Azerbaijan. I am able to talk the
Azerbaijani language, comfort my client with my sense of humour, and share my personal story
about my wife being Azerbaijani, which would help me make my client feel familiarity with me
148
in order for her to present her problem openly. I am very sensitive with issues of domestic
violence, however, it was hard to calm down my voice to take care of the case very carefully.
Though this case had affected me deeply and reminded me that my role as an expert and an
active listener is very important in solving such cases as this one.
Summary
In summary, I’ve completed the Matrix/Grid for the formulation of the presenting problem (See
appendix), provided a interventian and treatment plan. I focus on Bahar’s desires, intentions,
preferences, values, beliefs, hopes, personal qualities, commitments, plans, and so on in order to
the deconstruction of client’s ideas, beliefs and principles. I follow the narrative model and use
the formulation of factors. Bahar’s pat and current relational, cultural experiences and the false
self identity shape how she manages distress and loneliness, including her ability to place these
experiences into narratives. During the therapy, her meanings about her past experiences would
be crucial and may shift in a new way of understanding, and these changes can help her to think
about the past, herself and the future in different ways. That narratives which Bahar and her
family hold take place within a wider social-cultural context which can include ideas about
relations and gender expectation and cultural differences about emotional expressiveness. A
revision of her story with separation her problem fron the self may develop some different
relational and interpersonal narratives which might free her from her overwhelming sense of
inadequacy and worthiness. This intervention gives a greater weight in formulation to meaning
making and our power to re-story as co-author of her story to her past is typically the case in
early systemic solution. I offer formulations tentatively, bring my values and own assumptions in
the formulation, my construction of formulations was collaborative, and aware of the need to
reformulate base on the client feedbacks and needs in the future.
In conclusion, post modern thinking has been challanged modernist theories and reconstructed
ideologies, assumptions in the late post modernity era since the 1990’s. Psychoterapy has
effected from postmodernity in a positive ways by increasing pace of change and technological
advances, instant access to information and comsuption. The Relational Cultural and the Self
psychology, and the interpersonal theories have considered concerns about objectivity, truth,
power, and control, uncertainty, risk, and fragmentation, complexity, diversity. The true self has
overlapped with the influence of the media, emergence of multiple realities and truths. As a
matter of fact, reality and knowledge have constructed through language in a contructivist ways,
whereas facts are deconstructed by clients and therapists together by using narratives. Client’s
view of world is shown that there are no a single solution, in which some critical pieces of
information may be missing. Problem findings need creativity, which needs to negogiate with
clients collaboratively with dealing with problems that the problem must be separate out from
client, there may be no clear solution or multiple solutions. A person that is operating at this
stage is able to generate many possible solutions to ill-defined problems and to see old problems
in new ways. A problem finding is a clear stage following formaluation while operations, but
that is achieved by only a healthy and trust-based relationships. Componential and contextual
intelligences become more important than experiential intelligence in the psychosocial
assessment and psychoterapy. Therapists must be a person who has ability to come up with
effective strategies to make right decisions with knowing the right behaviour for a specific
situation.
149
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Working With The Aboriginal Youth.
SK 501: Community Interventions: Theory And Practice Essentials.
Final Group Paper Submitted By:
Zinnat Badder Jaffer

153
Gopi Bhattarai
Faruk Arslan
Joseph Emeka
December 6, 2012
Driven from their Tribal lands
By men who plan for war
Into arid lands around them
To hunger, pain and more
Proud in Tribal Legend
On sacred ground they tread
154
Commuting with their spirits
Their totems and their God
So let us raise our voices
In answer to their pleas
To make them equal Citizens
In this country of the free
(Bloodworth, 2012).
The Aboriginal Youth: An Overview
The official perspectives of the situation of the Aboriginal youth barely mention colonizer crimes
such as genocide, racism, discrimination and crimes against humanity in the Canadian history.
As a matter of fact, mmercantile colonialism, Christian missionary work and modernity have
155
collaborated to destroy the Indigenous way of life of the Aboriginal group in general and the
Aboriginal youth in particular, over the centuries. Colonizers, systematically destroyed
naturalistic based thinking, Aboriginal family structures and matriarchy and replaced them with
patriarchy and settler imperatives. It may be necessary for Canada to rewrite Canadian history
and begin resurrecting the ‘silenced’ ones, thereby recognizing the full rights of the First
Nations.
Aboriginal people in Canada – the First Nations, Metis, Non-Status Indians and the Inuit –
number 1.2 million and constitute 3.8% of the Canadian population. The health of Aboriginal
peoples in Canada is inextricably tied up with the history of their colonization by British and
French colonizers. The colonial legacy has infiltrated Canadian legislation such that in the Indian
Act of 1876, for example, which disregarded the land claims of Metis peoples, relocated Inuit
communities, and established residential schools in order to assimilate Aboriginal children
through enfranchisement (Health Canada, 2012). As a group, we will demonstrate how Canada
reflects the West’s distorted view of the First Nations youth, especially with regard to the way
the “Other” is viewed, valued, and treated. This distorted view is manifest in its inability to
recognize the Indigenous tradition. The commonly ingrained discriminatory and racist prejudices
function not only to prevent cross-cultural dialogue, thereby upholding inimical stereotypes, but
also present particular dangers to Western ideas that perpetuate fallacies.
In a holistic and collaborative community intervention model, we will examine the potential of
the Aboriginal traditions and its ability to provide a framework for critical practice in order to
reduce Aboriginal youth struggles, mobilize existing resources, and eliminate or reduce
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oppression and to identify current social, cultural, economic and political disparities and
practices. This framework provides the means to recognize the interconnections between various
forms of marginalization and oppression for Indigenous populations in Canada. We will attempt
to awaken the Aboriginal youth and put them to remembrance, indigenous traditions and ways
and develop creative alternative social work practices that oppose an oppressive power
relationship. Our Aboriginal holistic healing-based model and bottom-up approach for
community mobilization can provide a workable solution to the Aboriginal youth population by
stressing capacity building and inclusion, including efforts to reduce addiction and mental
disorder rates, tackling long-term housing, temporary housing and employment needs as an
intervention to foster social, economic and political inclusion.
Some questions to think about include: How do reparation politics actually contribute to the
larger society’s image of previously mistreated First Nation groups in Canada? Are apologies
sufficient to redeem the health of youth populations that have suffered from mistreatment? Was
the 2007 Reconciliation Plan and its functions strictly performative and includes enough
recompense to Aboriginal youths? Why were Indigenous youth populations excluded from the
reconciliation and reparation process when the community intervention process was being
constructed, and why have the Aboriginal youths been left out in an attitude of hostility and
animosity? The official plan was of course insufficient and did not satisfy the need for healing
experienced by the Aboriginal youths. Stated in more practical terms: how much does the
process of reconciliation help those Aboriginal youths who have been unjustly treated?
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In fact, it is important to identify all of the old and new faces of colonialism that currently
continue to distort and dehumanize Indigenous youths in many ways. The label of “Aboriginal
youth” is seen as a form of silent surrender by “suppressed” nations to an inherently unjust
relationship at the root of the existing colonial “constitutional” settler-state (Bellamy, 2003). This
is the context in which Indigenous youths are forced by the compelling needs of physical
survival to cooperate individually and collectively with the state authorities, ignoring all their
other needs. This is what dependency means, because their resources have to be obtained from
outside sources, eventually leading to their psycho-physical crises and financial dependency on
their colonizers (Alfred, 2009). There are those who identify themselves solely by their political-
legal relationship to the state rather than by any cultural or social ties to their community as a
consequence of their assimilation.The continuing colonial process pulls Indigenous people away
from cultural practices that foster cohesion and purpose in a community life that is autonomous
while at the same time being an Indigenous youth (Alfred, 2005).
Modern ways of thinking have been challenged by post-modernist theories, which have
reconstructed ideologies, and which have questioned assumptions in the late post modernity era
since the 1990’s. The practice of social work has been affected by post-modernity in many
positive ways, such as acceleration in the pace of change, and through technological advances, as
well as instant access to information. The Canadian version of reconciliation, and its healing and
forgiveness efforts, are structured through symbolic metaphors, whereas the “Indigenous
Holocaust” trauma has made a significant distinction by identifying a specific, and not a
metaphoric, perpetrator—the government—which should take responsibility or blame for this
crime against humanity through which Aboriginal youth victims were and are still traumatized.
The Indigenous youths often feel disconnected in their
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relationships with each other, disconnected from their communities, homelands, ceremonial
lives, languages and histories. Yet such connections are crucial to living a meaningful life for
any human being. Recent statistics indicate that the aboriginal youth experienced a higher rate of
unemployment when compared with the average non Aboriginal Canadian youth. Aboriginal
youths suffer from many disorders such as delinquency, alcoholism, drug abuse, out of home
placement, and dropout before high school graduation as well as from suicide rates two to three
times higher than other Canadian youth population.
As a matter of fact, the Aboriginals are seen as a separate entity, possessing their own
sovereignty and therefore not actually part of the ‘modern’ Canadian state’s jurisdiction.
Working on about Aboriginal youth problems are not simply a matter of political correctness and
a matter of only self-determination of health, because the different Aboriginal conditions and
definitions of status contain expressions that are in themselves racist and discriminatory. There
are four explanations to account for the differences between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
groups in terms of their sociobiology, culture, structure and history and these four different
statuses themselves seem to cause greater structural inequality. There are four categories of
Aboriginal peoples in Canada; Inuit, Metis, First Nation, and non-status Indians. These
categories are based on a combination of self-definitions and socio-legal definitions. They are
important because these identities carry certain rights and because they try to express more
authentic ways of being. Measures taken by the federal government in the 1985 amendment to
the Indian Act, in order to correct gender discrimination, have been controversial. Some
Aboriginal leaders claim that the federal government is continuing to pursue a policy of
assimilation through the way that it defines First Nations. There are also controversies within
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First Nation communities about how to define who is a band member (Satzewich, Liodakis,
2007).
After a long struggle, in 1998, after the government apology over the Residential
Schools’ tragic legacy, in 2012 a $350 million fund was earmarked and announced to support
previously established Aboriginal Healing Foundation for community-based projects to back
residential schools healing initiatives (Health Canada, 2012). However, the 2007 Federal
Reconciliation Plan and Community Intervention goals have not met the recommendations that
were set out in the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal People. Many critics maintain that the
“Healing Fund” created by the federal government for former residential school residence is an
attempt to avert lawsuits and claims for monetary reparation. Some argue that in its statement of
reconciliation regarding residential schools, the Canadian government purposefully falls short of
acknowledging its guilt for the grief suffered by Aboriginal peoples. The discussion that comes
out of the process of reconciliation similarlyre-enacts these colonial dichotomies of oppressor-
oppressed, colonizer-colonized (Rymhs, 2006). Currently, Indigenous youths are struggling in a
“politics of distraction” diverting energies away from decolonizing and regenerating
communities (Hingangaroa, 2000).
In summary, a civil, moral, and holistic engagement and empowerment model needs to be
initiated for and with the Aboriginal youth based and organized with a grassroots- altruistic
model such a non-governmental organization. A framework for the aboriginal holistic model
must engage with honoring the past, present and future in interpretive and analytical processes,
including historical references and intergenerational discourse and recognizing the
interconnectedness of all of life and the multi-dimensional aspects of life on the Earth. For the
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community intervention design and implementation, the spiritual, physical, emotional and mental
aspects of the individual, family and group must be considered within the resurrection of cultural
identity, recognizing the issue of stolen land and the cultural trauma. A holistic community
development model should be applicable with mixture of the human-centered
values of the West and the Indigenous way of practices that would lead a holistic model of an
indigenous social ecology, which we suggest as a radical shift from the colonizer ideas to that
which can bring about real economic, social, cultural and political sustainability. It offers non-
violent peaceful solutions which complete the gap between the national state goals of Canada
and Indigenous individuals by providing the answers to ignorance, hopelessness and disunity.
These are the primary objective of efforts to come to terms with our project. Sharing of common
goals with all Aboriginal youth will be achieved through educational, social and cultural
projects, and it can create many sustainable organizations which will be transformed into
revolutionary collective action wherein individuals commit themselves to their work in a micro
community level. To a large extent, institutional approaches to making meaningful change in the
lives of Indigenous people have not led to any form of decolonization and regeneration at this
moment yet. In fact, they have further entrenched Indigenous people in the colonial institutions
they set out to challenge. This is because such macro-level attempts towards reconstituting a
series of ‘strong nations’ are based largely on the backs of a de-energized, dispirited and de-
cultured people. Micro level community intervention might be more effective in achieving
solidarity, considering the present systemic oppression of this group. Change cab happen one
person at a time. You can eat an elephant only if you eat one small piece at a time. Achieving
small rights for individuals is much easier than changing large structures.
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Theoretical context and Social Justice:
Theory is a process of developing ideas that can allow us to explain how and why events occur
(Turner, 2007, p. 4). Having a theory tells the world that we are not haphazard in the way in
which we apply knowledge. Moreover, theories are researchable and testable and
ultimately allow us to discard those aspects shown to be ineffective and build on those aspects
that seem to work best (Neukrug, 2011,)
In this section, we will first try to establish the linkage between theories and their essentiality in
understanding serious issues of Aboriginal youths. Then we will describe four different theories-
Marxism, Trauma theory, Narrative theory and Theories of Empowerment- to explain and
analyze the problems of Aboriginal youths and shed more light on the rationale for the choice of
these theories. First, these theories help us to become systematic in our investigation. Without
these theories, we may not be able explain the real causes and consequences of problems of
Aboriginal youths. We may become subjective of its understanding of the problems if we
attempt to understand them without theories. Second, a social theory (Marxism) provides us the
conceptual framework to analyze the macro factors or systemic factors that are responsible for
exploitation, subordination, oppression and marginalization of Aboriginal youths. Moreover,
Marxism in general also gives voice to these people. There is within Marxism, the possibility of
building a practical relationship with, and a theoretical understanding of, Aboriginal youths and
their own unique revolutionary stages (Bedford, 1994). Similarly, Trauma theory helps us to
build a conceptual framework to analyze micro factors that are responsible for deteriorating their
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condition. Furthermore, Narrative theory helps to bring alternative discourses of Aboriginal
youths on surface (Mullally, 2010). Similarly, theories of empowerment provide a building block
to the concrete ideas of community interventions to deal with issues of Aboriginal youths. Last
but not the least, these theories also guide us to adopt appropriate intervention methods. Our
purpose of selecting these three genres of theories is to explain different dimensions of the same
problems. We firmly believe that a single theory is inadequate to explain the complex issues of
aboriginal people. Law (2004) argues that the world is so rich that our theories about it will
always fail to catch more than a part of it (p. 8). In general, these theories help us to describe,
explain, predict and manage issues of Aboriginal youths.
Marxism
A basic feature of Marxist thought is the use of the dialectic method to analyze social
relations in the material world. In his historical analysis of the development of society, Marx
held that class antagonism and struggle over resources have always been central feature of
society (Robbins, Chatterjee, &Canda, 2012). Menzies (2010) contends that Marxism retains an
incisive core that helps understand the dynamics of the world within which we live. She further
argues that Marxism also provides a theory of political action that has as its end goal the
achievement of a society that respects difference, honours collective relations, and places a
priority on humane relations between people. One of Marx’s principle objectives was to show
how the subsumption of labour to capital, the capitalist colonization of indigenous lands, and the
global spread of market relations were dynamics internal to capitalism and not products of a
“natural” or inevitable progression through transhistorical “stages” of human evolution (Keefer,
2010). Keefer (2010) further writes that Marx’s method emphasized the internal social relations
of accumulation and, especially the ways in which economic surplus was ‘pumped out to the
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direct producers’. According to Marx, “Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the
same time the accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental
degradation, at the opposite pole”. Marx opines that the exploitation of people leads not only to
pauperization but also to alienation and there are three types of alienation: political, religious and
economic (Robbins, Chatterjee&Canda, 2012). Robbins, Chatterjee&Canda further affirms that
alienation is a process by which people become estranged, demeaned, and depersonalized and it
results in self-estrangement and powerlessness.
The aforementioned underpinnings of Marxism, explains the causes of exploitation,
subordination, oppression, suffering and alienation of Aboriginal youths. However, Bedford
(2012) opines that Aboriginal concerns are among the least studied areas of Marxist thought.
Historically, Aboriginal people have ignored or rejected Marxist ideas. However, Muga (1988)
addressed the question of the possibility of forging a link between Marxists and Aboriginal
movements for independence (Bedford, 2012). Muga (1988) further states that
The Aboriginal struggle is by definition ethnic; therefore the key to linking it to
proletarian, class based movements is to combine ethnic and class struggle. She argues
that the conjoining concept is imperialism. Both the proletariat and Aboriginal peoples
are oppressed by trans-national capital in their efforts at achieving self-determination.
The proletariats are oppressed through the control exercised over their labor time, the
Aboriginal peoples by the control exercised over their land (Bedford, 2012).
In both cases capital prevents people from achieving any real autonomy. But the reality is
that ethnic liberation movement takes place when the oppressed peoples are not oppressed as
workers, but rather as possessors of resources who are being dispossessed and marginalized
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(Bedford, 2012). As social workers, our main role is not only to enable Aboriginal youths to
understand and analyze the various facets of systematic oppression but also to help them to cope
with their problems in a united way. From social justice perspective, we have to help them to
recognize all the systematic barriers that generally prevent them to utilize their own resources.
Trauma theory:
Trauma occurs when members of a collectivity feel they have been subjected to a
horrendous event that leaves indelible marks upon their group consciousness, marking their
memories forever and changing their future identity in fundamental and irrevocable ways
(Alexander, 2004).Benabed (2009) contends that in the case of indigenous peoples, trauma is
cumulative, with simultaneous or continuous damages to their psyches. She further writes that
the first was physical trauma, by mass murder and infectious diseases. The second one was
economic, by the violation of their stewardship of the land, and forced removal from their natural
habitat. The third one was cultural, by the compulsive Christianization and the prohibition of
local belief systems. The fourth one was social, by the displacement of tribes during colonial
expansion, which damaged families, altered gender roles, and diminished cultural values. The
last one was psychological, by the marginalizationand impoverishment of indigenous peoples on
their own lands (p.87.).
It is essential to analyze different traumas of Aboriginal youths. This analysis will help us to
explore the deeper meaning of these traumas and to measure the impact of these traumas in the
individual and communal life of Aboriginal youths. Furthermore, Aboriginal youths are also
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suffering from intergenerational grief. Many researchers are now trying to explore the
relationship between intergenerational grief and mental condition of Aboriginal people. As social
workers, community builders and facilitators, we should consider all these aspects of life of
Aboriginal youths. And this consideration will definitely pave the way for appropriate methods
of community mobilizations and pragmatic community interventions.
Narrative Theory:
The term ‘narrative’ carries many meanings and it is used in a variety of ways by
different disciplines, but often it is synonymous with ‘story’ (Larsson &Sjoblom, 2010).
Narrative approaches have primarily been located in the relativist ontological position. From this
position, nothing is deemed to exist outside language. Events, occurrences or even the
boundaries between perceived objects exist only in language (Roscoe, 2009). This theory is
based on social constructionism- the idea that the way people experience themselves and their
situation is “constructed” through culturally mediated social interactions (Shapiro & Ross, 2002,
p.96). Shapiro & Ross( 2002) further contends that language, cultures send powerful messages to
their members about the meaning of important concepts that sustain the culture, including
gender, race, class, and, of course health (p.97.).
Narrative analysis typically takes the perspective of the story teller. When telling a story, the
teller takes the listener to past times, recapitulating what happened then, and there is always the
making of a moral point in the telling of the story (Larsson, 2010).In most of the cases, the
narratives of Aboriginal youths are full of negativities of life. We can find suffering, pain,
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domination, exploitation, violence, trauma, poverty, substance abuse and sexual violence in their
life. Moreover, we can also see the state’s complete negligence in uplifting their social, cultural,
and economic conditions. All these factors, in a cumulative manner, impel them to negative
stories about who they are. As social workers, our role is to help them to debunk this attitude.
For this purpose, storytelling is the first fundamental step. Storytelling, in particular, can heal the
psychic wounds of Aboriginal communities. According to the philosopher Daniel Dennett, “no
matter what atrocities are being narrated, the act of storytelling offers us an implicit narrative of
survival to cling to, a post-trauma perspective with which to identify, and an absolute distinction
between ‘now’ and ‘then’ which cordons off the narrated suffering (Benabed, 2009, p. 88).
Theories of Empowerment:
Empowerment is a word that has been used so often and so widely that its definition has been
contested by many academicians and community practitioners. However, Adams ( 2008) writes
that empowerment refers to the process by which individuals and groups gain power to access
resources and to control the circumstances of their lives(Robbins, Chatterjee&Canda 2012).
Empowerment is a process of transition from a state of powerlessness to a state of relative
control over one’s life, destiny, and environment. This transition can manifest itself in an
improvement in the perceived ability to control, as well as in an improvement in the actual
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ability to control (Sadan, 1997). Sadan (1997) further writes that empowerment contributes to the
discourse on social problems, since it exposes the extent of oppression, discrimination and
stigma in the lives of vulnerable populations, especially in a society with an egalitarian
democratic vision. Empowerment deals with the people’s rights to self-definition, with people’s
critical awareness of their social situation.
The concept of empowerment is central to social work practice. There may be different
approaches on how to empower Aboriginal youths so that they gain power to access resources
and able to control the circumstances of their life. But as social workers, we have to consider
many facets of lives of Aboriginal youths. It is better to start this journey by raising critical
consciousness of Aboriginal youths. Developing a critical consciousness, or consciousness
raising, is the process of increasing awareness of how political structures, personal assumptions,
and unequal distribution of power affect individual and group experience and contribute to
personal or group powerlessness ( cited by Robbins, Chatterjee, &Canda, 2012, p. 87.).
Similarly, we should also maintain a holistic, systematic, and
comprehensive vision of all the issues of Aboriginal youths. In short, we should assist aboriginal
youths in determining goals and strategies to attain empowerment.
Mobilizing Agency & Community Resources in developing an Intervention:
“The Social Work professor needs to stop saying they are applying culturally appropriate
services to Indigenous peoples by simply adapting social work mainstream models, values,
beliefs and standards….the real need is for the professor to affirm Indigenous ways-of-knowing
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and caring for children” (Blackstock, 2009:35).
This section of the paper will focus on the kinds of obstacles that an agency or a social
movement can face while working to mobilize resources so as to alleviate the concerns of
Aboriginal youth, given the present austerity measures imposed by the government, and the
general neo-liberal climate of ‘residual welfarism’ in resolving both current poverty and past
historical injustices (Finkel, 2002). Aboriginal youth are particularly disadvantaged in a number
of areas and their tragic situation is often camouflaged in the mainstream media that usually
appear as national scandals eliciting little more than an emotional response. The imperative now
is to turn this page of ignorance and mobilize support for a more thorough and ‘substantive’
political framework and resource allocation to salvage the situation (Rymhs, 2007).
The specific challenges that need to be addressed are related to substance abuse, namely
alcoholism and drug addiction; high suicidal rates, and general malaise; a general lack of
resources such as housing, healthcare, and education; non-availability of employment and other
economic opportunities, all of which are intensified by an absence of a clear sense of belonging,
an adequate knowledge base, holistic leadership and mentoring programs. Overriding all these
concerns is the need for healing and articulating a new purpose in life, something any significant
intervention must deal with in order to have some level of impact.
One cannot discuss any issue in relation to the plight of the First Nations or Aboriginal
people as a whole outside the context of colonialism and the history of trauma given the impact
of genocidal proportions on their right to live as a culturally distinct group. History is an
important learning ground in the historical materialist framework of Marxism, as it shapes the
forms of class struggle and explains the kind of deprivation meted out on a subordinate class or
group of people by a dominant class, using a hegemonic argument to expropriate and even
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annihilate the oppressed group. The role of the Church’s civilizing mission in setting up the
residential schools, for instance, was pivotal in annihilating a subject people’s culture by
systematically crushing the spirit of the native children, and forcing them to rewrite their “self-
narrative”, as our choice of theories further suggests.
This period of trauma is in fact the genesis of the plight of the Aboriginal youth of today,
as their lack of attachment to their culture and traditions, language and knowledge of healing and
recovery are symptomatic in their listlessness, apathy, substance abuse, suicide and rampant
poverty in all its manifestations. The challenge of empowerment in the context of such material
deprivation and dispossession is enormous and will be addressed in this paper as a whole, albeit
in a tentative way. This is so because as an intellectual exercise in proposing an intervention or
resource mobilization, we need to undertake a community-based participatory research with a
select group or ‘tribe’ (CBPR-TR) of Aboriginal youth in “an equitable partnership” in order to
arrive at their felt needs or priorities before identifying internal available resources and targeting
external ones (Horowitz et al, 2009). This is based on the assumption that such research will not
just ‘incorporate’ in the way our opening quote suggests, but actually build on the voices, the
ways and the knowledge systems of the indigenous people.
In the event that field research is not within our mandate, this exercise will talk about a
possible intervention proposal in resource mobilization based on innovative partnership models
that focus on some of the more pressing issues to do with the Aboriginal youth. It will also
highlight the problems encountered in finding adequate resources and political will in solving
these issues. We will mainly concentrate on the area of education and knowledge resource
development through research partnerships so as to improve learning outcomes within the
younger Aboriginal population on the understanding that this would be a key to the healing and
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development of a sense of purpose and cultural identity (among the Aboriginal learners) within
an innovative educational system that integrates Aboriginal teaching methodologies, youth
mentoring and leadership training in a holistic and respectful manner.
As the rest of the sections have emphasized, what we are witnessing is an ongoing cycle
of post-colonial trauma that we need to break in order to make some headway in resolving the
more concrete, material issues of impoverishment of a people as reflected in the alienation of its
youth. To adopt a deeper chronological lens, we need to start with the deprivation of Aboriginal
youth before we can begin to discuss the subsequent problems of a traumatized youth. From
what we know of the residential schools’ tortured history, the casualties resulting from this
period are enormous (Arnette, 2008). We also know from Indigenous research archives
(Blackstock, First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, 2009), that a certain
confidential government report in 1966 (Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, Canada)
estimated that 75% of the children in the residential schools at that time were from homes
“which, by reason of overcrowding and parental neglect or indifference are considered unfit for
school children.”(Blackstock, UNICEF, 2009). This legacy of exclusion from basic and universal
educational processes at the time has become the cultural backdrop in discussing the lack of
adaptability and performance of Aboriginal students currently in schools. These tend to foster
inattentive teaching methodologies in relation to the needs of this sub-group that also result in
peer practices such as bullying and intimidation within and outside the classroom.
Identifying and responding to the specific needs and aspirations of Aboriginal learners
means valuing their collective intellectual traditions and identities as Aboriginal Peoples. In
order to assist in improving teacher-based pedagogies oriented towards the needs of Aboriginal
learners of all age-groups as well as improve learning outcomes for younger Aboriginal learners
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(schools all the way to Colleges, etc.). This needs a collaborative partnership with academic
institutions and other professional bodies whose overarching philosophy and mission statement
will enable long-term resource transfer and support, funding and political commitment to the
underlying ethos of such a joint venture. A model such as the one adopted by a consortium of
over a hundred institutions including the University of Saskatchewan through its Aboriginal
Educational Research Centre is worth emulating in all the main provincial educational hubs to
promote sensitivity and “social justice programming” within post-secondary institutions. The
model is instructive for the kind of interest and mobilization it generated among academics,
educational and language centres, Aboriginal communities, business and other professional
groups, including philanthropic bodies and individuals across the country.
The model is exemplary for the kinds of issues that were highlighted. The initiative
focused on a review of the current educational programs and practices that included individual
teacher practices in specific settings. The themes dealt with the identifying ways in which
Indigenous knowledge could be integrated into classrooms and schools, while “providing support
to students through mentorship programs, learning about the ongoing effects of colonization
and racism, and building relationships with students, communities, and parents” (
Emphasis mine; AERC, University of Saskatchewan et al, 2008: 4) . Although the aim was the
development of initiatives that would lead to improved educational outcomes based on barriers
that are unique to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit students, it provides a template for resolving
similar issues for other cultural groups currently facing marginalization in Canada as a whole.
The Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre (ABLKC) which is pioneering this initiative
at the community level is one of five knowledge centres established in various learning domains
by the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL). The presence of such institutions in every province
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is critical if the application of lessons learnt from collaborative research is to be realized. As
suggested above, funding has to be provided by the Federal Government, specifically through its
Aboriginal Healing Foundation that was initially set up in 2008 through the endowment of a
$350 million. This is a resource that can be mobilized for a wide array of learning and healthcare
issues that translate into an etiology of ‘causes and effects’ that are related to the present
‘disease’ and trauma syndrome manifest among the Aboriginal youth and families at this
juncture. In fact these are the carry-over effects of trauma that have been expressed through the
intergenerational cycle, and which needs to be arrested before the next generations of the
Aboriginal population perish. This eventuality is almost inevitable given the recurrent theme of a
‘demoralization’ narrative that we often hear in the accounts of actual sufferers who have luckily
‘turned the corner’ because of unique circumstances (Absolon, Wholistic Conference, FSW,
October 13-14, 2012).
It is noteworthy that First Nations children in general receive less child welfare funding
than other children in Canada, despite the above context of greater need. The government has
repeatedly failed to address this inequality on the grounds that funding is not a service “so
governments cannot be held accountable under the Canadian Human Rights Act even if they
fund unequally on a discriminatory ground” (Blackstock, 2009). Given this kind of perspective
from the government, it is important to look for other external funding sources, whilst hoping
that the few localized initiatives that are currently in place will generate more interest and
investment from Aboriginal organizations themselves. One such grass root organization that is
headed in the right direction is called the Odawa Native Friendship Centre through its
Dreamcatchers Youth Program based in Ottawa (www.odawa.on.ca). It has a unique Community
Justice Program hosting a range of youth issues such as the Alternative High School programs
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which offer a different setting for those youth who have repeatedly failed in the formal school
system, and for whom age (leading to bullying incidents) has become an issue. These have a
promising scope as they go hand in hand with a thriving counseling program which offers
appropriate referrals for high-risk youth, facilitates individual needs assessment and a plan for
each learner or client, and provides a menu of early intervention activities to assist the youth and
support their individualized program objectives. Some of these activities address poverty-related
and self-esteem issues, including those that concern victimization and peer pressure. With a few
Aboriginal and empathic non-Aboriginal professional staffing, mostly on voluntary basis, the
Centre is able to mobilize sufficient resources to undertake leadership training and solicit
internship programs from non-profit organizations for eligible youth. It also convenes life-skills
programs to tackle problems of substance abuse, gang violence, bullying, and suicide through
linking up with government agencies that can channel some resources to deal with addiction
issues, drug trafficking and prostitution. Counseling for suicidal cases is an important area and
obviously would do well with better funding and capacity building.
One resource for such localized ventures that do valuable work can be the Youth Zone
program under the Ontario Ministry for Aboriginal Affairs. It can serve as an ally and a conduit
for resources that are badly needed for local interventions. It has a data bank that can help with
programming and networking to mobilize further resources. For instance, it shows that 43% of
the Aboriginal youth are under 25 years of age, and may have updated statistics for this
demographic in every region. It features recipients of the Aboriginal Achievement Award and
provides information on how to access educational opportunities, work experience and share
stories of success and personal challenges. The role of healing and learning from history is
highlighted though the governmental approach may be more apologetic or paternalistic in style.
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The point is that the themes for these two organization overlap and one could feed into the other
provided there is a monitoring or oversight committee that can track the usage of resources from
the local Aboriginal side. This could be an example of resource partnership or sharing that can
diversify and become more autonomous as the grass root organization evolves and becomes
more adept at resource mobilization (McCarthy and Zaid, 2001). In this way, it can begin to
transform into a social movement with better resource management and political leadership
(Buechler, 1999) that is able to bargain rationally for economic support within the Canada and
North America, and possibly from global agencies that are supportive of Indigenous populations
elsewhere.
In the meantime, it is important to be proactive and explore other special funds that were
pledged to Aboriginal groups as a result of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission in the wake
of the government apology to the Aboriginal people over the whole tragedy and trauma related to
the residential schools in 2008. Even though the motive of this symbolic apology is suspect
(Rymhs, 2007), it is important to channel every little shred of the meager reparations (apart from
those paltry sums allotted to individual victim families) to alternative systems of schooling so
that this sad episode is able to achieve more fruitful closure. Money has to be channeled to this
worthwhile cause of educating and re-educating the young Aboriginal population so the negative
trends and narratives from the past can be reversed. To do this, there must be more investment in
collaborative research funding, Aboriginal teacher development, educational infrastructural
investment in the reserves and other areas of Aboriginal settlement, the development of
Aboriginal educational curricula and teaching materials, access to printing and other educational
technologies, training and internship linkages with government, NGO’s and philanthropic
business groups, and finally in the growth and proliferation of Aboriginal ‘community justice
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programs’ which will identify health-related welfare, well-being and healing needs for youth at
risk. Proactive planning and material resources must be mobilized in an atmosphere of mutual
trust, empathy and social justice, so as to enhance true equity within the Aboriginal tradition and
ethos of balanced living, and so that there is real hope rather than unrelenting despair for
tomorrow.
Intervention Models:
“Day and night cannot dwell together. The Red Man has ever fled the approach of the White
Man, as the changing mist on the mountain side flies before the blazing sun” (Chief Seattle.
1854). Chief Seattle was the leader of the Suquamish Tribe and whom the city of Seattle,
Washington, United States of America was named after. More than a century and half after the
above profound statement, the Native Indigenous tribes of North America and Canada in
particular still find it difficult to earn each other’s trust. The Indigenous people of Canada, due to
the unacceptable and unprecedented oppression they have witnessed, and still witness as
individuals and as a people, have found themselves on the fringes of society, very far from the
center where the principles of equity, fairness and social inclusion demand that humans be
located.
One of the essential tasks of the social work professional is community intervention
and capacity building which is aimed at tackling, in most cases, socially situated issues that
affects a community and in all cases; these interventions are aimed at promoting, upholding or
restoring social justice, equity and fairness. While several capacity building strategies and
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intervention techniques exist, it must be noted that they are not a “one size fits all” strategies.
Effort must be made to study the context, society, population and policies applicable to the
situation for which an intervention is sought; the final outcome which will be the achievement of
the intended projected outcome becomes the focal point.
In developing an intervention strategy for the Indigenous youth, a brief look at his
history and current contextual situation will be helpful. The aboriginal youth falls under the
same umbrella as the Aboriginal people of Canada. Due to the history of oppression and social
exclusion this group has suffered, there must be a clear focus and determination to build rapport,
trust and engage this population in whatever intervention method is chosen. In a number of
successful interventions applied successfully around the world where indigenous people are
located, the above criteria were expressly formulated into the plan of action and this helped to
achieve a successful outcome. In developing a community intervention strategy for the
aboriginal youth the above must be factored into the planning and execution process. In order to
propose an intervention model that will address the issues of the Aboriginal youth, an initial
assessment will be necessary. Statistics indicate that the aboriginal youth experienced a higher
rate of unemployment that the average non aboriginal Canadian youth. Statistic Canada records
indicate that the unemployment rate increased from 10.4% in 2008 to 13.9% in 2009. From 2008
to 2009, the employment rate for Aboriginal youth (excluding those on reserves) fell by 6.8
percentage points, compared with a decline of 4.2 percentage points among non-Aboriginal
youth. Aboriginal people suffer from suicide rates two to three times that of the general
Canadian population. (Royal commission on Aboriginal peoples, 1995). Many reasons have been
advanced for this disparity including socio- economic disadvantage, geographic isolation, rapid
culture change, with attendant acculturation stress and the oppressive effects of a long history of
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internal colonialism and postcolonial trauma. (Kirmayer,1994). Among Inuit youth in Canada,
the rate of completed suicide is about five times higher than that of non-Aboriginal youth, based
on data from 1987 to 1991. Aboriginal youth experience higher rates of psychosocial disorders,
including delinquency, alcoholism, drug abuse, out of home placement, and dropout before high
school graduation, than other young people in Canada and the United States ( Beauvais, Oetting,
Wolf, and Edwards, 1989).
Furthermore, aboriginal adolescents are disproportionately represented in the criminal
justice system (LaPrairie, 1988; Muirhead, 1981; National Council of Juvenile and Family Court
Judges, 1990). The reasons for the occurrence and sustenance of the above statistics are
informed by the continued marginalization, social, economic and political exclusion and the
overall oppression of this population. An effective intervention model that stresses capacity
building and inclusion must therefore take into consideration, all of the above. It may be
fashioned along the following lines:
Healing: It is a known fact that the Aboriginal population has undergone, and still undergoes
diverse levels of systemic oppression. The first leg of an intervention may be to foster holistic
healing. (A.Nickson et al. 2009) posits that earlier attempts to initiate healing has often been
unsuccessful, partly because practitioners were not sensitive to the cultures and traditions of the
tribes and communities they were working with. In other words, to foster healing, the non-
indigenous practitioner must partner with the Aboriginal youth and understand from the
standpoint of the youth, what needs to be done, to bring about healing. From experience, the
attempt to foist upon them, a healing method that revolves around counseling has been a colossal
failure simply because we have failed to come to a realization that we are not the experts in their
own affairs. They are the experts and we must follow their lead, to reach a pre-determined goal
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which is that of healing. The success recorded by Nungeena and SCOPE, working with the
Aboriginal population of Sunshine Coast in Australia was as a result of realizing that for true
healing to begin, fundamental issues of inadequate policy responses had to be addressed to take
into consideration social, emotional and cultural wellbeing (A. Nickson, et al, 2009). The group
went a step further to understand their reluctance to access conventional support services. Also
applying Narrative therapy has been helpful in helping these groups re-write their histories and
create another story for themselves. It is the position of the authors of this paper that intervention
and inclusion of the Aboriginal into mainstream society, cannot begin without them getting
holistic and complete healing, the way they prescribe, of course within the bounds of the law. It
will therefore be worthwhile to have this in the forefront of an intervention to foster social,
economic and political inclusion.
Housing and Employment: A glance at the statistics in the beginning of this section, generated
from Statistic Canada indicates that the Aboriginals are far behind in gaining and keeping
worthwhile employment. An intervention model that does not take employment into focus will
possible not be successful. A cue can be taken from the University of Washington Partnership
project with the Suquamish community where individuals from the community were employed
by the project (A. Nickson, et al, 2009). This may not bring employment to the whole band, but
as we all understand; we cannot change the world in one day. Sometimes it can be done, one
person at a time. Issues relating to employment must be tackled and solutions proffered.
Additionally, housing must also be in the front burner. In the case of temporary accommodation,
like shelters, care should be taken to have shelters that cater solely for Aboriginal youths with a
range of services that meet their cultural and social expectation. Study shows that 60-70% of
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homeless populations are Indigenous people. Even in cases where there are shelters with vacant
beds, there is an institutional marginalization in that the cultural expectations of these people are
never taken into consideration. (Homelessness Resources Winnipeg, 2001). Tackling long-term
housing, temporary housing and employment will help in fostering inclusion in all its
ramifications.
Cultural and Social Initiatives: The culture, social and value systems of the Aboriginal has
obviously been eroded and disrespected. Rather than an acceptance of their values without
judgment, over the years, there has been a tendency to “decide” for them, what will work for
them and in fact what they need. However, in negotiating a comprehensive intervention model
that will encompass healing, inclusion, restoration, retention and capacity building in this
context, it must begin to restore the values of this group and facilitate programs that ensure that
this aim is achieved. The healing of the Canoe project, a collaboration (emphasis, mine) between
the Suquamish Tribe and the University of Washington was successful in many ways. It centered
on a celebration of their cultures as a people, using traditional songs and dances, and it was
instructive to note that when this event took place, there was no drug and alcohol use based on
ancestral traditions. This is a pointer as to the pedestal that this group keeps and reveres its
cultures and traditions (L.R Thomas et al. 2009). Even those who were battling substance use
were able to stop at this time. This all powerful culture at the same time has been literally taken
away from this group. A forum for this kind of cultural expedition is recommended to future in
the intervention model. Narrative approaches where the Native is allowed to recount and narrate
their history and obtain ownership of their history has also been found to be of immense help in
creating a sense of well-being and creating a sense of pride in their history and its development,
distinct from a history that has been created by third parties that are often lopsided and portrays
180
them in a light they rather not be seen in.
It is our position that in creating interventions we must bear in mind that such
interventions that will empower, build capacity, foster community, certain factors must be
considered. In the case of this group, we must approach interventions from the perspective of the
“outsider”, willing to learn and provide needs that will function and are useful rather than being
the “expert” and fail colossally as most interventions for this group has failed. Interventions must
be culturally appropriate and relevant (L.R Thomas et al, 2009). Also rather than focusing on
problems and end up pathologizing and seeing only problems, weaknesses and failures of this
group, we must begin to look for strengths and resources. Importance should be placed on
balancing scientific rigor and empirical findings with the use of local cultural knowledge (Fisher
& Ball, 2005). At the Aboriginal holistic conference held earlier this month, this was a theme
that permeated the Guest Speaker’s delivery. Burhansstipanov et al, 2005 noted there must be an
honest building of respect and trust and we must gain tribal support to ensure Native
communities involvement. A working relationship must be built by listening and learning about
indigenous people’s way of thinking about the world (A Nickson et al. 2012). In one word, there
must be collaboration.
Emphasis has been on the micro level more because of the obvious structural
challenges strewn across the paths of the Aboriginal youth that makes obtaining funding a very
tedious process. As social work practitioners we must look inward to overcome this by focusing
first on the individual level with emphasis on physical healing, psychological healing, healing
from substance addiction and mental health healing. Building respect and including the group in
the planning, development and execution process will also foster respect and build trust.
(Christopher Keys & Alan Factor, 2001). On the Macro level, policy changes and advocacy for
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policy changes will be an approach that will help in breaking down institutional barriers. One of
such institutional barriers is the continued direction of funding meant for healing for the
Aboriginals to conventional counseling centers that will not apply or cannot apply healing
methods that is culturally relevant to this group.
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SK 501 Presentation on the Indigenous People’s Plight and Macro & Micro-level
Interventions
Group Work: Activity based on the full video interview with Kevin Annett
shown at the beginning of the presentation. The class will divide into FOUR
groups, and will respond to this video as if they were:
1) Representatives of a government advisory group on Aboriginal affairs
2) Representatives of an All-Church coalition in addressing such matters as

the publicity created by Kevin Arnett
3) Representatives of the United Aboriginal Alliance for Justice and

Development
4) A Panel of Social Workers fighting Against Privilege & for Social Justice &
the Restoration of Economic Rights/Self-determination.
-Would you as a ‘stakeholder’ advocate in the interest of the Aboriginal population, or

for your own standing and ongoing privilege (that is, if you were either No’s 1) or 2))?
-What kind of strategies are you willing to adopt to see that justice is done at both the
macro- and micro-level to redress the imbalance in the lives of your people if you were
No: 3)? How far are you willing to go?
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-What is the best approach to take when confronted by the reality of injustices that have
been committed, if you are a member of the Group No: 4), especially if a) you are from
the white, privileged ‘settler’ group, and b) if you are from the non-white, non-indigenous
group, especially a more recent Third World immigrant?
Be reflexive and put yourself in their shoes!
Communication Skills
To function successfully in a small group, students need to be able to communicate clearly

on intellectual and emotional levels. Effective communicators:
• can explain their own ideas

• express their feelings in an open but non-threatening way
• listen carefully to others
• ask questions to clarify others’ ideas and emotions
• can sense how others feel based on their nonverbal communication
• will initiate conversations about group climate or process if they sense tensions
brewing
• reflect on the activities and interactions of their group and encourage other group
members to do so as well
Regular open communication, in which group members share their thoughts, ideas, and
feelings, is a must for successful group work. Unspoken assumptions and issues can be very
destructive to productive group functioning. When students are willing to communicate
openly with one another, a healthy climate will emerge and an effective process can be
followed.
To work together successfully, group members must demonstrate a sense of cohesion.

Cohesion emerges as group members exhibit the following skills:
• Openness: Group members are willing to get to know one another, particularly
those with different interests and backgrounds. They are open to new ideas, diverse
viewpoints, and the variety of individuals present within the group. They listen to
others and elicit their ideas. They know how to balance the need for cohesion within
a group with the need for individual expression.
• Trust and self-disclosure: Group members trust one another enough to share
their own ideas and feelings. A sense of mutual trust develops only to the extent that
everyone is willing to self-disclose and be honest yet respectful. Trust also grows as
group members demonstrate personal accountability for the tasks they have been
assigned.
• Support: Group members demonstrate support for one another as they accomplish
their goals. They exemplify a sense of team loyalty and both cheer on the group as a
whole and help members who are experiencing difficulties. They view one another
not as competitors (which is common within a typically individualistic educational
system) but as collaborators.
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• Respect: Group members communicate their opinions in a way that respects others,
focusing on “What can we learn?” rather than “Who is to blame?” See Constructive
Feedback in the process section for more details.
Skills for an Effective Group Process
Besides knowing how to develop a healthy group climate, students also need to know how
to function so that they are productive and accomplish their tasks effectively. An effective
process will emerge as students exhibit these skills:
• Individual responsibility and accountability: All group members agree on what

needs to be done and by whom. Each student then determines what he or she needs
to do and takes responsibility to complete the task(s). They can be held accountable
for their tasks, and they hold others accountable for theirs.
• Constructive Feedback: Group members are able to give and receive feedback
about group ideas. Giving constructive feedback requires focusing on ideas and
behaviours, instead of individuals, being as positive as possible, and offering
suggestions for improvement. Receiving feedback requires listening well, asking for
clarification if the comment is unclear, and being open to change and other ideas.
• Problem solving: Group members help the group to develop and use strategies
central to their group goals. As such, they can facilitate group decision making and
deal productively with conflict. In extreme cases, they know when to approach the
professor for additional advice and help.
• Management and organization: Group members know how to plan and manage a
task, how to manage their time, and how to run a meeting. For example, they
ensure that meeting goals are set, that an agenda is created and followed, and that
everyone has an opportunity to participate. They stay focused on the task and help
others to do so too.
• Knowledge of roles: Group members know which roles can be filled within a group
(e.g., facilitator, idea-generator, summarizer, evaluator, mediator, encourager,
recorder) and are aware of which role(s) they and others are best suited for. They
are also willing to rotate roles to maximize their own and others’ group learning
experience.
Appendix B: “Are We a Team?” Checklist
Check off the statements that accurately represent your group. Be prepared to discuss your
choices afterwards with your group. Also consider ways to improve your group’s functioning,
especially as it relates to the statements you did not check off.
• We all show equal commitment to our objective.

• We all take part in deciding how work should be allocated.
• We are committed to helping each other learn.
• We acknowledge good contributions from team members.
• We handle disagreements and conflicts constructively within the team.
• We are able to give constructive criticism to one another and to accept it ourselves.
• We all turn up to meetings and stay to the end.
• We are good at making sure that everyone knows what’s going on.
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• When one of us is under pressure, others offer to help him or her.
• We trust each other.
• We remain united even when we disagree.
• We support each other to outsiders.
• We feel comfortable and relaxed with one another. (Levin & Kent, 2001)
My Presentation Speech
Faruk Arslan # 115805450
Introduction
The Canadian identity has been in crises since the emergence of post modernity, the
technological herd, and the innovation of social media in the last two decades. Canada’s official
history has been created through deliberate fabrication and emphases on particular selections
from the past, in order to mold a new social framing of the national consciousness as a model for
society. This false construction of the Canadian identity and culture has been legitimized
necessary for the continuity of its solidarity. Aboriginal peoples in Canada – the First Nations,
Metis, Non-Status Indians and the Inuit – number 1.2 million and constitute 3.8% of the
Canadian population. The health of Aboriginal peoples in Canada is inextricably tied up with the
history of its colonialization by British and French colonizers. The colonial legacy has taken the
form of Canadian legislation such as the Indian Act of 1876, which disregards the land claims of
Aboriginal peoples, relocates Inuit communities, and establishes residential schools in order to
assimilate Aboriginal children through enfranchisement (Health Canada, 2012). The Aboriginals
are seen as a separate entity, possessing their own sovereignty and therefore not actually part of
the ‘modern’ Canadian state’s jurisdiction. Debating about Aboriginal identities are not simply
matters of political correctness. Aboriginal conditions and definition of statuses are an
expression that is in itself racist and discriminatory. There are four explanations to account for
the differences between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal groups with their sociobiology, culture,
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structure and history and four different statuses seem caused more in structural inequality. There
are four categories of Aboriginal peoples in Canada; Inuit, Metis, First Nation, non-status
Indians. These categories are based on o combination of self-definition and socio-legal
definition. They are important because these identities carry certain rights and because they try to
express more authentic ways of being. Measures taken by the federal government in the 1985’s
amendment to correct gender discrimination in the Indian Act have been controversial. Some
Aboriginal leaders claim that the federal government is continuing to pursue a policy of
assimilation through the way that it defines First Nations. There are controversies within First
Nation communities about how to define who is a band member, and making it more
complicated relations (Satzewich, Liodakis, 2007).
Additionally, anti-oppression emerged in the 1990s as a perspective for challenging
inequalities, accommodating diversity within the field of social work. As a group, we will use the
concepts of white supremacy, post-colonialism, and the postmodern and post-structural theories
in conjunction with the notion of exaltation and pride in one’s national identity. Canada contains
the West’s distorted view of First Nations, especially with regards to the concept of how Others
are viewed, valued, and treated, which is manifest in their inability to see the human rights that
exist in the Indigenous tradition; the commonly-ingrained discriminatory and racist prejudices on
the matter function not only to prevent cross-cultural dialogue in the name of sustaining inimical
stereotypes, but also to present particular dangers to Western minds that fall into many fallacies.
Canadian multiculturalism policies are lacking in social justice, for instance, inadequate
reconciliation still continues to strip Aboriginal people of their separate conceptions of political
identity.
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In this community capacity building-analytic research and a particular community
intervention mobilization and intervention model, we will examine the potential of the redress
movement and its ability in enabling a framework for critical practice in order to reduce and
eliminate oppression and find existing social, cultural, economic and political disparities and
practices. These practices recognize the interconnections between various forms of
marginalization and oppression for indigenous populations in Canada. We will explore the
identity politics of the remembrance and amnesia of Canadian indigenous populations and
develop creative alternative social work practices that oppose an oppressive power relationship.
A framework for the aboriginal holistic model will engage with honouring past, present and
future in interpretive and analytical processes, including historical references and
intergenerational discourse and recognizing the interconnectedness of all of life and the multi-
dimensional aspects of life on the Earth. For the community intervention design and
implementation, the spiritual, physical, emotional and mental aspects of the individual, family
and group must be considered within the resurrection of cultural identity, recognizing the stolen
land and the cultural trauma. This holistic community development model will be applicable
with mixture of the human-centered values of the West and the Indigenous way of practices that
would lead a holistic model of an indigenous social ecology, which we suggest a radical shift
from the colonizer of mainstream development to an ecological imagination that can bring about
real economic, social, cultural and political sustainability.
In fact, Canada’s racist and discriminatory identity construction can be understood within
the context of its sites of memory and contestation and its collective consciousness; albeit the
Redress Movement may offer a suitable collective Canadian identity for all Canadians from past
to present and suggests the reconstruction of a new Canadian identity. The history of Canadian
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indigenous populations is an unnoticed and silenced part of Canadian history and is a missing
part of the Canadian identity. The indigenous heritage does not belong only to Aboriginals; it
belongs to all Canadians. The contributions to Canadian identity by Indigenous tribes and
civilization have been from different Aboriginal ethnicities, tribes and language backgrounds,
who were often adherents of different pagan faiths. How can indigenous communities regenerate
themselves socially, culturally and politically so as to resist the effects of contemporary colonial
incursions on their sovereign rights? The outsider perspectives barely mention colonizer crimes
such as genocide, racism, discrimination and crimes against humanity in Canadian history. As a
matter of fact, mercantile colonialism, Christian missionary work and modernity have acted to
destroy the Indigenous way of life over centuries. Colonizers had also destroyed mother-based
thinking, Aboriginal family structure and matriarchy and replaced it with patriarchy and settler
imperatives. Canadians need to rewrite Canadian history and begin implementing the ‘silenced’
one, thereby recognizing the full rights of the First Nations.
In fact, shared and conflicting individual, collective, official and public past memories
challenge the notion of finding Truth and the root of dialogue. The notion of authenticity and
modernism leads a collective memory that is a social construction in the present. The
legitimating of history, or creating a new, irrelevant and false history, and the construction of a
national identity are processes that are done to benefit and serve a political agenda that contains
motives specific to authority figures in the white dominant government. They are processes
undertaken with the power of politics and the use of ritualization, relativization and
symbolization when building a new collective consciousness. The identity politics of the
remembrance and amnesia of Indigenous populations can be understood within the context of a
particular “dialectic of memory reconciliation and reparation of biases” and a clear account of
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how they have become the site of memory, contestation and collective consciousness in
Canadian society (Torpey, 2006). A United Redress Movement may emphasize a healthy
dialogue for all Canadians and reconstruct a new Canadian identity filled with the
responsibilities that will lead the formation of history to reach stability and continuity.
In additionally, the United Redress Movement must concern and get the best sample from
many cases of foreign affairs addressed by previous redress movements, like those between
Germany and other countries, especially taking a lesson from South Africa’s and Rwanda’s
reconciliations. These reparations in South Africa and Rwanda have led to limited healing and
reconciliation, yet much less discriminatory and destructive than Canada’s. However, in
domestic cases where populations still live in perpetrator states, the evidence is less conclusive,
such as Canada’s attempts to reconcile the indigenous population with several apologies and
compensations, although it still has failed to reconcile Indigenous populations for their suffering.
As a matter of fact, the historical remembrance of Aboriginals shows for whose benefit history is
written and recorded and how it is done so with the discursive ways of understanding of one’s
own history, despite ignoring other mysteries. Some questions to think about include: How do
reparation politics actually contribute to the larger society of previously mistreated groups in
Canada? Why were Indigenous populations excluded from the reconciliation and reparation
process when Canadian identity was being constructed and approached a state of hostility and
animosity towards them? Are apologies enough to redeem the health of the populations that have
suffered with mistreatment? Was the 2007 Reconciliation Plan and its functions strictly
performative? Of course, however, it was insufficient and dissatisfied the need to heal for
Aboriginals.
193
Contrarily, reconciliation might be seen as continuing to strip Aboriginal people of their
separate conceptions of political identity (Rymhs, 2006). Historically and repeatedly, “colonial
legacies and contemporary practices of disconnection, dependency and dispossession have
effectively confined Indigenous identities to state-sanctioned legal and political definitional
approaches” (Taiaiake, Jeff, 2005).Put in more practical terms: how much does the process of
reconciliation help those who have been unjustly treated and what kind of intervention model can
be helpful? The Holocaust is expressed in German history through relativization and ritualization
in the 1950s-60s, where different languages were spoken until 1989 (Olick, 2003). Modern ways
of thinking have been challenged by post-modernist theories, reconstructed ideologies, and
assumptions in the late post modernity era since the 1990’s. The social work practice has
effected from post-modernity in many positive ways by accelerating the pace of change and
technological advances, instant access to information and consumption. It is important to identify
all of the old and new faces of colonialism that continue to distort and dehumanize Indigenous
peoples in many ways currently. The label of ‘Aboriginal’ is seen as a form of silent surrender by
“suppressed” nations to an inherently unjust relationship at the root of the existing colonial
“constitutional” settler-state (Bellamy, 2003). This is a context in which Indigenous peoples are
forced by the compelling needs of physical survival to cooperate individually and collectively
with the state authorities, ignoring all other needs. This is what dependency means, because their
own resources were obtained from outside sources, eventually leading to their psycho-physical
crises and financial dependency on colonizers (Alfred, G T, 2009).There are those who identify
themselves solely by their political-legal relationship to the state rather than by any cultural or
social ties to their community as outcomes of assimilation. The continuing colonial process pulls
away Indigenous people from cultural practices that foster cohesion and purpose in a community
194
life that is autonomous while ‘being Indigenous’ (Alfred, 2005).This term, in effect, refers to
being rooted in a balanced way in one’s personal, social, economic and political lives according
to an Indigenous life style and based on equity in health and life chances with the rest of the
‘settler’ population.
Importantly, the Canadian version of reconciliation, healing and forgiveness efforts are
structured through symbolic metaphors, whereas the “Indigenous Holocaust” trauma has made a
significant distinction by identifying a specific perpetrator—the government—which should take
responsibility or blame for this crime against humanity due to which Canadian victims were
traumatized. Aboriginals are not asked for given forgiveness the personal level. However, this is
also problematic as interpersonal relationships mask even wider and broader systemic social and
political questions because systemic perpetrators are more likely to serve as the instruments or
controllers of media, with the government body of intellectuals being authors of the crime
(Chapman, 2008). Furthermore, Canada’s Aboriginal reconciliation movement requires self-
consciousness about the ways that shape a national identity and involves historical narratives
(Rymhs, 2007). The redress movements had their successes differently in the US and in Canada
because there were various specific politics in involvement. Reconciliation may sustain the
notion that such differences do not have to digress into confusion, fighting, and anarchy. On the
contrary, real peace can be achieved by sharing different perspectives, by listening to each other
through the sphere of love, respect, tolerance, mercy, and compassion, which will be the solution
to end skepticism. This target is a long-term target and takes time to be achieved, yet is necessary
in order for there to be no conflict or threat for the autonomy or main principle of Canadian
identity to be maintained strong by means of such solutions; and this overall, workable solution
can be identified as being a force to “unifying Canadian identity” through the bottom-up
195
approach (Tang, 2005). Canadians realize that class, race, gender, sexual orientation, colonialism
and capital cannot be made to vanish by the magic of multiculturalism policies, managed and
graduated around a core of dualism (Paikin, 2010).
The Indigenous often feel disconnected in their relationships with each other, to their
communities, homelands, ceremonial life, languages and histories. Such connections are crucial
to living a meaningful life for any human being. The political-legal ‘compartmentalization’ of
community values through an artificially created Indigenous space or ‘reserves’ often leads
Indigenous nations to mimic the practices of the dominant non-Indigenous legal-political
institutions. Such ‘divide and conquer’ tactics by the colonial state, and apparent adherence to
state-sanctioned definitions of Indigenous identity result in a ‘politics of distraction’ diverting
energies away from decolonizing and regenerating communities (Hingangaroa, 2000).It also
frames community relationships in state-centric terms, as Aboriginal ‘issues’ that occur in a
separate reality, not bearing any relation to their own official ethos. As a group, we focus on the
formation of national and united movement or/and an umbrella organization in the future, for
instance, it is much weaker in Canada than the American aboriginal movements because the
Canadian indigenous population has divided different four status and explanations. Weak
leadership, less-developed social, cultural, and political network, economic disparity, the lack of
collective identity and solidarity are common missing issues among the Canadian indigenous
population (Wilkes, 2006, p. 510). History is a social construction; however, the Canadian
media is still questioning the efficacy of healing, although one might also ask how the
reconciliation process violates the understanding of forgiveness as a reciprocal act. The Canadian
government issued a “Statement of Reconciliation” to former occupants of residential schools in
2008, stating it was “deeply sorry” for the collective and personal damage of these institutions on
196
indigenous communities (Statement, 2008). Shaped by global politics, these attempts at
reconciliation reflect a current sensibility of revisiting national history. In fact, the federal
government’Statement of Reconciliation “does not apologize for government actions, and
doesn’t admit responsibility for that pain. Many critics maintain that the million “Healing Fund”
created by the federal government for former residential school residence is an attempt to avert
lawsuits and monetary reparation, and grants have sent to wrong hands. Some argue that in its
statement of reconciliation regarding residential schools, the Canadian government purposefully
falls short of acknowledging its guilt in the grief suffered by Aboriginal. The discussion that
comes out of the process of reconciliation similarly re-enacts these colonial dichotomies of
oppressor-oppressed, colonizer colonized (Rymhs, 2006). The racial/cultural reality or
worldview of many persons of color differs from that of their White race. Ethnocentric
monoculturalism creates a strong belief in the superiority of one group’s cultural heritage,
history, values, language, beliefs, religion, traditions, and arts and crafts called “cultural racism”
that potential result the cultural oppression (Sue et al., 1998; Sue & Sue, 2003). Canada needs to
rehabilitate the ideology of the settlers for future national heritages.
Aboriginal narrative stories have been challenged, impacted on my view and provided me an
idea that healing, reparation and reconciliation must start from the bottom-up level among the
indigenous population. The colonizers have killed, destroyed and oppressed the Indigenous
nations’ races and their identities with the use of their advanced technology and superior power.
The implementation of legislations, policies and treaties was designed to target the Indigenous
nations until they resulted in a total disappearance with their identities erased. The outsider
perspectives barely mention colonizer crimes such as genocide, racism, oppression,
discrimination and the crime against humanity. Mercantile colonialism, Christian missionary
work and modernity have always been portrayed as relatively innocuous, and the wars against
the Natives were unique in Canada. The dispossession of the Indians, however, was in the
silenced process for the making of a Northern Nation, whereas Indians were just a part of the
mosaic within Canada and nothing more.
Of course, debate about Aboriginal identities are not simply matters of political correctness.
There are four categories of Aboriginal peoples in Canada; Inuit, Metis, First Nation, non-status
Indians. These categories are based on o combination of self-definition and socio-legal
197
definition. They are important because these identities carry certain rights and because they try to
express more authentic ways of being. Measures taken by the federal government in the 1980s to
correct gender discrimination in the Indian Act have been controversial. Some Aboriginal leaders
claim that the federal government is countuining to pursue a policy of assimilation through the
way that it defines First Nations. There are controverses within First Nation communities about
how to define who is a band member (Satzewich, Liodakis, 2007, p. 176).
Aboriginal peoples in Canada – First Nations, Dene, Metis, and Inuit – number 1.2
million and constitute 3.8% of the Canadian population who are inextricably tied up with their
history of colonialization. Structural inquality has taken the form of legislation such as the Indian
Act of 1876, disregard for land claims of Metis peoples, relocation of Inuit communities, and the
establishment of residential schools. Some argue that in its statement of reconciliation regarding
residential schools, the Canadian government purposefully falls short of acknowledging its guilt
in the grief suffered by Aboriginal. The discussion that comes out of the process of reconciliation
similarly re-enacts these colonial dichotomies of oppressor-oppressed, colonizer colonized.
Reconciliation might be seen as continuing to strip Aboriginal people of their separate
conceptions of political identity. (Rymhs, 2006, p. 120). Historically and repedeatly, “colonial
approaches” (Taiaiake, Jeff, 2005, pp. 600, 601).
In fact, Aboriginal conditions are an expression that is in itself racist and discriminatory.
There are four explanations to account for the differences between Aboriginal and non-
Aboriginal groups with their sociobiology, culture, structure and history and four different
statuses seem caused more in structural inequality. The government of Canada ignored health
crises and endemic problems on Indian reserves, industrial schools and residential schools due to
governmental neglect. The idea of a state-church alliance in educating Aboriginal children
gained format and funding structure where the Aboriginal way of life was seen as a failure,
leading to its extinction and the separation of its children from families to become re-educated,
with the hope that they would merge with the mass of Canadians in their dominant culture.
As a matter of fact, the residential school became a site of memory of the Canadian
history and a cultural, political and social trauma for Aboriginals which link the past to the
present where Aboriginal voices are still forgotten and a national crime was never investigated,
but only that one old, alive, persistent narrative. Canadian authorities have seen Aboriginals as
savages, with an uncivilized and primitive culture, whereas their own superior, civilized and
dominant culture should assimilate them with a designed curriculum, and surrogate parenting
(planting out) through the foster home model in which implies with the separation of a weak
child from its family, language, religion and moral values in a segregated place, the residential
schools and now within the Children Aid’s Society. The vision of Aboriginal education was
developed by leaders in churches and an Indian Department in which was a valuable tool of
social control with a powerful strategy for re-socialization where academic learning and practices
lost reliability with sub-standard, ineffective teaching and learning of the aboriginal values.
Furthermore, Canadian systemic discrimination with policies left Indians further
dispersed and dissolute. The Indians were divided into four classes under the Canadian Indian
acts, and afterwards, they were divided with the use of race-making strategies the long term of
ignorance. Indians have transformed from living in an old-fashioned civilization to the modern
environment, such as the modern home, clothing, and education. As a result, the Indigenous’
unique traditions of mother-centered thinking, clan-mother thinking and living as matriarch
198
families were becoming lost along with the loss of Indigenous people’s cultures. After the loss of
the base of maintaining the integrity of Indians within social communities, the man-dominant
society had destroyed Indian traditions, purifications and unifications.
In conclusion, a framework for the aboriginal holistic model must engage with honouring
past, present and future in interpretive and analytical processes, including historical references
and intergenerational discourse and recognizing the interconnectedness of all of life and the
multi-dimensional aspects of life on the Earth. For the community intervention design and
and group must be considered within the resurrection of cultural identity, the stolen land and the
cultural trauma. In our opinion, a holistic community development model should be applicable
real economic, social, cultural and political sustainability. The participants in the roundtable and
the circle discussions agreed that Aboriginal women, because of the nature of their roles and
identities, should be in a position to recommend policies for all Aboriginal people. We all agreed
that when the women heal, the family will heal. When the family heals, the nations will heal.
Aboriginal peoples thought of the Earth and their life on the Earth as an interconnected web of
life functioning in a complex ecosystem of relationships, which is based on the principle of
balance in this delicate web of life that is a bundle relationship to the nature. We all should
respect their culture what they offer, social workers rely on and accept their workable solutions
to own communities.
Government of Canada Indian Residential Schools Settlement

Agreement outreach & public education activities
Notice Plan:
• In 2006-2007, the Government of Canada funded a court

approved notice plan , which was implemented in 2 phases.
Combined, these notice plans reached over 98% of the target
population (Aboriginal people over the age of 25) with a frequency of
11 times and were deemed highly effective by the Courts.
• The Phase 2 notice plan which came out in 2007 included a $1 million
grassroots outreach strategy conducted by the Assembly of First
Nations.
• From March to May, 2011, the Government of Canada implemented a
supplementary notice plan approved by the Courts that focused on the
September 19, 2011 Common Experience Payment application
deadline and also mentioned the IAPapplication deadline.
• An additional supplementary notice to provide information about
the IAP application deadline of September 19, 2012 was launched in
March 2012 and ended in June 2012.
199
• The 2012 notice was presented through Aboriginal and mainstream
publications, English, French and Aboriginal television, radio, on-line
banners and targeted outreach to homeless people. It was available in
English, French, and 16 Aboriginal languages.
• This notice plan was intended to reach 82% of the target population
(Aboriginal people over the age of 25) an average of 3.75 times.
• Together the 4 notice plans reached 98% of the target population an
average of 14 times.
• Pursuant to a decision made by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice,
Stirland Lake and Cristal Lake Schools have been added to Schedule
"F" of the IRSSA.
• The Government of Canada has implemented a court ordered notice
plan to target former students of these schools to ensure they do not
miss the CEP and IAPapplication deadlines.
• This notice plan appeared in local newspapers, on the radio and was
mailed to known students who attended these two schools.
Government of Canada Outreach:
• Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, the Truth and

Reconciliation Commission, Service Canada, Health Canada and
the IRS Adjudication Secretariat participated in extensive outreach
sessions across Canada to inform former students, their families and
communities about the Indian Residential Schools Settlement
Agreement.
Assembly of First Nations:
• As part of Phase 2 of the first notice plan, the Government of Canada

funded the Community Outreach Mobile Plan, which was implemented
by the Assembly of First Nations in over 600 First Nation communities
across Canada.
Advocacy and Public Information Program:
• The Advocacy and Public Information Program (APIP) which began in

2007, is a contribution funding program that supports the sharing of
information about the Settlement Agreement and promotes
reconciliation. This program funds mostly grassroots Aboriginal
organizations to ensure all survivors are aware of their rights
to CEP and IAP, how to apply and have the support in place in order to
apply.
200
• A focus of APIP has been to reach survivors who are incarcerated,
homeless or live in remote locations.
• The Government of Canada initially committed to $6 million for
2007/2008 and $4 million for 2008/2009.
• Due to the success of the program for the first 2 years, Aboriginal
Affairs and Northern Development Canada has continued to provide
funding over the past 3 years and will do so again in 2012/2013.
• Over 50 organizations have been funded through APIP, many on an
annual basis for a total of over $26 million.
• The following is a list of organizations that have been funded, many on
more than one occasion, and the total amounts provided
through APIP since 2007:
A framework for the aboriginal holistic model must engage with honouring past, present
and future in interpretive and analytical processes, including historical references and
intergenerational discourse and recognizing the interconnectedness of all of life and the multi-
dimensional aspects of life on the Earth. For the community intervention design and
and group must be considered within the resurrection of cultural identity, recognizing the stolen
land and the cultural trauma. A holistic community development model should be applicable
real economic, social, cultural and political sustainability.
As a group, we focus on the formation of national and united movement or/and an
umbrella organization, for instance, it is much weaker in Canada than the American aboriginal
movements because the Canadian indigenous population has divided different four status and
explanations. Weak leadership, less-developed social, cultural, and political network, economic
disparity, the lack of collective identity and solidarity are common missing issues among the
Canadian indigenous population (Wilkes, 2006, p. 510).
In fact, debate about Aboriginal identities are not simply matters of political correctness.
Aboriginal conditions and definition of statuses are an expression that is in itself racist and
discriminatory. There are four explanations to account for the differences between Aboriginal
and non-Aboriginal groups with their sociobiology, culture, structure and history and four
different statuses seem caused more in structural inequality. There are four categories of
Aboriginal peoples in Canada; Inuit, Metis, First Nation, non-status Indians. These categories are
based on o combination of self-definition and socio-legal definition. They are important because
these identities carry certain rights and because they try to express more authentic ways of being.
Measures taken by the federal government in the 1980s to correct gender discrimination in the
Indian Act have been controversial. Some Aboriginal leaders claim that the federal government
is countuining to pursue a policy of assimilation through the way that it defines First Nations.
There are controverses within First Nation communities about how to define who is a band
201
member (Satzewich, Liodakis, 2007, p. 176).
Aboriginal peoples in Canada – First Nations, Dene, Metis, and Inuit – number 1.2 million
and constitute 3.8% of the Canadian population who are inextricably tied up with their history of
colonialization. Structural inquality has taken the form of legislation such as the Indian Act of
1876, disregard for land claims of Metis peoples, relocation of Inuit communities, and the
establishment of residential schools (Raphael, 2006, p. 280). Reading in the current global
moment of reconciliation requires a self-consciousness about the ways that reconciliation
movements shape a national as well as historical narrative. Reconciliation might be seen as
continuing to strip Aboriginal people of their separate conceptions of political identity. (Rymhs,
2006, p. 120).
As a matter of fact, the colonizers have killed, destroyed and oppressed the Indigenous
nations’ races and their identities with the use of their advanced technology and superior power.
The implementation of legislations, policies and treaties was designed to target the Indigenous
nations until they resulted in a total disappearance with their identities erased. The outsider
perspectives barely mention colonizer crimes such as genocide, racism, oppression,
discrimination and the crime against humanity. Mercantile colonialism, Christian missionary
work and modernity have always been portrayed as relatively innocuous, and the wars against
the Natives were unique in Canada. There are stubborn disparaties between the health and socio-
economic condtions of Aboriginal and those of non-Aboriginal peoples. First Nations
Communities are not internally homogenous. There are gender divisions and divisions between
leaders and the led (Satzewich, Liodakis, 2007, p. 176). The dispossession of the Indians,
however, was in the silenced process for the making of a Northern Nation, whereas Indians were
just a part of the mosaic within Canada and nothing more. The United Nations Declaration of the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples, approved by the UN General Assembly in 2007, identifies
numerous areas in which national governments could work to improve the situation of
Aboriginal peoples. The Declaration include articles concerned with improving economic and
social conditions, the right to attain the highest levels of health, and the right to protect and
conserve their environments. Canada was one of four nations (Australia, Canada, New
Zealand,US) to vote against its adoption. One hundred and forty three nations voted in favour
(United Nations, 2007)
The United Aboriginal Redress Movement
On the contrary, the United Aboriginal Redress Movement might find its own interest for
solidarity without constructed memories and biases and has established mutual bonds between
cultures, having collaborated with visible and invisible networks at the national and domestic
level in its counterparts in Canada. This potential movement shall demonstrate a civil, moral, and
holistic engagement and shows a social altruistic model as a non-governmental organization, and
offers non-political and non-violent enforcements which complete the gap between the national
state goals of Canada and the Indigenous population. We provide the solutions to ignorance,
hopelessness and disunity. The Aboriginal Redress Movement may target the real humanization
of people and the sharing of common goals for all humanity through educational, social and
cultural projects, and it can create many sustainable organizations which will be transformed to
revolutionary collective action wherein individuals commit themselves to their work. Such
activism is crucial as without active engagement with the struggles of First Nations peoples the
202
project of anti-racism remains an incomplete project (Lawrence and Dua, 2005, p 31). As Bonita
Lawrence has pointed out, decolonizing Canada begins by acknowledging “land theft and
dispossession” (Lawrence, 2002).
Some questions to think about include: How do reparation politics actually contribute to
the larger society of previously mistreated groups in Canada? Why were the Indigenous
populations excluded from the reconciliation and reparation process after the postmodern era,
when Canadian identity was being constructed and approaching a state of hostility and animosity
towards them? Are apologies enough to heal? In determining the notion of reparation and
change—indeed, in deciding what the appropriate response of the wronged party should be—
how does “reconciliation” erode the wronged subject’s agency? What
happens to guilt—and, specifically, the owning of guilt—in the process? Is reconciliation’s
function strictly performative? Is it capable of producing more than an affective response from
the national community? At is, if reconciliation is a largely performative process, how might
otherwise genuine feelings of guilt become merely the performance of guilt? Can
guilt be turned into tangible political action? Put in more practical terms: how much does the
process of reconciliation help those who have been unjustly treated?
In theoretical frame work, Max Weber explains the forces behind the genocide of the
Indigenous by the understanding theory, Freire mentions that removing egoism from
individuals to “build a trust that is strongly possessive to the consciousness to engage in and
solve somebody else‘s struggles” (Freire, 1993). Narrative theory is useful in applying it to
both the macro-level and micro-level mobilization in changing perceptions and the approach that
is being suggested by the current Social Ecology theorists in tackling the socio-economic issues
that confront the Indigenous. Feminist theories aren’t focused on the aboriginal women
struggles. The Indigenous’ unique traditions of mother-centered thinking, clan-mother thinking
and living as matriarch families were becoming lost along with the loss of Indigenous people’s
cultures. After the loss of the base of maintaining the integrity of Indians within social
communities, the man-dominant society had destroyed Indian traditions, purifications and
unifications. Marx’s famous claim describes that under capitalism all that is solid melts into air
and comes face to face with the economic nature of our relations with each other and the material
power of the ruling class (Bantjes, 2007). There are cultural, historic, and geographic differences
on top of the political and economic aspects of social order, that produce the wide range of social
power relations and repertoires of contention to balance political and economic power. Mostly
the Marxist class struggle and alienation theories have proven to be true in the indigenous
struggle. Rationalization and dehumanization techniques used by the oppressors to justify their
exploitation of others are the construction of belief in their entitlement for over centuries. The
history of Natives is unwritten; there is a limited amount of authorization sources in historical
records. The histories of Indigenous nations are part of the history of Canada, though injustices
and restrictions based on racial perceptions have shaped them. After the necessity of building a
national culture emerged, the process of decolonization began with still the Native voice denied
within national discourse.
Reconciliation must be grounded in the everyday realities of people‘s lives and fears.
The humiliation and harassment of Indigenous must stop, otherwise people see themes “the
enemy” according to the Canadian media. The 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples
made a number of recommendations, virtually all of which have not been implemented.
203
• Recognition of an Aboriginal order of government with authority over matters related to the
good government and welfare of Aboriginal peoples and their territories.
• Replacement of the federal Department of Indian Affairs with two departments, one to
implement a new relationship with Aboriginal nations and one to provide services for non-self-
governing communities.
• Creation of an Aboriginal Parliament.
• Initiatives to address social, education, health, and housing needs, including the training of
10,000 health professionals over a 10-year period, the establishment of an Aboriginal peoples’
university, and recognition of Aboriginal nations’ authority over child welfare (Royal
Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, 1996).
The census of 2006 has given the result of 127, 932 Indians and half-breeds living in
Canada. The average income of Aboriginal men and women in 2001 was $21,958 and $16,529
respectively, which is 58% of the average income of non-Aboriginal men and 72% of the
average income of non-Aboriginal women. For Aboriginal Canadians living on reserves, their
respective figures as a percentage of non-Aboriginal incomes were for men, 40% and for women,
61%. Rates of numerous infectious and chronic diseases are much higher in the Aboriginal
population than the non-Aboriginal Canadian population. Suicide rates are five to six times
higher and Aboriginal peoples have high rates of major depression (18%), problems with alcohol
(27%), and experience of sexual abuse during childhood (34%) (Smiley, 2009, Table 13.1). The
Canadian history of colonialism allows us to begin exploring the social relations and cultural
forms which characterize the relationship between the indigenous populations and the state of
Canada/English Canada/COQ. A potential unified Canadian Aboriginal reconciliation movement
requires self-consciousness about the ways that shape a national identity and involves with
historical narratives (Rymhs, 2007, p. 120). The Aboriginal Redress Movements has their
successes differently in the US and in Canada because there were various specific politics in
involvement, economic dependency and many generation of conditions about repairing
arrangements in the form of official apologies and compensation to their populations. The
rebuilding of victims’ forcibly interrupted lives have been influenced by internal politics such as
assimilation “the melting pot” in the US and social recognition within the multiculturalism
policies that is described as “the mosaic” in Canada. This multicultural take on liberal
democracy, called the “politics of recognition” that construct undesired others. The discourse of
multiculturalism, as distinct from its administrative, practical relations and forms of ruling,
serves as a culmination for the ideological construction of “Canada” (Himani, 2000). It is
important to identify all of the old and new faces of colonialism that continue to distort and
dehumanize Indigenous peoples in many ways currently. Historically and repedeatly, “colonial
approaches” (Taiaiake, Jeff, 2005). The identity politics of the remembrance and amnesia of
Indigenous can be understood within the context of a particular “dialectic of memory
reconciliation and reparation of biases” and how they have become the site of memory,
contestation and collective consciousness in Canadian society (Torpey, 2005).
The South African case of forgiveness has been criticized to be a fake forgiveness, and
less respect to deponents through symbolic and ritualized performance was given with the help
of religious beliefs and bodies; although the entire process was faulty because of the
unwillingness of the beneficiaries of apartheid that hadn‘t offered to victims financial restoration,
204
or even their acknowledgement of wrongdoing, and rather unrelated the nature of the crime and
had the lack of expression of regret (Chapman, 2008). The dominant whites fear the Indigenous
case of truth may generate new anger, revenge, hatred, sorrow, sadness, disempowerment, rage
and bitterness in a negative manner rather than healing in a positive manner similar to “the TRC
process had imposed a false homogeneity around the agendas of survivors” (Chaplen, 2008).
Moreover, the socio-economic needs of invaders and the making of a Northern Nation had
caused the abandonment of the Native nations’ cultures and religions and had broken down their
values with using Christianity to assimilate them into society and violate their civil rights. Many
Indians have claimed, after the heavy missionary work, evangelistic, educational, industrial and
medical assimilation done against them, that they are Canadian Christians. Some nations used
Christianity as a source of resistance against colonizers in the early years, but the acceptance of
Christianity didn’t rescue them from exploitation either. British and French rulers introduced
scalping policies to dislocate the Indians and enforce them to move from one location to another,
just until their claims would disappear.
In fact, history is a social construction and many official national histories and nations are
imagined communities and structured to ossify the past and block our understanding of historical
truth for the sake of the continuity of society. The Canadian media is always questioning its
efficacy, one might also ask how the reconciliation process violates the understanding of
forgiveness as a reciprocal act. The Canadian government issued a “Statement of Reconciliation”
to former occupants of residential schools in 2008, stating it was “deeply sorry” for the collective
and personal damage of these institutions on indigenous communities (Statement, 2008). Shaped
by global politics, these attempts at reconciliation reflect a current sensibility of revisiting
national history. In fact, the federal government’Statement of Reconciliation “does not apologize
for government actions. It recognizes the pain and doesn’t admit responsibility for that pain.
Many critics maintain that the million “Healing Fund” created by the federal government for
former residential school residence is an attempt to avert lawsuits and monetary reparation. Some
argue that in its statement of reconciliation regarding residential schools, the Canadian
government purposefully falls short of acknowledging its guilt in the grief suffered by
Aboriginal. The discussion that comes out of the process of reconciliation similarly re-enacts
these colonial dichotomies of oppressor-oppressed, colonizer colonized (Rymhs, 2006). The
racial/cultural reality or worldview of many persons of color differs from that of their White
race. Ethnocentric monoculturalism creates a strong belief in the superiority of one group’s
cultural heritage, history, values, language, beliefs, religion, traditions, and arts and crafts called
“cultural racism” that potenialt result the cultural oppression (Sue et al., 1998; Sue & Sue, 2003).
In addition, the Canadian Government and the Residential School System’ portrays a
vision of education setup in the service of progressive assimilation against the Canadian
Aboriginal population through residential and industrial school systems as structured, managed,
financed and staffed with the cooperation of the Department and Churches, which were unable to
reached their goals, as no significant improvements were noticed since 1879 to 1986. This
education setup failure didn’t end with the closing of the residential school system after a long
process; it has left behind many neglect and abuse cases (sexual assault isn’t mentioned) and
traumatic stories, including a national crime. The residential school became a site of memory of
the Canadian history and a cultural, political and social trauma for Aboriginals which link the
past to the present where Aboriginal voices are still forgotten and a national crime was never
investigated, but only that one old, alive, persistent narrative. Canadian authorities have seen
Aboriginals as savages, with an uncivilized and primitive culture, whereas their own superior,
205
civilized and dominant culture should assimilate them with a designed curriculum, and surrogate
parenting (planting out) in which implies with the separation of a weak child from its family,
language, religion and moral values in a segregated place, the residential schools. The vision of
Aboriginal education was developed by leaders in churches and an Indian Department in which
was a valuable tool of social control with a powerful strategy for re-socialization where academic
learning and practices lost reliability with sub-standard, ineffective teaching and the lack of
market values, as children in the segregated schools had been dying in a way that is unbelievable
with uncontrolled diseases such as tuberculosis, as these crises were termed in 1922 as the
national crime.
The government of Canada ignored health crises and endemic problems on Indian
reserves, industrial schools and residential schools due to governmental neglect. The idea of a
state-church alliance in educating Aboriginal children gained format and funding structure where
the Aboriginal way of life was seen as a failure, leading to its extinction and the separation of its
children from families to become “re-educated,” with the hope that they would merge with the
mass of Canadians in their dominant culture. Many reports indicated that the continuing poverty
on Aboriginal community resources and cultures were causing the lack of success in ‘re-
socialization,’ blamed only on the result of lack of integration for graduated students as cultural
backsliders on re-entering. Parents resisted sending their children because of the lack of progress
those children were making. Churches had their own interest in both missionary activities and
with getting funding from governmental resources. The poor quality of teachers and the nature of
literary curriculums failed for cultural transformation, and the language and spirituality struggle
wasn’t mention because white-men predicted on the destruction of Aboriginal culture through
non-Aboriginal education, although their origins humiliated and dehumanized their racial
heritage, and knowledge of their racial history and culture were never taught. The truth had never
revealed until in the 1960s, when such problems had continued, and for instance, grad students
extended isolation from their families, went to the denial of their culture and abusive conditions,
and were unable to lead any sort of productive life, old or new. Within the warfare, trade,
disease, and enfranchisement policies was the changing of the ecology of the lands. The socio-
economic needs of invaders had abandoned the Native nation’s cultures, breaking down their
values, with using Christianity to assimilate them into society and violate their civil rights.
Canada needs to rewrite the histories of its land, which had first belonged to the Indigenous
people, and it needs to rehabilitate the ideology of the settlers for future national heritages.
References:
Bannerji, Himani (1996/2000). On the dark site of the nation: Politics of multiculturalism and the
state of Canada. Journal of Canadian Studies 31 (3), pp. 123, 128.
Chapman, Audrey R. (2008). Chapter 3, “Perspectives on the Role of Forgiveness in the Human
Rights Violations Rearing”,Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 66, 67, 74, 8288.
Freire, Paulo. (1993). Pedagogy of the Oppressed, York University, Chapter 1, pp. 40, 47.
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Lawrence, Bonita (2002). “Rewriting Histories of the Land” in Sherene
Razack. Ed., Race, Space and the Law (Toronto:BTL).
Lawrence, Bonita and Enakshi Dua. (2005). “Decolonising Anti-Racism,”

Social Justice. 32, 4. The Ardent Review (April 2008) 1, 31-35.
problem with “them” to situating it with “us”. Review of Education Pedagagoy&Cultural
Studies, 29, pp. 117, 118, 120.
Satzewich V., Liodakis N. (2007). Race and Ethnicity in Canada. Aboriginal and Non-Aborginal
Relation. Oxford University Press. 176-205
Sue, D. W. (1998). A personal look at psychology in my life. In L. T. Hoshmand (Ed.),
Creativity and moral vision in psychology: Narratives on identity and commitment in a
postmodern age. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, p. 106.
Sue, D. W., & Constantine, M. G. (2003). Optimal human functioning among racial ethnic
minorities. In W. Bruce Walsh (Ed.), Counseling psychology and optimal human functioning.
New York: Erlbaum, p. 155.
Sue, D. W. (2004). Whiteness and Ethnocentric Monoculturalism: Making the “Invisible”
Visible, November issue, American Psychologist Journal, p. 763.
Taiaiake, A., Jeff, C. (2005). Being Indigenous: Resurgences against Contemporary Colonialism.
Government and Opposition LTD. Balckwell Synergy Publisher, 598-614.
Torpey, John C (2006). Chapter 1, “The Surfacing of Subterranean History”, and Chapter 2 “An
Anatomy of Reparations Politics”.Cambridge: Harvard University Press, p. 42.
Potential Redress Aboriginal Movement: Canadian multiculturalism at question with

indigenous trauma
FarukArslan
Canadian identity has been in crisis since the emergence of post modernity, the
technological revolution, and the innovations of the social media in the last two decades. It can
be argued that Canada’s official history was created through deliberate fabrication and emphasis
on particular selections from history, chosen to mold a new social framing of the national
consciousness as a model for society. This false construction of Canadian identity and culture
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has been necessary for the continuity of its solidarity. Aboriginal peoples in Canada – the First
Nations, Metis, Non-Status Indians and the Inuit – number 1.2 million and constitute 3.8% of the
Canadian population. The health of Aboriginal peoples in Canada is inextricably tied up with the
history of their colonization by British and French colonizers. The colonial legacy has infiltrated
Canadian legislation: in the Indian Act of 1876, for example, which disregarded the land claims
of Metis peoples, relocated Inuit communities, and established residential schools in order to
assimilate Aboriginal children through enfranchisement (Health Canada, 2012). However, an
anti-oppression movement emerged in the 1990s providing an alternative perspective for
challenging inequalities, and for accommodating diversity within the field of social work. From
this perspective I will take the concepts of white supremacy and post-colonialism, and the
theories of postmodernism and post-structuralism in conjunction with the notions of exaltation
and pride in one’s national identity. I will demonstrate how Canada reflects the West’s distorted
view of First Nations, especially with regard to the way the “Other” is viewed, valued, and
treated. This distorted view is manifest in an inability to recognize the human rights that exist in
the Indigenous tradition. The commonly-ingrained discriminatory and racist prejudices function
not only to prevent cross-cultural dialogue, thereby upholding inimical stereotypes, but also
present particular dangers to Western minds that then fall into many fallacies. Canadian
multicultural policies are lacking in social justice - for instance, inadequate reconciliation
continues to strip Aboriginal people of their separate conceptions of political identity.
In this intersectional-analytic research, I will examine the potential of the Redress
Movement and its ability to provide a framework for critical practice in order to reduce and
eliminate oppression and to identify existing social, cultural, economic and political disparities
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and practices. This framework provides the means to recognize the interconnections between
various forms of marginalization and oppression for Indigenous populations in Canada. I will
explore the identity politics of the remembrance and amnesia of Canadian Indigenous
populations and develop creative alternative social work practices that oppose an oppressive
power relationship. Canada’s racist and discriminatory identity construction can be understood
within the context of its sites of memory and conflict and its collective consciousness; even
though the Redress Movement does offer a transformative change that suitable collective
Canadian identity for all Canadians from past to present and suggests the reconstruction of a new
Canadian identity. The history of Canadian Indigenous populations is an unnoticed and silenced
part of Canadian history and is an absent part of Canadian identity. The Indigenous heritage does
not only belong to Aboriginals; it belongs to all Canadians. The contribution to Canadian identity
by Indigenous tribes and civilizations have come from different Aboriginal ethnicities, tribes and
language backgrounds, from people who were often adherents of different pagan faiths; most of
whom would not have known they were helping to forge the history of Canada and to formulate
Canadian identity. How can Indigenous communities regenerate themselves socially, culturally
and politically so as to resist the effects of contemporary colonial incursions on their sovereign
rights? Alfred Taiaiake and Jeff Corntassel (2005) ask in their article entitled “Being
Indigenous: Resurgences against Contemporary Colonialism”: “How can we resist further
dispossession and disconnection when the effects of colonial assaults on our own existences are
so pronounced and still so present in the lives of all Indigenous peoples?” (Taiaiake, Corntassel,
2005). The outsider perspectives barely mention colonizer crimes such as genocide, racism,
discrimination and crimes against humanity in Canadian history. As a matter of fact, mercantile
colonialism, Christian missionary work and modernity have acted to destroy the Indigenous way
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of life over centuries. Colonizers destroyed mother-based thinking, Aboriginal family structures
and matriarchy and replaced them with patriarchy and settler imperatives. Canadians need to
rewrite Canadian history and begin resurrecting the ‘silenced’ ones, thereby recognizing the full
rights of the First Nations.
In fact, shared and conflicting individual, collective, official and public memories of the
past challenge the possibility of finding truth and damage the root of dialogue. The notions of
authenticity and modernism lead to a collective memory that is a social construction in the
present. The legitimating of history, or creating a new, irrelevant and false history, and the
construction of a national identity are processes that are too often created to benefit and serve a
political agenda that contains motives specific to authority figures in the white dominant
government. They are processes undertaken with the power of politics behind them, and the use
of ritualization, relativization and symbolization when building a new collective consciousness.
The identity politics of the remembrance and amnesia of Indigenous populations can be
understood within the context of a particular “dialectic of memory reconciliation and reparation
of biases” and a clear account of how they have become the site of memory, contestation and
collective consciousness in Canadian society (Torpey, 2006). A United Redress Movement may,
by contrast, emphasize instead a healthy dialogue for all Canadians and reconstruct a new
Canadian identity filled with the responsibilities that will lead the formation of history to reach
stability and continuity.
The international context
First of all, the United Redress Movement must be concerned with and obtain the best
examples from many foreign cases of injustice addressed by previous redress movements, for
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example, those between Germany and other countries, also, and especially taking a lesson from
South Africa and Rwanda’s reconciliation processes. The reparations in South Africa and
Rwanda have led to limited healing and reconciliation, yet have been much less discriminatory
and destructive than Canada’s. However, in domestic cases where populations still live in
perpetrator states, the evidence is less conclusive, such as Canada’s attempts to reconcile the
state with the Indigenous population through several apologies and compensations, but where
there is still failure to recompense Indigenous populations adequately for their suffering. On the
whole, then, the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant Christians or Catholics and non-white Muslims,
the Indigenous and other ethnic populations have not been sufficiently reconciled to construct a
new, common Canadian identity together.
As a matter of fact, Canada’s identity crisis began after the Pearl Harbour attacks in the
winter of 1941, when Japanese-Canadian and Japanese-Americans were seen as a national
security threat. In Canada, under the War Measures Act, 22,000 Japanese-Canadians were
relocated into camps and 120,000 Japanese Americans were moved to detention camps in the
USA. After the war, Japanese-Americans went back to their homes and rebuilt their lives back to
pre-war levels in about a decade, but Japanese-Canadians did not return to their homes on the
west coast. The Canadian Redress Movement has now reconciled Japanese-Canadians who were
uprooted, stripped of their property and scattered across the nation, although the situation was
played down politically. Unfortunately, the historical remembrance of Aboriginals shows for
whose benefit history is written and recorded and that it is done so with discursive methods of
understanding history that entails ignoring troublesome evidence. Some questions to think about
include: How do reparation politics actually contribute to the larger society of previously
mistreated groups in Canada? Why were Indigenous populations excluded from the
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reconciliation and reparation process when Canadian identity was being constructed, and why
were they approached in an attitude of hostility and animosity? Are apologies sufficient to
redeem the health of populations that have suffered from mistreatment? Was the 2007
Reconciliation Plan and its functions strictly performative? It was of course insufficient and did
not satisfy the need for healing experienced by Aboriginals.
Contrarily, reconciliation might even be seen as continuing to strip Aboriginal people of
their separate conceptions of political identity (Rymhs, 2006). Historically and repeatedly,
“colonial legacies and contemporary practices of disconnection, dependency and dispossession
have effectively confined Indigenous identities to state-sanctioned legal and political definitional
approaches” (Taiaiake, Jeff, 2005). Stated in more practical terms: how much does the process of
reconciliation help those who have been unjustly treated? Since the onset of post-modernity,
history is not viewed as linear progress, moving in the direction of liberation from the past,
through the present, and into the future, and many historians no longer see history as a
chronology with only an aggregation of facts, dates or individual histories, within which the
psychological lives of individuals are created by a small, elite group - the so-called “noble royal
race for the last century”. For instance, Jeffrey Olick explains how the Holocaust was expressed
in German history through a process of relativization and ritualization in the 1950s-60s, with
different languages and vocabularies used to speak about it until 1989 (Olick, 2003). Modern
ways of thinking have been challenged by post-modernist theories, which have reconstructed
ideologies, and which have questioned assumptions in the late post modernity era since the
1990’s. The practice of social work has been affected by post-modernity in many positive ways,
such as acceleration in the pace of change, and through technological advances, as well as instant
access to information and consumption.
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In fact, it is important to identify all of the old and new faces of colonialism that currently
continue to distort and dehumanize Indigenous peoples in many ways. The label of “Aboriginal”
is seen as a form of silent surrender by “suppressed” nations to an inherently unjust relationship
at the root of the existing colonial “constitutional” settler-state (Bellamy, 2003). This is the
context in which Indigenous peoples are forced by the compelling needs of physical survival to
cooperate individually and collectively with the state authorities, ignoring all their other
needs. This is what dependency means, because their resources have to be obtained from outside
sources, eventually leading to their psycho-physical crises and financial dependency on their
colonizers (Alfred, G T, 2009). There are those who identify themselves solely by their political-
legal relationship to the state rather than by any cultural or social ties to their community as a
consequence of their assimilation. The continuing colonial process pulls Indigenous people away
from cultural practices that foster cohesion and purpose in a community life that is autonomous
while at the same time “being Indigenous” (Alfred, 2005). The term “being Indigenous” in
effect, refers to being rooted in a balanced way in one’s personal, social, economic and political
lives according to an Indigenous life style and based on equity in health and life chances with the
rest of the “settler” population.
Importantly, the Canadian version of reconciliation, and its healing and forgiveness
efforts, are structured through symbolic metaphors, whereas the “Indigenous Holocaust” trauma
has made a significant distinction by identifying a specific, and not a metaphoric, perpetrator—
the government—which should take responsibility or blame for this crime against humanity
through which Canadian victims were traumatized. Aboriginals are not asked for forgiveness at
the personal level. However, this is also problematic as interpersonal relationships mask even
wider and broader systemic social and political questions, because systemic perpetrators are
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more likely to serve as the instruments or controllers of media, with the government body of
intellectuals being authors of the crime (Chapman, 2008).
Concepts of national identity and the politics of memory
Secondly, Canada’s Aboriginal reconciliation movement requires self-consciousness
about the factors that shape national identity and the ways historical narratives are used in this
process. (Rymhs, 2007). The redress movements have had differing levels of success in the US
and in Canada because there were various specific political strategies involved. Internment camp
experiences and the rebuilding of the lives of victims forcibly interrupted by these experiences
have been influenced by internal policies, such as assimilation, which took the form of “the
melting pot” in the US and “the mosaic” in Canada whenever social recognition within
multicultural policies was described. This multicultural take on liberal democracy, called the
“politics of recognition” seeks to categorize undesirable “others” or people. The discourse of
multiculturalism, which is distinct from its administrative, practical structure and its relations and
forms of governing, serves as a culmination of the ideological construction of “Canada”
(Himani, 2000). There is an interesting and important point to ponder on in the form of a
question: Are the Canadian “mosaic” and the “melting pot” in the U.S. blatant frauds? This is a
serious question that requires an answer in order to conceptualize how Canadian identity has
been ingrained in the minds of many foreign personalities. At a practical level, since the start of
the worldwide economic recession in 2008, Canadian multicultural policy has been lacking and
inefficient, even though there have been ongoing discussions about diversity, social inclusion,
and cultural differences. The ideal of reconciliation alone sustains the notion that such
differences do not have to digress into confusion, fighting, and anarchy. On the contrary, real
peace can be achieved by sharing different perspectives, by listening to each other through the
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spheres of love, respect, tolerance, mercy, and compassion, which will be the solution to end
skepticism. This is a long-term target and will take time to be achieved, yet is necessary if there
is to be no conflict or threat to the autonomy or main principle of Canadian identity. This
bottom-up approach can provide a workable solution, a strong force in “unifying Canadian
identity” (Tang, 2005). Canadians realize that differences in class, race, gender, sexual
orientation, colonialism and capital cannot be made to vanish by the magic of multicultural
policies that are enforced dualistically from above (Paikin, 2010).
In addition, the Canadian history of colonialism allows us to begin exploring the social
relations and cultural forms which characterize the relationship between visible minorities and
the state of Canada/English Canada/COQ. Bannerji asks a question about the identity of
“Canadians” and/or the “two nations.” There is a struggle between naturalized national identity
and the manipulative political state identity. There are boundaries between the forced state
political dimension society, and the zone of freedom that lies outside that political dimension,
which is civil society. Canadian civil society has been asking questions consistently about the
meaning of Canadian identity and where justice, happiness and equality really lie. Constantly,
the past is reconstructed in memory through subjects, symbols, pictures, and funny or sad
episodes, where the visual memory of the engraving of even of a page or of some lines might
remain. If certain Indigenous memories are inconvenient or burden us, they are nevertheless
inseparable from our present life which would be imperfect and incomplete without them.
According to Maurice Halbwachs, history can be malleable, based on the versions of select
social classes/groups, and it can distort the past using such means as fabrication and repression,
as has occurred in the postmodern era. Religions, functional nobilities, feudal ideas, laws, and
customs are transmitted from traditional society to our modern society, which then also becomes
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filled with wealthy elites and bourgeoisies. As a class characterized by egoism, as the present
elite has transferred the hierarchies of the past into personified professions in technical activities
as part of their social obscurity, but the inequalities remain (Halbwachs, 1925). Bannerji states
that multiculturalism is not a “thing” in Marxist terms. It is not a cultural object nor is it inert,
waiting on the shelf to be bought or left. It is a mode of the workings of the state, an expression
of an interaction of social relations in dynamic tension with each other, the losing and gaining of
political form with fluidity. It is thus a site for struggle, as is “Canada for contestation, for a kind
of tug – of – war of social forces” (Himani, 2000). A multicultural mosaic still constructs visible
minorities as a social image, while the architecture of the nation reinforces the French style of a
social exclusion model in Quebec rather than adopting the social inclusion model of diversity
encouraged in Canada for the Indigenous population. Thus the inequities of the past are
perpetuated.
In fact, living with identities and sometimes lands and cultures that have been
reconstructed by the postcolonial state or society can lead to a process of being further
disconnected, leading to dispossession culturally, materially, and of being rendered dependent on
the very state that has unleashed the earlier, historical forces of oppression (Nietschmann,1995).
The Indigenous people often feel disconnected in their relationships with each other,
disconnected from their communities, homelands, ceremonial lives, languages and histories. Yet
such connections are crucial to living a meaningful life for any human being. The political-legal
“compartmentalization” of community values through an artificially created Indigenous space or
“reserves” often leads Indigenous nations to mimic the practices of the dominant non-Indigenous
legal-political institutions. Such “divide and conquer” tactics by the colonial state, and apparent
adherence to state-sanctioned definitions of Indigenous identity result in a “politics of
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distraction” diverting energies away from decolonizing and regenerating communities
(Hingangaroa, 2000). These tactics also frame community relationships in state-centric terms, as
Aboriginal “issues” that occur in a separate reality, not bearing any relation to their own official
state ethos. The Aboriginals are seen as a separate entity, possessing their own sovereignty and
therefore not actually part of the ‘modern’ Canadian state’s jurisdiction. Debating about
Aboriginal identities is not simply a matter of political correctness, because the different
Aboriginal conditions and definitions of status contain expressions that are in themselves racist
and discriminatory. There are four explanations to account for the differences between
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal groups in terms of their sociobiology, culture, structure and
history and these four different statuses themselves seem to cause greater structural inequality.
There are four categories of Aboriginal peoples in Canada; Inuit, Metis, First Nation, and non-
status Indians. These categories are based on a combination of self-definitions and socio-legal
definitions. They are important because these identities carry certain rights and because they try
to express more authentic ways of being. Measures taken by the federal government in the 1985
amendment to the Indian Act, in order to correct gender discrimination, have been controversial.
Some Aboriginal leaders claim that the federal government is continuing to pursue a policy of
assimilation through the way that it defines First Nations. There are also controversies within
First Nation communities about how to define who is a band member (Satzewich, Liodakis,
2007).
Importantly for this discussion, the postmodern theorists reconstruct, decolonize and
resurrect realities based on recurring narratives. However, during the post-modernity period, the
history of aboriginals has been fabricated through the production of symbols within which music
and images connect and the past and present are combined in a way that people then utilize to
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understand and perceive current issues. This history is then made visible and accessible through
public discourse that works through institutions and organizations in the social realm. Foucault
has challenged existing historical discourses with alternative narratives and states that a false
truth can easily be created within power structures (Foucault, 1995). Indigenous collective
memories can be seen as an ideal model for the way society best remembers the past, because
past events are “keyed by the present” which means that “the past is invoked as a frame for
understanding the present” (Schwartz, 1996). The problem of the unreliable individual memory
can always be overcome by forgetfulness and denial, repression and trauma, and more often than
not serving the need to rationalize and maintain power. Of course, forgetfulness and fear of
Indigenous nations is a dangerous cultural virus for the constructed Canadian identity, in which
mythic memory now appears under the influence of media technologies. Remembrance as a vital
human activity shapes our links to the past, and the ways we remember define us in the present.
Socially constructed Canadian society has been feeding individuals’ unconscious desires to be
guided in their most conscious actions, including the “mistaken belief in some ultimately pure,
complete, and transcendent memory,” and at the same time, the strongly remembered past may
turn into mythic memory, which then becomes a part of Canadian identity (Huyssen,
1993).Memory is tied to social order, which is in turn maintained by power relations, as it is
beyond individual persons and becomes a social glue or mechanical organic solidarity if it
becomes a site of memory, as the memory of the “other” is always forgotten.
Ironically, decolonization “...involves profound transformations of the self, community,
and governance structures [and] can only be engaged through active withdrawal of consent and
resistance to structures of psychic and social domination... a historical and collective process”
(Mohanty, 2003). It means striving to replace the doctrines of individualism and predatory
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capitalism with a sense of unity and purpose in the face of ongoing economic marginalization.
For example, in Canada, the British Columbia Treaty Process has been structured to achieve the
legalization of the settler society's occupation of un-ceded and non-treaty lands that make up
90% of the territory in that province, which means that the Indigenous people would have to
“surrender their Aboriginal title to the Crown, whereupon it becomes vested in the province.”
To a large extent, institutional approaches to making meaningful change in the lives of
Indigenous people have not led to any form of decolonization and regeneration. In fact, they
have further entrenched Indigenous people in the colonial institutions they set out to challenge.
This is because such macro-level attempts towards reconstituting a series of ‘strong nations’ are
based largely on the backs of a de-energized, dispirited and de-cultured people.
By contrast, the United Redress Movement might be more effective in achieving
solidarity without falsely constructed memories and biases, by instead establishing mutual bonds
between cultures, and by collaborating through visible and invisible networks at the national and
domestic level with its counterparts in Canada. This potential movement demonstrates a civil,
moral, and holistic engagement with the task and is constructed on a socially altruistic model as a
non-governmental organization. It offers non-violent solutions which complete the gap between
the national state goals of Canada and Indigenous individuals by providing the answers to
ignorance, hopelessness and disunity. The Redress Movement may target the real humanization
of people and the sharing of common goals for all Canadians through educational, social and
cultural projects, and it can create many sustainable organizations which will be transformed into
revolutionary collective action wherein individuals commit themselves to their work. According
to Alfred & Corntassel (2005), the path to recovery and healing for Indigenous people may have
to start with the individual. The individual self will then radiate this healing outwards to family,
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clan, community and then other larger units in turn. In this way, Indigenousness is reconstructed,
reshaped and actively lived by internal forces rather than “borrowed” or imposed by well-
meaning outsiders. New patterns of thought and action will then guide the ever-expanding
movement towards a more authentic Indigenous reality that is self-propelled.
Furthermore, Freire advocates removing egoism from individuals to “build a trust that is
strongly possessive to the consciousness to engage in and solve somebody else‘s struggles”
(Freire,1993). Historical injustices in Canada have occurred throughout the passage of time, and
the demand for human rights and justice to redress these constitutional violations has always
been connected to an awareness of the measure of the wrong being done to the entire country.
The public generally acknowledges any crime contained within the Human Rights Chapters
(Sevy, 2004). For example, many diverse ethnic groups such as Japanese, Chinese, Muslim
Canadians, Indigenous and LGBTTQ communities feel a similar vindication concerning the
means of restoring honor, a sense of ethnicity, culture, heritage, reintegration, and belonging to a
country as first class citizens as a result of the healing quality of the redress experience. (Sevy,
2004).
Furthermore, the South African case of forgiveness has been criticized as a fake
forgiveness, with lack of respect shown to deponents through a symbolic and ritualized and
hence perhaps insincere performance conducted with the help of religious beliefs and bodies.
Arguably, the entire process was faulty because of the unwillingness of the beneficiaries of
apartheid to offer victims financial restoration, or even to acknowledge their wrongdoing. Instead
they misrepresented the nature of the crime and did not offer any expression of regret (Chapman,
2008). The intentional outcome of the reconciliation process in South Africa was to dehumanize
people of color, while the white community benefited because they were able to share with one
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another an understanding of the past, through which they provided a “moral framework” of
religious and political beliefs that effectively lessened the number of individual acts of
forgiveness (Apfelbaum,2010). The Canadian dominant whites feared revealing the truth of the
Indigenous case might generate new anger, revenge, hatred, sorrow, sadness, disempowerment,
and bitterness rather than bring healing in a positive manner, and similarly, the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission process “imposed a false homogeneity around the agendas of
survivors” in Canada (Chaplen, 2008).
On the other hand, freedom for the Other (the Indigenous people) comes from
transcending the controlling power of the many and varied fears that colonial powers use to
dominate and manipulate them into complacency and cooperation. The way to do this is to
confront many fears head-on through spiritually grounded action; it is the only way to break the
chains that bind us to our colonial existences. As Alfred & Corntassel (2005) state, “we live in an
era of postmodern imperialism and manipulations by shape-shifting colonial powers; the
instruments of domination are evolving and inventing new methods to erase Indigenous histories
and senses of place” (Taiaiake, Jeff, 2005). Reconciliation must be grounded in the everyday
realities of people’s lives and fears. The humiliation and harassment of Indigenous people must
stop; otherwise people see Aboriginal themes as “the enemy” according to the Canadian media.
Real decolonization would reconstitute lost capacities, moreover. For example,
decolonizing Aboriginal diet would result in the regained self-sufficient capacity to provide their
own food, clothing, shelter and medicines. Of ultimate importance to the struggle for freedom is
the reconstitution of their own sick and weakened physical bodies and community relationships
accomplished through a return to the natural sources of food and the active, hard-working,
physical lives lived by their ancestors. In The Fourth World, Manuel and Posluns explain: “The
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colonial system is always a way of gaining control over another people for the sake of what the
colonial power has determined to be ‘the common good.” People can only become convinced of
such common good narratives when their own capacity to imagine ways in which they can
govern themselves has been destroyed. (Manuel, Poslun 1974). Sadly, history is a social
construction and many official national histories and nations are imagined communities and
structured to ossify the past and block our understanding of historical truth for the sake of the
continuity of society. Truth is imposed by society; history is usually a fabrication and selection in
the form of memory. Society creates a total fiction of history. History is malleable and
changeable. Halbwachs mentions the reflection of the present construction in the past, in which
the present defends history; this should be a non-linear progress, which can be interpreted and
changed. As it stands, history has become a force that is driven to rationalize the past.
(Halbwachs, 1925). Change happens one warrior at a time. You can eat an elephant only if you
eat one small piece at a time. Achieving small rights for individuals is much easier than changing
large structures. The Redress Movement must reconstitute the mentoring and ‘learning–teaching’
relationships that foster real and meaningful human development and community solidarity. The
movement toward decolonization and regeneration will emanate from transformations achieved
by directly-guided experience in small, personal, groups and through one-on-one mentoring
towards a new path. This involves erasing the distortions, the disfigurement and the devaluation
of pre-colonial history, as proposed by Frantz Fanon in The Wretched of the Earth. He narrates
the pre-colonial story from the vantage point of the Indigenous people themselves as never told
before. (Fanon, 1963).
Towards a new identity
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Thirdly, since the 1980s, memory has been seen as a “site of contestation”, for instance,
the memory of the Aboriginal trauma was constructed, contested, re-remembered, forgotten and
then transformed. Racial profiling against many ordinary Canadian Aboriginals shows that the
possibility of a holocaust is still real for the Indigenous population. If a new Canadian identity is
constructed without the inclusion of Aboriginal values; or if it is thought that Indigenous culture
doesn’t fit into Canadian identity because of being inherently irrelevant to it, the reconciliation
never happened. Humanity could lose its mind, yet again, and a massacre could occur again in
Canada. The Redress Movement should make people aware that this did happen once and warn
that it should not happen again. Reconciliation is more of a process than an outcome for
victimized individuals and communities. Most “settler” scholars of “native” literature avoid
topics such as land ownership, law and governance, and focus instead on power relations at the
level of colonization, sexism and other institutions (Fagan, 2004). Others cast “Aboriginal”
people in a state of victimization, even calling upon their communities to "heal" themselves
despite stark poverty, differences in education and a hostile criminal justice system (Rymhs,
2006). After a long struggle, in 1998, after the government apology over the Residential Schools’
tragic legacy, in 2012 a $350 million fund was earmarked and announced to support previously
established an Aboriginal Healing Foundation for community-based projects to back residential
schools’ healing initiatives (Health Canada, 2012). Furthermore, the United Nations Declaration
of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, approved by the UN General Assembly in 2007, identified
numerous areas in which national governments could work to improve the situation of
Aboriginal peoples. The Declaration included articles concerned with improving economic and
social conditions, the right to attain the highest levels of health, and the right to protect and
conserve their environments. Canada was one of four nations (Australia, Canada, New Zealand,
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US) to vote against its adoption. One hundred and forty three nations voted in favour (Health
Canada, 2012). The 2007 Federal Reconciliation Plan and Community Intervention goals have
not met the recommendations that were set out in the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal
Peoples. Canadian Indian Chiefs and Indigenous communities have proposed the following
recommendations, and virtually none of them have been implemented.
• Recognition of an Aboriginal order of government with authority over matters related to the
good government and welfare of Aboriginal peoples and their territories.
• Replacement of the federal Department of Indian Affairs with two departments, one to
implement a new relationship with Aboriginal nations and one to provide services for non-self-
governing communities.
• Creation of an Aboriginal Parliament.
• Initiatives to address social, education, health, and housing needs, including the training of
10,000 health professionals over a 10-year period, the establishment of an Aboriginal peoples’
university, and recognition of Aboriginal nations’ authority over child welfare (Royal
Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, 1996).
Moreover, the Canadian media is always questioning the efficacy of the reconciliation
process and one might also ask how the process violates the understanding of forgiveness as a
reciprocal act. The Canadian government issued a “Statement of Reconciliation” to former
occupants of residential schools in 2008, stating it was “deeply sorry” for the collective and
personal damage of these institutions for indigenous communities (Statement, 2008). Shaped by
global politics, these attempts at reconciliation reflect a current sensibility of revisiting national
history. In fact, the federal government’s Statement of Reconciliation does not apologize for
government actions. It recognizes the pain and doesn’t admit responsibility for that pain. Many
critics maintain that the “Healing Fund” created by the federal government for former residential
school residence is an attempt to avert lawsuits and claims for monetary reparation. Some argue
that in its statement of reconciliation regarding residential schools, the Canadian government
purposefully falls short of acknowledging its guilt for the grief suffered by Aboriginal peoples.
The discussion that comes out of the process of reconciliation similarly re-enacts these colonial
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dichotomies of oppressor-oppressed, colonizer-colonized (Rymhs, 2006). The racial and cultural
reality or worldview of many persons of color differs from that of the white race. Ethnocentric
monoculturalism creates a strong belief in the superiority of one group’s cultural heritage,
history, values, language, beliefs, religion, traditions, and arts and crafts called “cultural racism”
that potentially results in cultural oppression (Sue et al., 1998; Sue & Sue, 2003). Martin Luther
King once advocated judging people not by the color of their skin but by their internal character.
On the surface, such a statement from a renowned civil rights advocate seems to reinforce the
concept of a color-blind society as an answer to discrimination and prejudice. Unfortunately,
many proponents of this concept have failed to understand the context of King’s statement and/or
have co-opted it for their own ends (Sue, 2004). Definitely, the residential school became a site
of memory for Canadian history and a cultural, political and social trauma for Aboriginals which
linked the past to a present where Aboriginal voices are still forgotten and a national crime was
never investigated. Canadian authorities have seen Aboriginals as savages, with an uncivilized
and primitive culture, whereas their own superior, civilized and dominant culture sought to
assimilate them with a designed curriculum, and surrogate parenting (planting out) through the
foster home model which resulted in the separation of weak children from their families,
language, religion and moral values into a segregated place: the residential schools and now the
Children Aid’s Society.
In conclusion, some Canadian politicians and bureaucrats believe that Canada is at
cultural war seeking to maintain a unified Canadian identity. A potential united Aboriginal
Redress Movement will face many problems in the Canadian discourse. One of the key tactics of
Canadian governments has been their attempt to weaken trust between social activists, and thus
spread paranoia about surveillance and infiltration to the point where “it was not repression but
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internal weaknesses that lead to the decline of the 1960‘s social movement” (Bantijes, 2007).
History and identity can be rewritten by recovering individual and collective memories, and we
can test history through individual memories as memory provides continuity, and transforms
society’s individual memory into the modern collective memory that constructs real Canadian
identity. Textbooks play an important role in helping the public get ready to tackle such issues,
while the museum as a site of memory can play a significant role in a group‘s self-understanding
of the residential schools, killings, sexual assaults cases and how the imagery of Canadian
identity has been socially constructed. Ethnicities, individual rights, religions and cultures are
very powerful and strong influences to the mind, even though post-modernity has been erasing
the “site of memory”, forgetting the “site of contestation” and ignoring the “collective
consciousness”, and removing our responsibilities from the past to the present (Winter, 1999). In
fact, nobody can remove Aboriginal victims’ memories from the collective memories of their
people because their horrific experiences were shared by their whole society. The ultimate goal
of Indigenous reparation and reconciliation will be to construct a new Canadian identity with all
its citizens making contributions. This is the primary objective of efforts to come to terms with
the past. Political reconciliation implies public acknowledgment, public recognition, and public
accountability. It deals with structural and institutional frameworks of rights and justice. With
reconciliation, society can move on ahead without always bringing up hurtful memories of the
past. Reconciliation should give the victimized group a fuller sense of membership in society.
Reconciliation is really more about the future then it is about the past. Reparations help the
spread of ideas about human rights, and make the notion of human rights seem real and
enforceable in the absence of a global police force. In spite of such lessons, the danger of
forgetting is that the risk that such mistreatment may be repeated in the future. In addition,
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forgiveness is an act which tells the public that history was wrong. Resolving historical wrongs
may occur in two ways: the state apologizes to victims, or they provide an alternative victim-
centered moral approach that is all about forgiveness (Winter, 1999). Reparation encompasses
transitional justice, apologies, and efforts for reconciliation in a broader political sense, whereas
reconciliation, healing and forgiveness are structured through symbols, and national unity is
restored as a result of subsequent reparations politics. Activism towards these goals is crucial as
without active engagement with the struggles of First Nation’s peoples the project of anti-racism
remains an incomplete project (Lawrence and Dua, 2005). As Bonita Lawrence has pointed out,
decolonizing Canada begins by acknowledging “land theft and dispossession” (Lawrence, 2002).
Claims for reparations have become widespread, and reparations activists consider them essential
for restitution of constitutional human rights and morality in law. Without collaboration, a
structured Canadian identity, imposed from above, could lead to secular-hatred fascism and
religious bias racism towards others, threatening a collapse in the meaning of multiculturalism
and destroying the possibility of living in a peaceful co-existence and learning peace in the earth
school of diversity that is Canada.
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SK501- Community Intervention: Theory and Practice Essentials
Faruk Arslan
Rather than a single Social Work approach, I’ve been experiencing and receiving several
multiple, multicultural and multidimensional perspectives of practice model messages from our
instructors, who are mainly focused on a social justice-oriented model around the world and in
Canada’s model that is embraced by a wide range of social workers in clinical, community and
policy settings, such as feminist, Marxist, critical, postmodernist, Indigenous-centered, post-
structural, critical constructionist, anti-colonial, anti-racist, anti-oppressive theories, and
strength-based, order, objective, ecological, conflict and change, concepts, and psychological,
biological and behavioral perspectives.
First of all, my confusion has arisen because of my tendency to view all aspects of social work,
which claims a very idealistic way but ignores the reality of new forms of workplaces such as
many non-profit sectors, governments and government funded agencies within bureaucratic
structures. After graduation, we will be enforced to require work in pro-market, business-like
management solutions, using effective and fast-track solutions with lesser cost efficiency, service
sold to make a profit basis rather than transformative models such as anti-oppressive, social
justice, equality, equity care, a public service ethos, non-market initiatives, change-like, stressing
social connection to individual, families and group, community basis or care-based approaches.
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In fact, under the neo-liberal economy, democracy and management style in the post-modern era,
a system of economic global interconnectedness, the culture and system of capitalism and
technological interdependence has taken over what we used to call society. There is no one in
charge or claim to the sole ownership of wrongdoing or control over self-regulating cultural,
economic and political catastrophies, and social work practices are losing power on the ground,
whereas social work practice is manipulated by systemic inefficiencies, ignorant of
discriminations and bureaucratic barriers. Neither are the developed countries from the Western
welfare state, including Canada’s grass-roots organizations, providing a sustainable solution to
either of these social problems because of our standardized social work that is breaking practices
down into documentation works that are highly regulated by government rules, without allowing
anti-oppressive practices and giving little or no space for referral to social actions groups to link
clients with advocacy agencies or challenge injustice to fight against poverty, disunity and
ignorance in effective ways. Social Workers should put pressure on the political market directly,
indirectly and symbolically with its soft power in democracy, challenging society through visible
and invisible initiatives, media organs and networks, collaborate with multi-communities, make
intercultural and interfaith dialogue, and cooperate on projects and services for breaking the
walls whether within or outside the system.
For example, the Dundas and Sherbourne community in the documentary has indicated that
social justice and equity, and building, developing and increasing community capacity with a
complex, extraordinary, transformative job where social workers need to deal with social,
cultural, political, religious constrains, deficiencies, discriminations, stereotypes, prejudices,
biases for the effective issue-based community intervention. There are a lot of tools to be need
such as skill building, dialogues, engagements, advocacies, and collaborations with community
partners, in terms of social planning and social actions. Angel and Rob’s story was sad and
critical to understand how the system is defective to solve the problems of victims of the current
system, social housings and shelter’s inefficiency and why psychotherapy is needed to solve
individual problems for a vibrant and healthy community. It signs that this community capacity
is weak and even absences of mental health institutions that social workers perform to intervene
drug addiction, mentally ill and undocumented sex worker’s deep anxiety, and how to rescue
them from a suicidal condition. Angel mentioned that “I am an unaccepted person in the
community; somebody will kill me on the street one day, and my life is going to end”.
Community doesn’t accept them, provide a safe haven and they live in a dark fear without an
affordable home wherein it seems that there is no justice, no escape, future for her and her
boyfriend. Eventually, the problem wasn’t solved properly and homeless victims have forced to
move out to two blocks away after staying jail and had convicted more than hundred times.
Shelters are still run badly and heavily bureaucratic while there is systemic discrimination and
management problems, for instance, polices read and blame their behavior wrongly in this
statement, “they’ve chosen to live in such bad condition”
In conclusion, frame alignments, gender segregations, frame extensions, transformations of new

ideas, public representations and cultural innovations are still limitations and weaknesses of
social work in a practice level. Social Workers are encouraged to stand and work transformative
and revolutionary manner; however, Social Workers have increasingly and dramatically require
spending more time for paper work, completing standardized forms of every type, keeping
statistics, returning calls, and attending meetings rather than doing interactions with clients and
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communities and organizing a collective action wherein individuals commit themselves to their
work. Collective actions can bring about kindness, respectfulness, generosity and above all else
cultural harmony, anti-oppressive, and positive environment. Leading social activities and
actions, speaking up for victims of the current society, and helping others to change their life
from socially constructed structures are important roles for social workers while use social work
code of ethics within practices, which show entuhaism and empowerement on a variety of social
works collaboratively in a multiple scale clients, co-workers and supervisors. I’ve received
messages that social workers must heal themselves individually, remove egoism from their
minds, souls and hearts by helping others and establish a positive relationship with clients and
individuals to build a trust that is strongly possessive to the consciousness to engage in and solve
somebody else‘s struggles. I agree with that real inner peace can be achieved by sharing different
perspective, listening to each other through the sphere of love, respect, tolerance, mercy, and
compassion.
Oct 10, 2012
SK 507 – Diversity, Marginalization, and Oppression
Faruk Arslan# 115805450
Thesis: The policy of multiculturalism officially adopted by Canada in 1971 is the foundation of
a strong society and national identity, as it provides international economic and social influence
and is a progressive model for other nations throughout the world.
Summary: In a society that promotes the understanding of different cultural traditions, the
ability to effectively mediate disputes and conflicts becomes a valuable feature. Similarly, the
understanding of other cultures through the policy ofmulticulturalism has enabled Canada to
serve as a leading force for global peacekeeping and mediation. Canada also enjoys an economic
strength that rivals that of the United States and many other developed nations. This is due to
the development of Canada as a multicultural society.
Multicultural Canada: A Historical Perspective

Canada is home to many different cultures. Beginning with the settlement of the First Nations
cultures and continuing through the declaration of a multicultural society in 1971 and the
supportive immigration policies of the twenty-first century, Canada has been characterized by
diversity. Before any influx of European or other cultures, the fifty-six or more First Nations that
shared the broad expanses of Canada had a cultural diversity all their own, as evidenced by the
fact that almost thirty different First Nations’ languages exist in the land that later developed into
the country of Canada. Even though territorial dispute often resulted in conflict, these tribes
developed and shared traditions and protocols that enabled valuable trade among them. When
the Europeans arrived, the First Nations peoples used the skills they had learned in trading with
each other, to trade with the Europeans. This country was built on business being conducted
between diverse and multicultural groups: the French, the English, and the First Nations peoples.
Historically, Canada's large territorial size and sparse population proved to be perhaps the most
important determining factors in the development of Canadian multiculturalism. Harsh and
lengthy winter conditions and the difficulty of traveling great distances through undeveloped
territory restricted immigration and colonization. As a result, both the French and English settlers
who were the first to colonize the land quickly realized that conversion of the native cultures
would not be possible. The settlement populations were neither large enough nor strong enough
to displace the native cultures around them. Instead, they chose to adopt some of the native
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practices in order to survive, especially as individuals moved farther away from established
settlements.Though tensions were sometimes high, the foundations of a multicultural society
were taking root.
The status of Canadian settlements as British and French colonies set in a great, unknown
wilderness also served to limit the influx of new arrivals. In contrast, the newly formed,
independent country of the United States was viewed as the prime destination for those who
sought to live as free people. A policy of territorial expansion, or to claim as much territory as
possible for the rapidly growing population, was actively pursued by the US government. This
was coupled with the fundamental principle expressed in the US Constitution that all citizens
have the same rights under the law and the same obligations to the state. Strict adherence to
this principle was the basis for proactive policies that sought to remove other cultural influences
from the essentially white Anglo-Saxon core. As a result of these policies, native cultures were
displaced and isolated from the mainstream of society, and other cultures were denied entry. A
so-called "melting pot" of the US was born in which immigrants were expected to discard their
cultural heritage.
Until 1867, Canadian territories remained an assortment of regions governed by independent

assemblies that were subordinate to the British and French monarchies. When the various
provinces confederated in 1867 to from the Dominion of Canada, they also formed a centralized
federal parliament. One role of this government was to develop national policies and laws. It also
bore responsibility for the development of the nation as a whole. The vast tracts of land that had
previously experienced little development suddenly had access to a powerful means of attracting
residents. Against the backdrop of rapid expansion in the Midwestern United States, it also
became very important that the Canadian government consolidate the claims of the Midwest
provinces through a program of active settlement. Immigration programs carried out by the
government brought waves of immigrants not only from Britain and France, but from a variety of
other European and Asian countries, including Ukraine, Poland, and China.
A Progressive Model
The Canadian Multiculturalism Act was legislated in 1971 by the Liberal government led by
Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. The act established the formal political policy and
framework that would officially shape Canada as a multicultural nation into the new
millennium. The purpose of the Multicultural Act was to solidify Canada's position as a nation in
which people enjoy equal rights and opportunities and who value others' individual differences.
The passing of the Multiculturalism Act proved to be a strategic move on the part of the
government, as it positioned Canada to be a leader in multicultural understanding for the
twenty-first century. By the 1990s, some twenty years after the Multicultural Act had been
legislated, the world was a very different place. Global communications technology and the
Internet made it possible to participate in business worldwide instantaneously. Canada had a
head start in transcending geographical and cultural boundaries made possible by the World
Wide Web, as its population had already internalized the values and ethics associated
with multiculturalism.
Within the framework of Canadian multiculturalism there is the ideal principle that no
individual person or culture is valued more or less than any other. Within Canadian society, the
ideal ofmulticulturalism is that each person has the right and the opportunity to perpetuate
their cultural heritage with dignity. All are expected to show consideration for the cultures and
traditions of those around them and to offer to other citizens the benefit of the experiences and
unique insights inherent to their respective traditions. This has become an ideal that other
nations of the world studied and attempted to implement.
Benefits of Multiculturalism
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When one is searching for economic prosperity, it is often wise to network and build a web of
contacts extending as far as possible into the world. The idea is that someone in that network is
the key to contact with opportunities that suit one's particular set of talents and
experience.Similarly, for businesses to prosper in the global arena they must also
network. Networking is greatly facilitated by a multicultural society that provides ready access to
people who speak more than one language and can communicate with others in common
terms. As individuals enter society with their cultural heritage intact, they bring with them
culturally distinctive insights, knowledge and experience, and new points of contact within their
country of origin. This helps the economic network grow, opening up markets for the import and
export of goods and for the provision of labour both domestically and abroad. Having such a
network in place, strengthening it, and allowing it to develop provides a powerful mechanism for
economic development and trade in the global economy.
In 2009, Canada opened its doors to almost half a million new residents. Research shows that 60
percent of immigrants to Canada in the new millennium self identify as "economic migrants."
This means that they come to Canada seeking an improvement to their economic status. In turn,
they bring skills, knowledge, and their own traditions. Together these strengthen the very fabric
of the Canadian society. Immigration of people from diverse countries not only helps Canada to
meet long-term economic goals, ensures its position in the global marketplace, and offsets other
demographic trends such as an aging workforce and low birth rates, but also strengthens our
identity as a multicultural nation.
Historically, contention and social strife have arisen most violently when cultures that have
developed in isolation or in segregation seek to expand and encounter other segregated
cultures.This often results in power struggles and armed conflict. At the same time, the great
market cities of history have been places where peoples of different cultures coexisted peacefully
and prosperously while conducting trade. They were, by definition and in practice, multicultural
societies whose residents actively sought to understand and work with the cultures of those
around them in order to derive the greatest benefits. People were thus able to learn from other
cultures and integrate that knowledge into their own cultures. The benefits of increased trade, of
advances in engineering and materials, and of other tangible commodities promote a
progressive, inclusive philosophy and social tolerance. This is certainly the case of Canada, as
evidenced by the fact that Canada is one of the few countries in the world that has never
experienced a civil war.Multiculturalism is precisely what keeps Canada strong and known the
world over as being a peaceful, tolerant nation.
Ponder This
1. Has the author avoided or overlooked important issues in the debate?

2. Is the argument in favour of multiculturalism adequately supported
by factual information? Why or why not?
3. How do the benefits of multiculturalism validate its status as a
national policy?
4. Does colonialism alone account for the development of Canada as a
multicultural society? Was Canadian multiculturalism in fact
inevitable?
5. How important is the existence of effective central government to the
development of a multicultural society?
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Attending, participating and actively involving to Equity Forum 2012 was challenging
experience, especially the Collective Healing Workshop was impacted on me personally which
was presented by Martha Kuwee Kumsa. I have never thought how I have been healing myself
before and I’ve finally discovered after that session a story telling, listening to music, dancing,
poetry and book writing useful tools to heal yourself individually and help others to capture the
hearts of many in Social Work practice. Emotions, depressions and our post traumas are
produced either negative or positive energies that we need to let energy comes out from our
body, mind and soul through listening to music, dancing, sharing our or somebody else stories,
writing powerful poems and books, articles and connecting to the place of hurt individually
where vibrations let go off and invisible stress to be healed.
Leading a social activities and actions, speaking up for victims of the current society, and
helping others to change their life from socially constructed structures are my general goals over
the short, medium and long terms; additionally, I would ability to survive in any conditions from
any insusceptibility to escapism, extremism and violence, and able to in the simplicity of
decision-making and mediation, empower in my efficiency and effectiveness, and in my work
ethics within which a variety of interests and works collaboratively in a multiple scale clients,
co-workers and supervisors. Collective actions bring about kindness, respectfulness, generosity
and above all else cultural harmony and anti-oppressive, positive environment. My position is
that a discussion on cultural differences and dancing together does not have to digress into
confusion, fighting, and anarchy, so real inner peace can be achieved by sharing different
perspectives by listening to each other through the sphere of love, respect, tolerance, mercy, and
compassion.
Multiculturalism" is a term used to describe a vision of equality and mutual respect in a nation
made up of diverse religious, racial, and cultural groups. The policy is based on a fundamental
belief that all citizens are equal and capable of embracing their ancestry and ethnic identity while
contributing to the development of their new country.
When the French and the British staked their claims in North America 500 years ago, the land
was already populated by many Aboriginal peoples. Since its founding by European settlers,
Canada has received waves of immigrants. Initially, most of Canada's immigrants arrived from
Europe or the United States. However, late in the nineteenth century, people from China and
Japan began to settle in Western Canada.
While some immigrants were welcomed, others were not. In the nineteenth century, as Chinese
immigrants began to arrive, they were forced to pay a tax, known as a head tax, simply for being
in Canada. During the First World War, over 8,500 Canadians of Ukrainian descent were held in
interment camps set up across the country. In 1914, a steamship carrying nearly 400 Indian
immigrants, the Komagata Maru, was not allowed to dock in Western Canada, and its passengers
were forced to return to India. During the Second World War, over 22,000 Japanese Canadians
were regarded as suspicious and were placed in internment camps.After the war, nearly half of
them were forced into returning to Japan, even though many had been born and raised in Canada.
237
After the Second World War, the Canadian government began to assess its treatment of
particular groups of immigrants. By the time the 1960 Canadian Bill of Rights was implemented,
federal policies no longer discriminated against parties based on race, colour, religion or
gender. Immigration laws reflecting this non-discrimination policy did not come into effect until
Lester B. Pearson's government created a new system for admitting immigrants in 1967.
Multiculturalism was formalized by the Canadian government in the
1970s. Before multiculturalism became official policy, the twin policies of bilingualism and
biculturalism served to acknowledge the legacy of both British and French culture in Canada,
although not that of First Nations peoples. As other groups arrived and settled mostly in English
Canada, assimilation was encouraged. Newcomers would integrate with the contemporary
cultural practices and participate in building the nation. Eventually, however, the government
fostered recognition of the diverse cultures and values of Canadians from linguistic and ethnic
backgrounds other than French or British.
In the 1970s, the population of Canada included refugees, members of visible minorities, and
people whose religions, languages, and cultural values differed significantly from those of the
British, French, and Aboriginal peoples. The policy of multiculturalism was implemented to help
facilitate cultural harmony between the distinct groups.
While Canada is renowned for its commitment to multiculturalism, the policy has also received
criticism. Critics suggest that the emphasis on diversity has resulted in a "hyphenated
citizenship," referring to the usage of hyphenated identities, such as "French-Canadian,"
"Jamaican-Canadian," or "Irish-Canadian." These identities are not considered fully Canadian by
some critics.
The policy of multiculturalism officially adopted by Canada in 1971 is the foundation of a strong
society and national identity, as it provides international economic and social influence and is a
progressive model for other nations throughout the world. In a society that promotes the
understanding of different cultural traditions, the ability to effectively mediate disputes and
conflicts becomes a valuable feature. Similarly, the understanding of other cultures through the
policy ofmulticulturalism has enabled Canada to serve as a leading force for global peacekeeping
and mediation. Canada also enjoys an economic strength that rivals that of the United States and
many other developed nations. This is due to the development of Canada as a multicultural
society.
HISTORY
Canada is home to many different cultures. Beginning with the settlement of the First Nations
cultures and continuing through the declaration of a multicultural society in 1971 and the
supportive immigration policies of the twenty-first century, Canada has been characterized by
diversity. Before any influx of European or other cultures, the fifty-six or more First Nations that
shared the broad expanses of Canada had a cultural diversity all their own, as evidenced by the
fact that almost thirty different First Nations’ languages exist in the land that later developed into
the country of Canada. Even though territorial dispute often resulted in conflict, these tribes
developed and shared traditions and protocols that enabled valuable trade among them. When the
Europeans arrived, the First Nations peoples used the skills they had learned in trading with each
238
other, to trade with the Europeans. This country was built on business being conducted between
diverse and multicultural groups: the French, the English, and the First Nations peoples.
Historically, Canada's large territorial size and sparse population proved to be perhaps the most
important determining factors in the development of Canadian multiculturalism. Harsh and
lengthy winter conditions and the difficulty of traveling great distances through undeveloped
territory restricted immigration and colonization. As a result, both the French and English settlers
who were the first to colonize the land quickly realized that conversion of the native cultures
would not be possible. The settlement populations were neither large enough nor strong enough
to displace the native cultures around them. Instead, they chose to adopt some of the native
practices in order to survive, especially as individuals moved farther away from established
settlements.Though tensions were sometimes high, the foundations of a multicultural society
were taking root.
The status of Canadian settlements as British and French colonies set in a great, unknown
wilderness also served to limit the influx of new arrivals. In contrast, the newly formed,
independent country of the United States was viewed as the prime destination for those who
sought to live as free people. A policy of territorial expansion, or to claim as much territory as
possible for the rapidly growing population, was actively pursued by the US government. This
was coupled with the fundamental principle expressed in the US Constitution that all citizens
have the same rights under the law and the same obligations to the state. Strict adherence to this
principle was the basis for proactive policies that sought to remove other cultural influences from
the essentially white Anglo-Saxon core. As a result of these policies, native cultures were
displaced and isolated from the mainstream of society, and other cultures were denied entry. A
so-called "melting pot" of the US was born in which immigrants were expected to discard their
cultural heritage.
Until 1867, Canadian territories remained an assortment of regions governed by independent

assemblies that were subordinate to the British and French monarchies. When the various
provinces confederated in 1867 to from the Dominion of Canada, they also formed a centralized
federal parliament. One role of this government was to develop national policies and laws. It also
bore responsibility for the development of the nation as a whole. The vast tracts of land that had
previously experienced little development suddenly had access to a powerful means of attracting
residents. Against the backdrop of rapid expansion in the Midwestern United States, it also
became very important that the Canadian government consolidate the claims of the Midwest
provinces through a program of active settlement. Immigration programs carried out by the
government brought waves of immigrants not only from Britain and France, but from a variety of
other European and Asian countries, including Ukraine, Poland, and China.
MULTICULTURALISM ACT
Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. The act established the formal political policy and
framework that would officially shape Canada as a multicultural nation into the new
millennium. The purpose of the Multicultural Act was to solidify Canada's position as a nation in
which people enjoy equal rights and opportunities and who value others' individual differences.
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The passing of the Multiculturalism Act proved to be a strategic move on the part of the
government, as it positioned Canada to be a leader in multicultural understanding for the twenty-
first century. By the 1990s, some twenty years after the Multicultural Act had been legislated, the
world was a very different place. Global communications technology and the Internet made it
possible to participate in business worldwide instantaneously. Canada had a head start in
transcending geographical and cultural boundaries made possible by the World Wide Web, as its
population had already internalized the values and ethics associated with multiculturalism.
Within the framework of Canadian multiculturalism there is the ideal principle that no individual
person or culture is valued more or less than any other. Within Canadian society, the ideal
ofmulticulturalism is that each person has the right and the opportunity to perpetuate their
cultural heritage with dignity. All are expected to show consideration for the cultures and
traditions of those around them and to offer to other citizens the benefit of the experiences and
unique insights inherent to their respective traditions. This has become an ideal that other nations
of the world studied and attempted to implement.
QUEBEC PROBLEM
On the other hand, Canadian-style multiculturalism poses a grave threat to Quebec culture, Bloc
Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe told Quebec's travelling commission on integrating minorities.
If Canada continues to treat Quebec like every other cultural minority, the end result will be
assimilation into the dominant North American English-speaking culture, Duceppe said.
"Multiculturalism as a model of integration does not work in Quebec.
"Immigrant cultures and beliefs must merge with Quebec's culture and beliefs if the latter is to
survive. They are coming to a nation with values, a culture, and history. The model developed in
Quebec reflects that reality.
"It's in total contradiction with the definition of a Canada that is bilingual and multicultural."
Duceppe decried the federal government's reluctance to allow the language of work in federal
institutions to reflect the common language in each province. He said the federal government
allows less important matters like the minimum wage to be set provincially. Commission co-
chair Charles Taylor suggested "it's the lack of recognition that causes your problems, not
multiculturalism."
Duceppe also wants a renewed emphasis on promoting the use of French in Quebec workplaces
and on allowing newcomers to use foreign credentials in Quebec professions.
Quebec has been in an uproar for months over how far the majority culture should go in adopting
to minorities but Duceppe suggested the controversy is overblown.
"I don't believe Quebec is in crisis," he said.

240
"We've all seen countries in crisis, and this isn't it. A malaise? Yes. Questioning? Yes. But not a
crisis."
The commission headed by sociologist Gerard Bouchard and Taylor, a philosopher, is touring
the province studying the issue and hearing opinions from a wide range of Quebecers.
BENEFITS
When one is searching for economic prosperity, it is often wise to network and build a web of
contacts extending as far as possible into the world. The idea is that someone in that network is
the key to contact with opportunities that suit one's particular set of talents and
experience.Similarly, for businesses to prosper in the global arena they must also
network. Networking is greatly facilitated by a multicultural society that provides ready access to
people who speak more than one language and can communicate with others in common
terms. As individuals enter society with their cultural heritage intact, they bring with them
culturally distinctive insights, knowledge and experience, and new points of contact within their
country of origin. This helps the economic network grow, opening up markets for the import and
export of goods and for the provision of labour both domestically and abroad. Having such a
network in place, strengthening it, and allowing it to develop provides a powerful mechanism for
economic development and trade in the global economy.
In 2009, Canada opened its doors to almost half a million new residents. Research shows that 60
percent of immigrants to Canada in the new millennium self identify as "economic migrants."
This means that they come to Canada seeking an improvement to their economic status. In turn,
they bring skills, knowledge, and their own traditions. Together these strengthen the very fabric
of the Canadian society. Immigration of people from diverse countries not only helps Canada to
meet long-term economic goals, ensures its position in the global marketplace, and offsets other
demographic trends such as an aging workforce and low birth rates, but also strengthens our
identity as a multicultural nation.
Historically, contention and social strife have arisen most violently when cultures that have
developed in isolation or in segregation seek to expand and encounter other segregated
cultures.This often results in power struggles and armed conflict. At the same time, the great
market cities of history have been places where peoples of different cultures coexisted peacefully
and prosperously while conducting trade. They were, by definition and in practice, multicultural
societies whose residents actively sought to understand and work with the cultures of those
around them in order to derive the greatest benefits. People were thus able to learn from other
cultures and integrate that knowledge into their own cultures. The benefits of increased trade, of
advances in engineering and materials, and of other tangible commodities promote a progressive,
inclusive philosophy and social tolerance. This is certainly the case of Canada, as evidenced by
the fact that Canada is one of the few countries in the world that has never experienced a civil
war. Multiculturalism is precisely what keeps Canada strong and known the world over as being
a peaceful, tolerant nation.
In 1971, Canada introduced its Multiculturalism Policy. The policy recognized the dignity of all
Canadians regardless of their religion, ethnic or racial origin, or language, and also recognized
241
the rights of Aboriginal peoples. Some provinces introduced their own multicultural policy and
eventually, Australia and some members of the European Union introduced policies embracing
diversity. In 1973, the Canadian government established the CanadianMulticulturalism Council
and a Multiculturalism Directorate within the Department of the Secretary of State.
Even though multiculturalism was adopted as a national policy, many immigrants continued to
face obstacles as they introduced new and unfamiliar religious practices, modes of dress and
cultural values to Canada. Many immigrants had to fight to secure their rights and freedoms
through the Supreme Court of Canada. However, in July 1988, Parliament passed the
CanadianMulticulturalism Act, which equalized all Canadians, regardless of race, ethnicity and
other differences.
Even though multiculturalism was reinforced as a desirable cultural attitude in 1988, individuals
still often faced discrimination due to their cultural practices. In 1990, members of the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) were granted the right to wear a turban if they so chose. In
1991, a Québécois student, Gurgaj Singh Multani, brought a kirpan (a dagger that signifies
devotion to the Sikh religion) to school. Multani's act sparked a widespread debate about the use
of particular symbols in public places, and how such symbols emphasize ethnic, religious or
racial differences.
Canada's attempts to facilitate the creation of a cohesive society by integrating the values of not
only a diverse immigrant population, but also the First Nations peoples and Quebecois, make it
unique among nations. With the arrival of the twenty-first century, Canada's implementation and
interpretation of diversity and multicultural policy has continued to evolve.
TODAY
In 2002, the Government of Canada proclaimed June 27 as Canadian Multiculturalism Day, an

annual occasion to celebrate diversity. However, while the policy of multiculturalism is applied
throughout Canada, some believe that the reality of diversity is not reconcilable with the ideals
behind the policy. Even in the twenty-first century, Canada has not been hospitable to all
immigrants.
A lack of hospitality toward immigrant workers is evident in Canadian society. A significant

number of highly skilled and professionally trained immigrants are often unable to find work in
their fields. For example, a 2001 study showed that half of new immigrants to Canada had
experienced being overqualified for a job. Companies often refuse to recognize foreign
credentials and, as a result, do not hire immigrants who only have foreign experience or
degrees. In 2005, the federal government provided over $319 million to standardize recognition
of particular foreign credentials to help highly skilled immigrants find jobs consistent with their
level of skill and training.
As a result of these economic barriers, recent immigrants to large Canadian cities often find
themselves struggling to make ends meet. Many live in substandard, overcrowded housing
developments with other recent immigrants. In 2007, nearly 20 percent of the Canadian
population was made up of visible minorities; over 200,000 immigrants arrive in Canada every
242
year from all parts of the world. Many are drawn by economic opportunities and Canada's
reputation as a place of peace and equality.
In the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, Muslim immigrants
have experienced hostility and suspicion. In the province of Quebec in 2007, the city council of
Herouxville passed a code of conduct, which included a prohibition against the wearing of facial
veils. Other communities in Quebec want all signs of religion removed from workplace attire,
including headscarves. Such policies serve to isolate Muslim immigrants from their new
communities.Quebec Premier Jean Charest rejected the anti-religious dress codes as forms of
intolerance and argued for reasonable accommodation on behalf of Muslim immigrants who had
settled in Quebec.
Some efforts to counter some of Canada's past injustices toward immigrant communities have
been made. In 1988, the Canadian government apologized for its treatment of Japanese-
Canadians during the Second World War. In 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized
for the levying of the Chinese Head Tax, recognizing the great contribution of Chinese
immigrants to the building of the transcontinental railroad and the nation itself.
Multiculturalism in Canada continues to evolve, despite criticism that it discourages full

integration into Canadian society. New programs and practices designed to
promotemulticulturalism, such as Black History Month and the opening of prayer rooms in
Canadian universities, are part of the accommodations required to foster a diverse, accepting
society. While some view such accommodations as necessary changes, others see them as
unreasonable and inappropriate. Multiculturalism has been described as a way to make everyone
feel at home in Canada. Despite this, criticism of multicultural policies abounds as many
immigrants remain rooted in their cultural and linguistic traditions.
QUESTIONS:
1. Is the multiculturalism act overlapped and the author avoided or overlooked important
issues in the debate?
2. Is the argument in favour of multiculturalism adequately supported by factual
information? Why or why not?
3. How do the benefits of multiculturalism validate its status as a national policy?
4. Does colonialism alone account for the development of Canada as a multicultural
society? Was Canadian multiculturalism in fact inevitable?
5. How important is the existence of effective central government to the development of a
multicultural society?
6. Does Canadian-style multiculturalism work in Quebec? Why or why not?
7. Counterpoint: Should Canada Expand its Language Education Beyond English and
French?
243
THE HOUSE OF DIFFERENCE AND CRISIS ( pages 103-128)
We’ve seen the national public culture and celebration policy level in three different festivals
were also apparent at several locality of power relations in terms of govermentality and
subjectivity.
The Waterfront Festival defines white culture unmarked and normal Canadianness as normative;
white locality as a nation, proud to be Canadian-Canadian identity at the spirit of nation-building.
Multicultural Canada Day Festival symbolizes to represent different culture as marked and
ethnic; multicultural nationhood as multicultural that mirror of the nationalist multicultural
ideology
The Rockville Festival portrays the absence of Aboriginal idenity and Native imagery that erased
from a local version of Canadian history as a colonial and national project.
MAIN QUESTIONS
1-Are we at cultural war over different cultures in Canada to maintain our unified Canadian
identity?
2-Are we defining the melting pot, the cultural mosaic or the plus sharing power/value models?
Is Canada representing as unfinished mosaic with no picture, no unique culture, no identity?
3-Why our multiculturalism is lacking and populist expression of anti-immigrant and anti-
multicultural sentiment increasingly finding more legitimate social and politic space in Canada?
4-Is there a struggle in between naturalised national identity versus the manipulative political
state? What is boundries in between the forced state political dimension and civil society as out
of political dimension and a zone of freedom?
5-How are we to relate to multiculturalism?” and “Are we for it or against it?
6- What of the self – determination of the Cree, of the anglophones, of federalists of every
stripe? What of the self – determination of the Canadian nation?
7- Who are “Canadians” and/or the “two nations” vis – a – vis those “others?
8- What was Colonialism contex that allows us to begin exploring the social relations and
cultural forms which characterize the relationship between visible minorities and the state of
Canada/English Canada/COQ?
9- Was a multicultural mosaic or the construction of visible minorities as a social imaginary and
the architecture of the “nation” that social exclusion or social inclusion model for Canada?
244
The state and the “visible minorities,” (the non – white people living in Canada) have a complex
relationship with each other. There is a fundamental unease with how our difference is construed
and constructed by the state, how our otherness in relation to Canada is projected and objectified.
We cannot be successfully ingested, or assimilated, or made to vanish from where we are not
wanted. We remain an ambiguous presence, our existence a question mark in the side of the
nation, with the potential to disclose much about the political unconscious and consciousness of
Canada as an “imagined community.”(f.3) Disclosures accumulate slowly, while we continue to
live here as outsider – insiders of the nation which offers a proudly multicultural profile to the
international community. We have the awareness that we have arrived into somebody’s state, but
what kind of state; whose imagined community or community of imagination does it embody?
And what are the terms and conditions of our “belonging” to this state of a nation? Answers to
these questions are often indirect and not found in the news highway of Canadian media. But
travelling through the side – roads of political discursivities and practices we come across
markers for social terrains and political establishments that allow us to map the political
geography of this nation – land where we have “landed.”
Fragmentation and Integration
This is existence in a zone somewhere between economy and culture. It strikes me then that this
discursive mode in which Canada is topicalized does not anywhere feature the concept of class.
Class does not function as a potential source for the theorization of Canada, any more than does
race as an expression for basic social relations of contradiction. Instead the discursivities rely on
hegemonic cultural categories such as English or French Canada, or on notions such as national
institutions, and conceive of differences and transcendences, fragmentation and integration, with
regard to an ideological notion of unity that is perpetually in crisis.
Canada is dedicated to the ideal that people of different languages and cultures may, without
surrendering their identity, yet embrace the human values they have in common: the “two
solitudes” of which the poet wrote, that “protect and touch and greet each other,” were a
definition of love, not division.
Ongoing Colonial War
But what do either of these solitudes and their reigning essences have to do with those whom the
state has named “visible minorities” and who are meant to provide the ideological basis for the
Canadian state’s liberal/universal status? How does their very “difference,” inscribed with
inferiority and negativity – their otherwise troublesome particularity – offer the very particularist
state of “English Canada” the legitimating device of transcendence through multiculturalism?
Are we not still being used in the war between the English and the French?
The importance of the discourse of multiculturalism to that of nation – making becomes clearer
if we remember that “nation” needs an ideology of unification and legitimation.
This task of “imagining community” becomes especially difficult in Canada – not only because
of class, gender and capital, which ubiquitously provide contentious grounds in the most
245
culturally homogeneous of societies – but because its socio – political space is saturated by
elements of surplus domination due to its Eurocentric/racist/colonial context.
This is a Trudeau – like stance of dual unification in which non – European “others” are made to
lend support to the enterprise by their existence as a tolerated, managed difference.
This multicultural take on liberal democracy, called the “politics of recognition”.
For aboriginal communities in this country; their way of being Canadian is not accommodated by
first level diversity that related the issues of colonialism, racism and continued oppression of the
Aboriginal peoples and the oppression visited upon “visible minorities” to the status of footnotes
in Canadian politics, in which“deep diversity” cannot be accommodated simply within the Anglo
– French duality
Social relation of power has created differences of deep diversities for Italians or Ukrainians but
does not mention those of the blacks, South Asians or the Chinese.
It may seem strange to “Canadians” that the presence of the First Nations, the “visible
minorities” and the ideology of multiculturalism are being suggested as the core of the state’s
claim to universality or transcendence.
The discourse of multiculturalism, as distinct from its administrative, practical relations and
forms of ruling, serves as a culmination for the ideological construction of “Canada.”
Liberal Democracy and the usual capitalist nation state constructs usually undesirable others,
consisting of non – white peoples with their ethnic or traditional or underdeveloped cultures, are
discursively inserted in the middle of a dialogue on hegemonic rivalry.
The issue of the First Nations – their land claims, languages and cultures – provides another
dimension entirely, so violent and deep that the state of Canada.
To build a country for everyone, Canada would have to allow for second – level or “deep”
diversity in which a plurality of ways of belonging would also be acknowledged and accepted.
The creation of a truly Canadian polity needs a “united federal Canada” and is able to deliver
“law and order, collective provision, regional equality and mutual self – help; however,
“Canada” is not to be built on the idea of a melting pot or of a uniform citizenship based on a
rationalist and functional view of polity.
The importance of a discourse of difference and multiculturalism for the creation of a legitimate
nation space for Canada that Multiculturalism becomes a mandate of moral regulation as an
antidote to any, and especially Quebec’s, separatism.
We realize that class, “race,” gender, sexual orientation, colonialism and capital can not be made
to vanish by the magic of multiculturalism policy, managed and graduated around a core of
dualism.
246
“The End of Multiculturalism?” Episode of The Agenda with Steve Paikin, October 13,
2010: http://www.channels.com/episodes/show/12689129/The-End-of-Multiculturalism-.
Our politics must sidestep the paradigm of “unity” based on “fragmentation or integration” and
instead engage in struggles based on the genuine contradictions of our society. After all,
multiculturalism, as Marx said of capital, is not a “thing.” It is not a cultural object, all inert,
waiting on the shelf to be bought or not. It is a mode of the workings of the state, an expression
of an interaction of social relations in dynamic tension with each other, losing and gaining its
political form with fluidity. It is thus a site for struggle, as is “Canada” for contestation, for a
kind of tug – of – war of social forces. The problem is that no matter who we are – black or
white – our liberal acculturation and single – issue oriented politics, our hegemonic
“subsumption” into a racist common sense, combined with capital’s crisis, continually draw us
into the belly of the beast. This can only be prevented by creating counter – hegemonic
interpretive and organizational frame – works that reach down into the real histories and relations
of our social life, rather than extending tendrils of upward mobility on the concrete walls of the
state.
Social behaviour historically created through class, “race” and gender oppression is blamed on
the very people who have been the victims. Their problems are seen as self – constructed. The
problem of crime in Toronto, for example, is mainly blamed on the black communities. Black
young males are automatically labelled as criminals and frequently shot by the police. It is also
characteristic that an individual act of violence performed by any black person is seen as a
representative act for the whole black community, thus labelling them as criminal, while crime
statistics among the white population remain non – representative of whiteness.
Visible minorities, because they are lesser or inauthentic political subjects, can enter politics
mainly on the ground of multiculturalism.
Bibliography:
Books
Adams, Michael. Unlikely Utopia: The Surprising Triumph of Canadian Pluralism. Toronto: Viking
Canada, 2007.
Cohen, Andrew. The Unfinished Canadian: The People We Are. Toronto: McLelland and Stewart,
2007.
Griffiths, Rudyard, ed. Great Questions of Canada. Toronto: The Dominion Institute, 2007.
Knowles, Valerie. Strangers At Our Gates: Canadian Immigration and Immigration Policy, 1540 –
2006. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2007.
Welsh, Jennifer. At Home In The World: Canada's Global Vision for the 21st
Century. Toronto:Harper-Collins, 2004.
Periodicals
247
Dib, Kamal, Ian Donaldson, and Brittany Turcotte. "Integration and Identity in Canada: The
Importance of Multicultural Common Spaces." Canadian Ethnic Studies 40.1 (Jan. 2008): 161-
187.Canadian Reference Centre. EBSCO. 24 Sep. 2009
Ungerleider, Charles S. "Immigration, multiculturalism, and citizenship: The development of

the Canadian social justice..." Canadian Ethnic Studies 24.16 (Oct. 1992): 7. Canadian Points of
View Reference Centre. EBSCO. 29 July 2009
Websites
Canadian Multiculturalism Act. R.S., 1985, c.24 (4th Supp.), C-18.7. Canadian Heritage. 25
February 2008 www.pch.gc.ca/progs/multi/policy/act_e.cfm.
"What Is Multiculturalism." 20 January 2004. Canadian Heritage. 24 February

2008http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/multi/what-multi_e.cfm.
Dewing, Michael, and Marc Leman, "Canadian Multiculturalism: Current Issue Review 93-6E."
16 March 2006. Parliament of Canada, Library of Parliament, Parliamentary Research Branch,
Political and Social Affairs Div. 25 February
2008 www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/PRBpubs/936-e.pdf.
"Multiculturalism in BC." British Columbia Archives, Royal BC Museum. 25 February

2008http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/exhibits/timemach/galler05/frames/index.htm.
SK509 Clinical Social Work Practice with Groups
Healthy Minds-Healthy Bodies: A Therapy Group for Young Women with Eating
Disorders
A Proposal to the Program Development Director of St. Candace Memorial Hospital Outpatient
Clinic
248
Submitted by:
FarukArslan
Colleen Hesch
Stephanie Huls
Kaitlin Kendall
Candace Lagerwerf
Hana Pinthus
Ryan Rutledge
Sara-Marie Skovbjerg
Jenny Van Bree
Social Issue: Eating Disorders
“There are no ugly women, only lazy ones.”
Helena Rubinstein, founder of Day of Beauty Cosmetics
Thehistorical preoccupation with women’s bodies continues to be a significant issue, as
conceptualizations of female beauty are influenced by marketing strategies. This fixation is
centered on the fanatical scrutiny of women’s appearance and is represented in “expectations
about their body, shape, weight, hair texture and body odour.” (Robbins, Chatterjee, Canda,
2012, pg.114). The contemporary hegemonic discourse that the ideal version of female beauty
includes an ultra-thin physique is prevalent in today’s media portrayal of women. Furthermore,
the influence of media in contemporaneous society manifestsitself in the profitable promotion of
a culture of thinness. These media images can lead to an internalization of idealized body images
and create dissatisfaction with one’s own body, which fosters a financial outlay so that
individuals will purchase products that will allow them to achieve the romanticized body type
(Thompson, Coovert and Stormer, 1999).
249
The social issue of body dissatisfaction is a response to the ideologies pertaining to the
idealized version of women’s appearance and can result ineating disorders or eating disorder
behaviors (Haines, Neumark-Sztainer, Eisenburg, Hannan, 2006).While both men and women
are susceptible to this manipulation of self-image, teenage girls are particularly vulnerable to the
effects of media and to the concept that one’s beauty and weight are tied to value and love
(Hesse-Biber, Leavy, Quinn, Zoino, 2006). A woman’s sense of self-esteem is “dependent on her
perceived attractiveness to the opposite sex” (Hesse-Biber et al., 2006, pg. 210) and the depiction
of thin, beautiful women in music videos is particularly reinforcing of this belief for young
women (Borzekowski, Robinson, Killen, 2000). Not only do these images contribute to body
dissatisfaction, they can also foster a sense of personal responsibility for not achieving this
unrealistic body type or weight. These representations are linked to eating disorders and an
overall negative effect on psychological functioning (Thompson, et al.,1999). This social
pressure extends beyond the media and can be witnessed in individual interactions such as
teasing about a young girl’s weight (Haines et al., 2006).
While we acknowledge that negative portrayal of perfect bodies impacts a variety of
individuals, we have chosen to work with adolescent girls between the ages of 14 -16 years.
This age group demonstrates a need for intervention as “60% of grade 12 female students were
trying to lose weight” (Haines et al., 2006, pg. 210) and were the most receptive to a reduction of
teasing through educational endeavors. The proposed therapeutic group will provide participants
with the necessary skills to manage the effects of destructive messages and false ideologies that
are inherent in contemporary society.
Group Purpose & Goals
250
This therapeutic group is designed as a structured CBT 8-week program for young
women struggling with eating disorders. The purpose is to offer strategies, tools, and alternate
coping strategies while restructuring cognitive thoughts and subsequent behaviors. This will be
completed through a feminist and strength-based lens in order to best support and empower
participants. The group goals for the young women include: reducing active engagement in
disordered eating behaviors such as food restricting, purging, and/or bingeing; receiving and
offering peer support; reconstructing cognitions in order to alter behaviors; attending weekly
sessions until program completion; engaging in group activities; capitalizing on individual
strengths and signs of resiliency; and ensuring a safe, non-judgmental environment in which all
participants feel comfortable to interact with the group.
Theoretical Model
The group design relies heavily on the use of cognitive-behavioural theory (CBT), though
it has been supplemented by solution-focused therapy activities. To date, CBT has been well
researched as an approach to the treatment of eating disorders in an effort to determine best-
practice methodology (Alexander & Treasure, 2012). CBT’s efficacy in working with
individuals with eating disorders is demonstrated through its direct focus on individual
symptoms. This therapeutic approach allows individuals to pinpoint and alter “unhelpful thinking
processes and behaviours that maintain [their] eating disorders” and to address those behaviours
which perpetuate negative thinking processes (Alexander & Treasure, 2012, p. 128). It is a
particularly appropriate theoretical model for eating-disordered individuals because of its
capacity to address additional factors that are often involved in the maintenance of an eating
disorder, such as “low self-esteem, perfectionism, poor interpersonal functioning, and difficulties
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with emotion regulation,” (Fairburn, 2008) all the while seeking to improve individual nutritional
health.
The addition of solution-focused activities is crucial to the group work as it encourages
individuals to focus on their strengths and on what they have already done that has proved
beneficial. By exploring exceptions to the problem, individuals can begin to set goals that allow
for repetition of these exceptions. Because problem talk can often lead individuals to feel more
hopeless or to extract ideas from others that might lead to more problematic behaviour, solution
talk is critical. It creates a vision for the future, and focuses the group on moving forward.
This particular combination of theories is based on the premise that, when working with
teens with eating disorders, it is important to challenge thoughts and beliefs, to externalize the
problem to gain a sense of control, and to limit the focus given to the problem itself as a way to
eliminate persistent negative thoughts. As a whole, the intent of this model is to eliminate the
negative thought patterns that perpetuate the eating disordered behaviours, while increasing self-
esteem, promoting a positive body image, focusing on positive behaviours, and optimizing client
strengths (Dallos, 2004; Jacob, 2001; Wiseman et al., 2002).
Recruitment, Screening Strategies, Membership
Recruitment
St. Candace Memorial Hospital has an inpatient eating disorder clinic which may refer
clients to “Healthy Minds-Healthy Bodies” upon discharge. As this is a hospital-based program,
the intent will be to ensure that patients from the hospital are able to receive ongoing treatment
following an inpatient stay. However, this is supplemented by participation from external
referral sources in order to create an additional community support.
Therefore, group recruitment will occur through additional sources such as:
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• Family Physician referrals
• Community Counselling agency referrals
• Public Health referrals
• Community self-referral
• Secondary school referrals
Recruitment will not be aggressive as current programming in the region is lacking in the
area of eating disorder groups and there are waitlists at counselling agencies for eating disorder
treatment. In order to increase program awareness, information packages will be sent to regional
physicians, agencies, and schools. These packages will provide sufficient information in order to
ensure appropriate referrals and will include contact information for further clarification.
Screening
Priority for group enrollment will be given to inpatients discharged from the St. Candace
Memorial Hospital. Additional participants will be screened and selected based on the following
criteria:
• Severity of the situation based on the CHEO Eating Disorder Symptom Severity Scale
(EDS3) (See Appendix 1).
• Four (4) spots will be held for referrals from General Practitioners, community
counselling agencies, school counsellors, Public Health officials, and self-referrals.
• Community self-referrals will require an individual assessment conducted by one of the
social workers in order to determine previous treatment experience and to explore
suitability for the group.
• In the event that these four (4) spots are not used by community members, they will be
opened up for individuals who are currently on the waitlist from the inpatient program
and vice-versa.
Membership
In order to encourage accountability, consistency, and group safety, group members are
expected to attend on a weekly basis. If a member must miss a group session, it is requested that
they advise the group leader as soon as possible. The eight-week group will begin with the
development of group goals, as well as a review of confidentiality.

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Group Size and Structure
The group will consist of 12 female participants between the ages of 14-16 years. The
small size is intended to encourage an intimate and comfortable setting where individuals can
grow independently and as a group. Participants will commit to eightweekly group sessions,
which will occur on every Monday of the week at 1:30pm. The first proposed meeting will take
place on May 6, 2013 in order to allow for program awareness and adequate screening. The eight
weeks will consist of activities and topics that will promote self-exploration, critical analysis of
commonly held social beliefs, and ways to increase healthy thoughts and behaviours.
These sessions will include a group introduction and graduation, which will be contingent
upon consistent attendance and does not prohibit participants from participating in a future
group. The weekly group will be facilitated by two social workers who will ensure a safe
environment that respects disclosure and confidentiality.
While group sessions will last 90 minutes, group leaders will allow for flexibility based
on the group’s emotional needs given the sessions’ topic and/or conversation. For instance, if the
topic was particularly heavy during one session then the group may end a little later to allow
time for debriefing. Alternately, if the group progressed quickly through that day’s topic then the
group could end a little earlier, if necessary.
Regardless of the time that the workshop comes to a close, the two social workers will
remain available for the full 90 minutes. In order to create an additional atmosphere of support,
the social workers will host weekly office hours, including an hour after group concludes.
Matters of Leadership
This group program will be led by two social workers who will co-facilitate the weekly
sessions. It implementsa horizontal, democratic and team leadership model which is derived
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from functional leadership theory (McGrath, 1962).The co-facilitators will utilize therapeutic
techniques that will focus on the direct monitoring of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors as well as
on cognitive restructuring (Fairburn et al., 1991). This approach allows the group leaders to
additionally act as supportive partners for each other as they control excessive group conflict and
find ways of involving all group members. Both leaders are responsible for team autonomy, self-
management, and team empowerment, which will involve decision-making, motivation, and
building strong connections (Fairburn, 2008).
Co-developmental leaders possess several personal qualities that will enhance the 8-week
CBT-based group, such as: enthusiasm; self-control; impartiality; honesty; self-confidence;
genuineness; friendliness; optimism; vision; open-mindedness; flexibility; and resourcefulness
(Gilley et al., 2008). In addition, these leaders must willingly accept criticism, maintain a sense
of humor, and allow others to offer suggestions and recommendations (Gilley et al., 2008).
Developmental leaders are emotionally competent and capable of sustaining relationships,
providing a fear-free environment, and maintaining high levels of self-confidence and self-
esteem (McIntyre, 2010). They are also capable of imagining, wondering and envisioning
possibilities, listening intently, and expressing feelings appropriately (Gilley, Gilley, &
McMillan, 2009).One of the most powerful teaching tools that co-leaders can contribute to the
learning process is modeling behavior. The “Healthy Mind-Healthy Bodies” facilitators will
implement coaching techniquesand role play as behavioral rehearsal is an integral part of
modeling. This will reinforce participants to increase their self-control and prepare for
unpredictable situations. The group leaders will consistently evaluate how well treatment goals
are being fulfilled and respond in an appropriate manner. This may include providing appropriate
referrals when reasonable goals have not been attained (Fairburn, 2008).
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Our propositions for co-facilitation as a form of leadership would create a higher
probability of success in the CBT group with less dependency on later managerial intervention
(Zander, Butler, 2010). As co-facilitators have less time for learning and successful strategy
implementation (O’Reilly, Caldwell, Chatman, Lapiz, & Self, 2010), it is beneficial to our group
that it is being run by two highly experienced social workers.
Agency Context
The proposal has been designed by two experienced social workers who have worked at
St. Candace Memorial Hospital Inpatient Eating Disorder Clinic for over ten years. “Healthy
Minds-Healthy Bodies” was developed in order to enhance the pre-existing multidisciplinary
eating disorder team of the hospital and create additional supports for discharged patients.
Program participants will receive the support of a psychiatrist, nurse, occupational therapist, and
a dieticianto complement their treatment goals.
Program Objectives
The primary objectives and benefits of conducting an eating disorder therapeutic group include
the following:
• Efficiency: The group modality allows the program to reach and support a greater
number of participants. This will additionally lead to a reduction in wait for individual
counselling, or allow an individual to receive support in the interim.
• Cost-effectiveness: In decreasing individual sessions, the group will reduce hospital
expenditures as well as hopefully reduce hospitalization for those with eating disorders.
Mission Statement
“Healthy Minds-Healthy Bodies” strivesto provide tools and strategies for young women
between the ages of 14-16 years who are struggling with eating disorders or eating disordered
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behavior through empirically–based modalities.
Weekly Group Topics and Activities
Week One: What You Need to Know About Weight and Weight Loss before You Get Started
Setting Your Goals
The aim of this week’s topic is to inform the participants’ understanding and knowledge
of weight, weight loss, and how the body regulates weight. We will use the most current research
to guide discussions and information. Throughout the following weeks, we will also use case
studies as a way for participants to conceptualize weight management techniques, see how others
have been successful in weight management, and see that they are not alone in their struggle
(Laliberte, McCabe & Taylor, 2009).
After the psycho-educational component has been completed, participants will begin to
set their personal goals. These goals will incorporate working on their physical self as well as on
their emotional self. Achieving both physical and emotional goals in tandem will solidify the
participants plan and individual goals (Laliberte, McCabe & Taylor, 2009).
Week Two: Making Choices: Deciding What Weight Management Approach is Right for You
Making Preparations: Getting Ready for Your Change Journey
With their new knowledge of weight management, we will begin making a plan to
achieve each participant’s goal. They will learn about the various weight management options
and decide which will best work for them (Laliberte, McCabe & Taylor, 2009).With a plan in
place, it is essential for each individual to concretely identify their motivations and personal
support systems (e.g. doctor, family, friends, organizations) in order to ensure success. We will
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discuss how to handle negative thoughts, and provide tips to discuss with their support system
(Laliberte, McCabe & Taylor, 2009).
Week 3: Changing Your Lifestyle: Designing Your Eating Plan & Activity Plan
In this week’s work, we will iron out the details of participants’ eating and activity plans,
and tailor it to their specific needs and goals. We will also identify behaviours and routines in the
participant’s current lifestyle and plan, and outline what they are already doing well and
highlight personal strengths.
Week 4: Dealing with Bumps in the Road
Having a plan perfectly tailored to one’s needs and goals will not ensurethat individuals
will avoid bumps in the road. This week’s topic will teach participants how to self-monitor
through Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). This evidenced-based psychological treatment
aims to improve emotional well-being and functioning by modifying what individuals think and
do in response to the world around them (Laliberte, McCabe & Taylor, 2009).
Week 5: Managing Emotional Triggers and Interpersonal Triggers
This week’s activities could very well be the crux of the work done in this program as
emotional and interpersonal triggers may derail the participant’s activity and eating plan.
Emotions are helpful in that they provide us with information, prepare us to respond to a
situation, and influence our social behaviour. Emotions can also be very distressing; therefore the
intent of this week is to help participants identify, tolerate, and respond to emotions in ways that
will leave them feeling empowered, in control, and strong.
Individuals in social circles (e.g. family, friends, health care practitioners, roommates)
may impede on the participants’ success with their opinions, suggestions, and criticisms. Each
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participant will learn to stand up for themself and stay on track with their plan. The hope is for
the participants to be able to preserve relationships and maintain or develop self-
respect (Laliberte, McCabe & Taylor, 2009).
Week 6: Enhancing Your Well-Being: Dealing with Body Dissatisfaction
Body satisfaction is independent of one’s body weight. This week will help participants
identify where their dissatisfaction comes from, challenge the messages they receive about body
image, and challenge their own thoughts.
Week 7: Changing Behaviors that Support Body Dissatisfaction
It is one thing to identify one’s thoughts about body dissatisfaction, and another to
challenge the behaviours that support body dissatisfaction. Participants will learn and identify
checking and avoidance behaviours, “feeling fat”, and weight-based self-esteem.
Week 8: Maintaining the Lifestyle Change
The overarching goal is for participants to succeed in the long-term. In order to ensure
this goal is met, we will identify each individual’s strengths and vulnerabilities in different
aspects of their life. Coming up with a plan before a relapse will help them get back on track in
the future. It will take up to six months for the participants to make the changes laid out for
themselves and to make their plan a more ingrained part of their lifestyle.
Conclusion
The authors of this proposal are requesting that the Program Development Director of St.
Candace Memorial Hospital consider implementing this therapy group for young girls struggling
with eating disorders. As outlined at the beginning of this document, it is clear that it is crucial to
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create a dialogue around body image in our community while also offering support to those most
susceptible to eating disordered behavior.
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SK509 Clinical Social Work Practice with Groups
ROLE PLAY IN CLASS
Week 6 - Enhancing Your Well-Being: Dealing with Body Dissatisfaction
Opening Act (prior to group commencement): demonstrate intimacy and safety of group
i.e. “It’s nice to see you again this week, Jenny,” as Jenny sets up chairs “can you hand
these out, Ryan?”
Opening Question:“Can you say a positive comment about the person to your left?”
Activity: Ryan’s string activity to work with body dysmorphic perceptions.
Overall Theme: As group matures members are capable of expanding their own
boundaries and feeling safe in disclosing personal information and testing new behaviours.
Characteristics of Middle Group
· Intimacy
o More comfortable with their roles, and more natural as a result.
o Feedback given.
o Hopeful.
o Clear direct communication.
· Cohesion and universality

o See commonalities, universality of issues
§ “We are all in this boat together”
§ Causes of hurt may differ, but everyone is hurt from time to time
§ Bonding
o Diversity encouraged.
o Members get help from each other.
o A coming together of ideas, perspectives
o Need for affiliation, recognition, security.
o Resources and prestige of working in group.
o Expectation of beneficial and detrimental consequences of group.
o Comparison of group experience with other experience.
· Conflict
o Recognized, discussed and resolved (cohesion)
o Some members may take on more powerful roles
o More honesty, even if it’s an unpopular idea.
·
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SECTION IV
GROUP WORK IN THE MIDDLE PHASE
http://www.iaswg.org/docs/AASWG_Standards_for_Social_Work_Practice_with_Grou
ps2010.pdf
A. Group tasks and worker skills/actions:
1. Task: Assist group to make progress on individual and group goals.

When group goals are a major focus, as in task and community groups, the worker
encourages individual members to use their skills in pursuit of group goals.
Skills/Actions:
a. Reinforce connection between individual concerns/needs and group goals.
b. Offer programmatic ideas and activities that support group purpose and assist in helping
members achieve individual and group goals.
c. Assess progress towards individual and group goals.
d. Identify difficulties and obstacles that interfere with the group and its members’ abilities to
reach their goals.
e. If obstacles are related to the specific needs of an individual member, when appropriate,
offer individual time outside of group.
f. Ensure that the group has attended to any special needs of individual members (e.g.,
physical, cognitive, language or cultural needs).
g. Assist members to engage in problem-solving, in making choices and decisions, and in

evaluating potential outcomes of decisions.
h. Summarize sessions with the group. 3
i. Plan next steps with the group.
j. Re-contract with members, if needed, to assist in achieving individual and group goals.
2. Task: Attend to group dynamics/processes.

Skills/Actions:
a. Support members to develop a system of mutual aid.
b. Clarify and interpret communication patterns among members, between members and
worker and between the group and systems outside the group.
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c. Develop, model and encourage honest communication and feedback among members
and between members and workers.
d. Review group values and norms.
e. Assist members to identify and articulate feelings.
f. Assist members to perceive verbal and non-verbal communication.
g. Help members mediate conflict within the group.
h. Assist members to make connections with other group members that may continue after
the group ends, if this is appropriate.
i. Use tools of empowerment to assist members to develop “ownership” of the group.
3. Task: Use best practices within the group and utilize resources inside and outside
the group.
Skills/Actions:
a. Assist members to identify and access resources from inside and outside the group.
b. Include knowledge, skills and other resources of group worker, group members and
sources outside the group.
c. Use group approaches appropriate to the populations served and the tasks undertaken
as demonstrated in the literature, worker and agency experience, and other sources of
professional knowledge.
d. Use record-keeping techniques to monitor leadership skills and group process.
e. Access and use supervision.
B. Required Knowledge
1. Group dynamics.
2. Role theory and its application to members’ relationships with one another and the
worker.
3. Communication theory and its application to verbal and non-verbal interactions within the
group and between the group and others external to the group.
4. Problem-solving processes in groups.
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5. Conflict resolution in groups.
6. Organizational theories.
7. Community theories.
8. Developmental theories.
9. Evaluation theories and methods.
10. The impact of diversity: class, race, gender, sexual orientation and ability status.
11. Knowledge about the group’s relations with its environment.
12. Specific knowledge of issues being addressed in the group.
13. Awareness of self.
Simulation
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• CLIENT - arrange chairs, start helping set things up - ask client to hand out a
document
• everyone arrives, sits down
o colleen will slam door, etc, and will set off hana
o social workers will facilitate conflict resolution, and encourage clients to help
resolve the issue together.
• social workers do a welcome
• social worker - ask everyone how they are doing, check in (grounding), etc. fill in the
blank (I am feeling very _______ about being here today.) -- write on board,
o 10ish minutes
o ryan - someone not have a positive response about being here
o rest of the group will support and acknowledge the person’s struggle
o jenny - “wow i hear you. some times i have the worst time getting myself here
too, but i’m glad you are here.”
o social worker will create discussion around strategies to help cope with
“having a hard time getting there;” will highlight the group dynamic of support
o group think tank to create strategies
• social worker preface to activity
• string activity
o 5-10ish minutes
o during activity, group members can make comments that they think their
character would make, or act the way their character would act
• engage in discussion around activity
o 10ish minutes
o demonstrate cohesion & universality - all overestimating the size of a body
part, but differentiation in regards to different body parts.
o Stephanie’s reminder: ensure that clients can find commonalities but do not
enmesh their stories - differentiate!
o Faruk - smuggling the chippies... SOCIAL WORKER bust him
o group members support faruk, but SOCIAL WORKERS discuss that it was a
set rule outlined at the beginning, but engage in discussion around whether
we want the rules to change.
o discuss how this was a trigger for Faruk
Stephanie and Kaitlin to divide tasks and think about CBT-lingo.
Self-reflection to the group work by Faruk Arslan
Our group members are all perfectionists, don’t like dictated group work, and leadership is really
matter for group cohesion after ten group meetings. The purpose of our group is to offer
strategies, tools, and alternate coping strategies while restructuring cognitive thoughts and
subsequent behaviours for eating disorder clients. This therapeutic group is designed as a
structured CBT 8-week program for young women struggling with eating disorders. I have felt a
lot of stress at the beginning, getting relaxed at the middle phase because our group was able to
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use effective communication strategies and developing and maintaining positive intimacy
relationships at the end during the role play exercise. Effective communication starts with being
a good listener and showing an interest in what is being said and develop intimacy between
group members. Conflict always occurs but a healthy resolution was not talking over the speaker
and giving everyone a chance to speak. Our leader has been changed several times since the
beginning and naturally been selected when role play crises occurred. Our project was using a
feminist paradigm and strength-based lens in order to best support and empower participants.
The group decided to design and rely on heavily on the use of cognitive-behavioural theory
(CBT), new though has been supplemented and combined by solution-focused therapy
activities. Acting as a young girl teenager was challenging experience for me as a male, while
participating, watching and monitoring of the development of our team in intimacy, cohesion and
conflict resolution.
As a matter of fact, our group reminded me with a combination of one element of the "Five
Stage-Model" of Tuckman and main parts of the "punctuated-equilibrium- model" (Tuckman,
1965, Arrow et all, 2000) during the first and second weeks. The first syndicate group meeting
can be characterised as the storming phase in which intragroup conflict prevails rather than
intimacy. Most people have a background of a highly unsatisfactory experience in their first
group or many group works previously. We were not confident at all about how to attack the
problem and the strategy to apply. All members participated actively, trying to impose their point
of view. At this stage, cultural differences played a major role. For instance, in North American
culture, dominated by high individualism and lower power distance, all members should be
adapted to the group identity or the dominant culture when it was implemented invisibly.
However, verbal communication was not good enough to make us a productive group whereas,
90% of communication is nonverbal, so it is important to think about body language, tone of
voice, posture, facial expressions and eye contact. It is also important that you face the speaker
close enough to hear and watch for non-verbal behaviour. In our group we were always make
sure we seat ourselves around a table so we can all face and hear each other. I have found that
everybody contributes more and nobody feels left out while seated this way. I noticed many
weeks while looking at everyone in our group that all our group members were sitting in an open
position. Except two persons were crouching all the time, loosely connected to group work, it
was annoying, disrespectful and destructive. As a group observation and analysis, we defined
our social connection with a sociometry which is the “measurement of interpersonal aspect of
human relationships (Moreno, 1951). It was a controversial sociogram we posted.
In the third and the fourth week, we began making a plan to achieve each member roles and
goals. All members learned about the various eating disorder personality options and decided
which will be best work for them (Laliberte, McCabe & Taylor, 2009). Social worker positions
were taken by two second year students because of their seniority in our MSW class what I
thought. I silenced this decision, some members disliked and hided their feeling too. Some
people have showed their strong personalities and willing to take more roles than others. With a
plan in place, it was essential for each individual to concretely identify their motivations for
certain roles in the role play in order to ensure success. We discussed how to handle negative
thoughts, and provide tips to recognize about our personal strengths and modifying individual
ideas (Laliberte, McCabe & Taylor, 2009). I felt that all the members in our group have a very
positive relationship with each other after the third week. We have developed this positive
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relationship early on in our group work. In our group members have always listened to each
other and let everyone have their say on our decisions. We respected each other and are open to
different ideas. We acknowledged good work with encouragement and praise. It shows that you
appreciate the work that has been carried out. For example, one of our group members put
together all parts to finalize the group project, other member took charge for editing, and other
member did great job as a group meeting facilitator. One group member may be the note-taker,
while another may offer suggestions. Some of our group members didn’t attend some group
meetings because of their urgent needs and health conditions. The group made own rules that we
were informing all of us through email communication before the group work starts. It worked.
Our group managed absences perfectly and responded to missing members in a positive manner.
Differentiation can be seen in the group’s willingness to assume responsibility during individual
absences. Intimacy works well and appeared during the role play. In this level, the group was
more hopeful, more comfortable with their roles, and more natural as a result because of getting
feedback from members and having clear direct communication among members.
Importantly, we have a plan perfectly tailored to group’s needs and goals and avoided bumps in
the roads in the fifth week for reaching the task. The group specifically examined (1) single
authoritarian leadership, (2) democratic shared leadership, (3) Lassez faire naturally unfold
leadership, and (4) coach model, horizontal leadership as possible team leadership modes for
multicultural teams. Choosing a horizontal, democratic and team leadership model is derived
from a functional leadership theory (McGrath, 1962) stating that whoever assumes responsibility
for satisfying the teams’ needs can be viewed collaborative as our co-leader role is horizontal
decision-making authority. Instead of contrasting one extreme of the archetypical hierarchical
authoritarian individual-based leadership, we use ‘horizontal’ and ‘democratic’ together rather
than ‘collective’ to capture the sharing of decision-making authority by two individuals who do
not have to hold work positions at the same horizontal level. One of our group members
challenged for all group idea about leadership model, triggered a healthy group discussion and
conversation. For instance, one of group member’s father passed away and she missed several
meetings. As a group we shared her grief in her hard time circumstances and handled her
emotional situations. Group cohesion is established when we felt deeply our commonalities,
universality of issues that “we are all in this boat together”. Everyone sometimes may hurt
differently and is hurt from time to time. Bonding relationship was getting stronger,
while diversity encouraged, members get help from each other and comparing of group
experience with other experience. The group was able put ideas, resources and perspective
together, created a safety, secure atmosphere and a perfect cohesion when recognize each other
work beneficial and detrimental consequences of group.
Moreover, we reached a consensus regarding having co-facilitators in the middle phase group
therapy. These co-leaders have first-hand knowledge of successfully overcoming problem
bulimia nervosa using cognitive therapeutic techniques include self-monitoring of thoughts,
feelings, and behaviour and cognitive restructuring (Fairburn et al., 1991). Contingency
management is most suitable for teenagers in order to manage the cognitive capacities of the
young females. Co-facilitators are as therapeutic partners for each other, control excessive group
conflict, and find ways of involving all members in group people below the conformist ego
stage, given their tendency to view behaviour in terms of internal and external causes. Co-leaders
concern the tailoring of CBT-relevant cognitive capacities and delivering therapeutic techniques
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of differing complexity. Both leaders are responsible for team autonomy, self-management, and
team empowerment, involving decision-making, motivation, building strong connection
(Fairburn, 2008). Group leaders are socially reinforced all directive session and evaluate how
well treatment goals are being fulfilled in a gradual and appropriate manner. Co-leaders are good
at role modeling which is one of the most powerful teaching tool that client learn through
imitation and observation from both leaders in the CBT-Solution Focus Therapy group.
Facilitators are using coaching technique because behavioural rehearsal is an integral part of
modeling. Co-leaders teach and reinforce participants to increase their self-control and prepare
participants role playing for one another how an individual might respond in a particular
situation. Leaders always serve as a model of appropriate behaviours, prepare for termination
well ahead of the groups ending date and consolidate what they have learned, and made
appropriate referrals when reasonable goals have not been attained (Fairburn, 2008). Consensus
is one of the strategies for collecting and observing information in the group. It is important to
include information regarding how many members were in agreement with the consensus. Any
participant who disagreed with the consensus or did not express any opinion can be observed.
This can be noticed by keeping track of statements as I agree verbally or nodding of the head
non-verbally, while decision-making process. One of our members has chosen to be silence or
acted an ignorance girl as part of her personality in the role play.
After deciding leadership style, we have moved forward faster with aware of that our co-team
leadership modes differ based on focused and distributed leadership in terms of functions and
practices. In the six week, I have explained to the group why co-facilitator leadership mode
would start off the multicultural team with a higher probability of success in the CBT, and less
need of later managerial intervention for marketing (Zander, Butler, 2010). Co-developmental
leaders have possess several personal qualities, including enthusiasm, self-control, impartiality,
honesty, self-confidence, genuineness, friendliness, optimism, vision, open-mindedness,
flexibility, and resourcefulness (Gilley et al., 2008). In addition, these leaders must willingly
accept criticism, maintain a sense of humour, allow others to offer suggestions and
recommendations, and be accepting of employees’ successes and failures (Gilley et al., 2008).
Developmental leaders are emotionally competent and capable of sustaining relationships,
providing a fear-free environment, and maintaining high levels of self-confidence and self-
esteem (McIntyre, 2010). They are also capable of imagining, wondering and envisioning
possibilities, listening intently and expressing feelings appropriately (Gilley, Gilley, &
McMillan, 2009). Our propositions for the choice of co-team leadership mode can be helpful
both when deciding on the leadership of planned long-term project teams as well as of so-called
‘Cheetah teams’ (Engwall & Svensson, 2004). Our team put together to deal with unanticipated
and urgent problems increases the need for better leadership. In these cases, the chosen co-
facilitator leadership mode must also work well immediately, as there is less time for learning
and all level of successful strategy implementation (O’Reilly, Caldwell, Chatman, Lapiz, & Self,
2010). This positive team environment and leadership is a vital strategic choice. For example,
before the role play, the group had a small conflict regarding performance; our co-leaders
resolved this crisis with older members’ supports and showed a cheetah team resolution.
In fact, group therapy for me was a very new concept. My understanding towards group therapy
was that every one share their concern issues and group members discuss about that issue and get
different perspectives about how to deal with that issue by building cohesion and trust among the
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members. Our group is a collection of individuals who have relation to one another that make
them interdependent to some significant degree. According to Yalom, social learning from other
group members is important; all members try out new social techniques and aaddress member’s
social concerns with different behaviors (Yalom & Leszcz, 2005). Group therapy is a type of
psychotherapy that involves one or more therapists working with several people at the same
time. Toseland & Rivas (2012) explain support groups, educational groups, growth group,
therapy group, socialization groups, self-help groups and how to develop group dynamics such
as communication and interaction patterns, cohesion, social integration and influence as well as
group culture (Toseland & Rivas 2009). Generally, the counselling group has a specific focus,
which may be educational, vocational, social or personal. This type of therapy is widely
available at a variety of locations, including private therapeutic practices, hospitals, mental
health clinics and community centres. MacGowan (2008) focuses evidence based group work,
considers patients’ preferences and actions, research evidence and clinical expertise (MacGowan,
2008). Our group therapy commonly integrates into a comprehensive treatment plan that also
includes individual therapy and medication. A group therapy is a therapy where a group of
people (not more than 10) gather together under the guidance of a therapist, and share everyone’s
experiences, problems and weaknesses and where each one gives their views on what others are
sharing and gives each other emotional support. I personally felt group therapy is very effective
where the group members are assisted in developing their skills in dealing with interpersonal
problems so that they will be better able to handle the future problems of a similar nature. Most
of the time what happens is, when each one start sharing about their experiences, member’s feels
there is hope and that there is something to look forward to. Group therapy helps members grow
emotionally and personal growth. Another benefit of group therapy is being able to learn from
the experiences of others. The key areas for improvement would be clearer definition of target
and objectives and time management to ensure that we can reach a higher standard of group
work. There was a synergy in between members which made our group work attractive,
collaborative and effective. There was no oppression, power inequalities and gender
discrimination when we worked in this group. I delivered the message succinctly, body language,
eye contact, facial expressions, and was incongruent and more enthusiastic during my speeches.
Initially, we were excited about this group work and provided an effective presentation to the
class. We functioned successfully, abled to communicate clearly on intellectual, cultural and
emotional levels because we can explain and share our own ideas, thoughts, feelings openly.
Listening each other carefully, asking questions, encouraging other member has produced a
healthy and positive climate that we had sensed each other feeling through verbal and non-verbal
communications. Not only we were interacted face to face but also contacted each other by
sending emails, text messages, and talked on the phone in order to reflect on our activities and
following up our progress. Many group members were willing to get to know one another,
particularly our personal lives and sharing our stories, interests and backgrounds. We had
balanced the need for cohesion within a group with the need for individual expression. Group
members trusted one another enough, a sense of mutual trust developed when everyone was
willing to self-disclose and be honest respectfully. Trust also has grown while the tasks have
been assigned and accomplished on time. We supported each other and collaborate to complete
our project, and always showed each other our respect, honesty and loyalty. Our constructive
feedback made the project keep going. Group members have received and given feedback about
group ideas. We have tried to be positive and focusing on ideas and behaviours, and offering
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suggestions for improvement. We listened to each other well, asked for clarifications several
times when some comments were unclear, and opened to change other ideas. Group members
helped the group to develop and use strategies central to reach our group goals. Facilitating
group decision making was challenging because we had dealt productively with conflict and
abled to reach consensus.
Finally, the role play was showed significance improvement for all of us because nobody was
expecting that our result would be perfectly shown in action in terms of intimacy, cohesion and
conflict resolution. Our lunch hour meeting went quietly in more corporate and bureaucratic
manner rather than closer intimacy behavior shown. Our roles and role applications to members’
relationships with one another and the worker was well studied and I was sure we could pull out
our success. Older members made several jokes and provided some relief to reduce the role play
related stress from younger members, especially from co-leaders. The group has developed a
democratic mutual aid system and actualized group purpose and went through all of Glassman’s
stages such as build a good integration, create group culture and shape norms, and obey here and
now issues, such as transparency (Glassman & Kates, 1990). As group matures members are
capable of expanding their own boundaries and feeling safe in disclosing personal information
and testing new behaviours. All members played their chosen personalities amazingly,
demonstrate intimacy and safety of group and performed really cohesion in the middle phase.
The group planned two conflicts for the role play exercise. One of them was at the beginning and
the other was closer to the end. The first conflict has recognized, discussed and resolved by co-
leader smoothly. I was caused the second conflict towards the string activity was triggered my
eating disorder and then I smuggled chip but busted up by our perfectionist member. Conflict is
resolved by group members in cohesion collectively. Some members took on more powerful
roles. The group represented more honesty, even if it’s an unpopular idea such as changing the
group rule. The string exercise works with body dysmorphic perceptions, dealing with body
dissatisfaction. However it triggered another conflict but it was unplanned conversation between
two members about parent controlling issue. Co-leaders helped move a group into each of these
three phase shifts: Intimacy, cohesion and conflict. In this manner, they also help a group to enter
a new treatment of the CBT- the SFT. Beyond this impact, leaders were the key to interaction
among the other fractals of therapeutic relationship underway while the group develops. The
group emerged in the consciousness of individual members when it becomes salient within each
member’s psyche. Group interaction was then able to stimulate individual, intrinsic motivation.
In conclusion, the group demonstrated a sharing identity and sense of purpose and this is how it
influenced its members to see the group identity as more salient than personal identities. All
members showed equal commitment to our objective, acknowledged good contributions from
team members and handled disagreements and conflicts constructively within the team. Giving
constructive criticism to one another and to accept it ourselves was important learning
experience that we remained united even when we disagreed. We felt comfortable and relaxed
with one another and no one was under pressure regarding each other’s comments, judgements
and ideas. It was a good opportunity to practice our communication and group working skills.
References
271
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Engwall, M., & Svensson, C. (2004). Cheetah teams in product development: The most extreme
form of temporary organization? Scandinavian Journal of Management, 20(3), 297—317.
Fairburn CG. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Eating Disorders. Guilford Press, 2008.
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communication, and leadership effectiveness. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 21(4), 75-
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resource management. Westport, CN: Praeger.
Gilley, A., McMillan, H. S., & Gilley, J. W. (2009). Organizational change and characteristics of
leadership effectiveness. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 16(1), 38-47.
Glassman, U. & Kates, L. (1990). Group Work: A Humanistic Approach. Newbury Park, CA:
Sage Publication.
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to a New Political Orientation. Beacon House, Beacon, New York.
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CA: Jossey-Bass.
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MacGowan, Mark. (2008). A guide to evidence-based group work. Oxford University Press.
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O’Reilly, C. A., Caldwell, D. F., Chatman, J. A., Lapiz, M., & Self, M. (2010). How leadership
matters: The effects of leaders’ alignment on strategy implementation. The Leadership Quarterly,
21,104—113.
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Toronto: Allyn and Bacon.
Tuckman, B. W. (1965), “Developmental sequence in small groups”, Psychological Bulletin,

Vol. 63, No 6, pp.384-399.
Yalom, Irving D. & Leszcz, Molyn. (2005). The theory and practice of group psychotherapy (5th
edition). New York: Perseus Book Club.
Zander Lena, Butler, Christina L. (2010). Leadership modes: Success strategies for multicultural
teams. Scandinavian Journal of Management (2010) 26, 258—267.
CHILD PROTECTION: SIGNS OF SAFETY
Child Protection Services (CPS) workers are criticized either for intruding too much into the
integrity and sacred privacy of a family or for not doing enough to pull children from abusive
and neglectful adults who do not deserve to be parents. The field of child welfare is currently
undergoing a paradigm shift. Social workers have been challenged by innovative thinkers and
advocates who insist that they adopt a strength-based perspective as a heart of helping: a
collaborative relationship. Rather than a problem solving model or solution-focus as a medical
approach, new perspective focuses on solution building. Today, child protection workers are
challenged to reconcile the seemingly mutually exclusive goals of ensuring the child’s safety and
maintaining the parent’s dignity. Client wishes and desires are important and listening to these
clients goals, assess their own situation, motivation as person-in environment perspective and
progress, and determine possible steps to achieve their goals that would be best for the children.
MAIN FOCUS AND SKILLS:
No two situations of child abuse are the same. The facts may be very similar, but the position,
circumstances, and perceptions of each family are different and require different responses. If
workers can uncover the particular position of each relevant family member, it is more likely the
worker will be able to show genuine understanding and find a way to establish collaboration. It is
more likely that realistic case plans, which fit with the family’s perspective, will an individual’s
position can be done without agreeing with or condoning their beliefs about the abuse or neglect.
GOALS:
A focus on goals lies at the heart of the signs of safety approach. The ultimate aim of all child
protection work should be to create safety for the child, preferably within the natural family. The
signs of safety approach seek to keep this obvious focus in the front of the worker’s mind.
Maintaining this focus throughout ongoing casework should also clarify the appropriate time to
close the case. Making judgments are inherent to child protection work. Judgments in child
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protection cases are usually made on the basis of risk assessment methodologies, and,
traditionally, risk assessment focuses primarily on issues of danger and harm.
BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS:
1. Respect service recipients as people worth doing business with.

2. Cooperate with the person, not the abuse.
3. Recognize that cooperation is possible even where coercion is required.
4. Recognize that all families have signs of safety.
5. Maintain a focus on safety.
6. Learn what the service recipients want.
7. Always search for details.
8. Focus on creating small change.
9. Don’t confuse case details with judgments.
10. Treat the interview as a forum for change.
11. Offer choices.
12. Treat the practice principles as aspirations, not assumptions.
THE SIX PRACTICE PRINCIPLES:
1. Understand the position of each family member.
Seek to identify and understand the values, beliefs and meanings family members perceive in
their stories. This assists the worker to respond to the uniqueness of each case and to move
toward plans the family will enact.
1. Find expectation to the maltreatment.
Search for exceptions to problem. This creates hope for workers and families by proving that the
problem does not always exist. Exceptions may also indicate solutions that have worked in the
past. Where no exceptions exist, the worker may be alerted to a more serious problem.
1. Discover family strengths and resources.
Identify and highlight positive aspects of the family. This prevents the problems from
overwhelming and discouraging everyone involved.
1. Focus on goals.
Elicit the family’s goal to improve the safety of the child and their life in general. Compare these
with the agency’s own goals. Use the family’s ideas wherever possible. Where the family is
unable to suggest any constructive goals, danger to the child is probably increased.
1. Scale safety and progress.
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Identify the family members’ sense of safety and progress throughout the case. This allows clear
comparisons with workers judgments.
1. Assess willingness, confidence, and capacity.
Determine the family’s willingness and ability to carry out plans before trying to implement
them.
INVESTIGATION:
The intake worker must be mindful of building and maintaining a cooperative relationship with
the notifier. The initial investigation has three purposes:
• Assess the truth of the allegations.

• Assess the likelihood of future harms.
• Build as much cooperation as possible so that the best information is gathered and a
partnership between the family and agency is achievable should ongoing casework be
required.
A well-handled investigation should involve:
• An exploration of the allegation based on the usual agency protocol for examining danger
and harm, incorporating full input from family members regarding their perspective on
the allegations.
• Integrating into the examination of risk an exploration of signs of safety, including past
and present protectiveness, family strengths and resources, and the family’s own plans for
increasing safety.
• Listening carefully to the family’s experience and letting them know they have been
understood.
• Sensitivity and empathy for the anxiety that the investigation will provoke within the
family.
• A very clear and open stance concerning the agency’s statutory role and authority.
• An up-front and honest attitude about the allegations.
• Conducting the interview slowly and flexibly.
• Focusing on small steps and making sure each step is understood, while recognizing that
not everything has to be accomplished at once.
• Providing choice and the chance for the family members to provide input wherever
possible.
• Interviewing for information rather than solutions. Avoid quickly arrive decisions and
plans. Finding solutions is best left for later in the casework process.
CASE PLAN:
All child protection caseworks demand well-detailed and accurate information. This is essential
to building a cooperative relationship and developing plans that are tailored to each case. A Case
plan should:
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• Clearly articulate the statutory agency’s goals for the case in terms of what constitutes
enough safety for the case to be closed.
• Incorporate the family’s strengths and resources as much as possible.
• Encourage things the family already does to create a safe environment, and draw upon
identified exceptions.
• Include the family’s own safety ideas as much as possible.
• Draw on the family’s general goals if there is likelihood that they will increase the child’s
safety.
• Always use those people who are willing and able to take action.
• Wherever possible, be presented in the context of family members’ goals and aspirations
and their position regarding the problem.
• Incorporate compliments where family members are already moving toward their own
goals or goals of the agency.
TREATMENT, NOT THERAPY
Child protection casework and any treatment process attached to it should have as its primary
goal the achievement of family functioning that is safe enough for the statuary agency to close
the case and get out the family’s life. Therapy is a process designed to assist clients to focus on
achieve what clients want. This is distinguishing therapy from treatment.
Therapy objectives are well-being, insight, growth, self-actualization and healthy functioning.
Goals are essentially defined by the client. Service users are designed for voluntary clients.
Facilitators focus on what clients want.
Treatment objectives have pragmatic focus on creating change to build enough safety to close the
case. Goals are defined by the service recipients and the statutory agency. It requires close
collaboration with the statutory worker since they are crucial to defining what enough safety
looks like. Service users are designed for service recipients. Therapist’s skills of joining and
listening are required, and the professionals also need to be comfortable exercising ssome level
of social control and leverage.
GOOD PRACTICE ELEMENTS:
Good child protection practice is front and intensive. Careful, detailed and thorough work in the
intake, investigation, and early planning stages will often lead to good, well-informed decisions
and allow cases to proceed more smoothly to resolution. It requires good training for field staff,
thoughtful supervision and management, and communication and collaboration among all levels
of the agency. There needs to be collaboration and partnership between public officials, the
statutory agency and other professional child protection services such as hospitals, schools,
police, welfare agencies, other providers of treatments services, etc. Good practice in child
protection requires cooperation and respect between all the professionals involved and advance
collaboration between agencies.
SOURCE: Turnell, Andrew, Edwards, Steve. (1999). Signs of Safety. A Solution and Safety
oriented Approach to Child Protection. Norton Publisher.
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Social Work Practice with Individuals Instructor: Jon Boyd, M.S.W.,

R.S.W.
SK 522 Section 2 Classroom: 201
Fall 2012 Wednesday 1:30 – 4:20 p.m.
Telephone: (519) 743-0038
E-mail: jonboyd@rogers.com
Course Description:
This course focuses on the Social Work Code of Ethics, self-awareness, and strengths-based
engagement and practice: creating effective helping relationships. (SBE, Bertolino, 2010)
SBE is an overarching philosophical perspective that views people as having capabilities and
resources within themselves and their social systems to solve their own problems and grow and
develop in their own unique ways. (Bertolino, 2010)
Core principles (research based) include: client contributions; therapeutic relationship and
alliance; cultural competence; change as a process; expectancy and hope; method and factor of
fit; and to be competent and effective.
Lecture notes will be available on MyLearningSpace [https://mylearningspace.wlu.ca] to

complement weekly PowerPoint presentations.
1. To describe, comprehend, and apply the Canadian Association of Social Workers Code of
Ethics (2005) in practice [www.casw-acts.ca].
2. To comprehend the importance of self-awareness [needs, feelings, thoughts, behaviours,

strengths, personal problems areas, vulnerabilities, life experience, etc.] in order to respond to
clients with objectivity.
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3. To develop/increase one’s understanding and appreciation of diversity [culture, gender,
spirituality, age, sexual orientation, language, education, economic ability, intellectual capacity
as well as beliefs, values, preferences, and personality style, etc.], which make every client
different.
4. To learn assessment skills: ongoing process of understanding client’s characteristics,

related information about the social and interpersonal environments that are impacting clients;
and an ongoing analysis and synthesis of information about the client and environment for the
purpose of formulating a coherent intervention plan for helping the client.
5. To comprehend and apply counselling skill clusters [attending, the use of questions;
observation skills; active listening skills – encouragers, paraphrasing, and summarizing; noting
and reflecting feelings; and the 5 stage interview process). (Ivey, Ivey, and Zalaquett, 2010).
6. To comprehend and practice creating effective helping relationships (identify

characteristics of successful and effective therapists).
• These objectives will be achieved by:
– Assigned readings
– PowerPoint presentations & discussions (large & small groups)
– Assignments
– Role plays
– Counselling videos
– Guest speakers
Required Reading:
Bertolino, B. (2010). Strength–Based Engagement and Practice: Creating effective helping

relationships. Toronto, ON: Pearson. (Available at the WLU Bookstore)
Assignments:
1. Role-play Counselling Video [40 - 50 minutes] & Written Critique [1500-2000 words]
Weight: 60%
Due Class 12 (Nov.28)
2. Values Clarification and Self-Awareness Essay [1500-2000 words] Weight: 30%
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Due Class 6 (Oct.17)
3. Reflection Paper [750 words] Weight: 10%
Due Class 12 (Nov.28)
1. Counselling video & Written critique
Produce a role-play counselling video of 40 – 50 minutes where you are the counsellor with an
individual client (youth, adult). Demonstrate core counselling skills (attending; use of questions;
client observations; encouragers, paraphrasing, and summarizing; noting and reflecting feelings;
and goal setting) studied in this course.
40 marks
Write a critique (1500-2000 words) analyzing your interviewing skills; including strengths and
limitations, and goals for personal growth and development as a counsellor. 20 marks
Note: the Faculty will provide video equipment and rooms. Students will be given a list of
times and locations that the video equipment will be available and they will sign up to use it.
2. Values Clarification & Self-Awareness Essay (1500-2000 words)
1. What are your most important (professional) values and corresponding principles (CASW
Code of Ethics 2005)? How do you think they will influence your practice?
1. Imagine you are a client. What might a counsellor need to know about you (experiences,
values, needs, preferences, etc.] in order to effectively work with you?
1. What are your strengths and where do you they come from?
30 marks
3. Reflection Paper
Write a 750 word essay reflecting on your experience in SK522 (class experience; readings;
assignments); the effort you put into the course; what you learned; and any recommendations for
change that you may have.
10 marks
Students with disabilities or special needs are advised to contact Laurier’s Office of Accessible
Learning for information regarding its services and resources. Students are encouraged to review
the Graduate Studies Calendar for information regarding all services available on campus.
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Grading
The WLU graduate studies grading system will be used. Percentage and letter grades will be
given for each of the evaluation criteria. The final grade will be calculated via the weighted
averages of the percentage grades, which will then be converted to a letter grade. In determining
the final letter grade, decimal points from 1 – 4 will be rounded down, while those from 5 – 9
will be rounded up.
Grade Grade Point Percentage
Conversion Equivalency
A+ 12 90-100
A 11 85-89
A- 10 80-84
B+ 9 77-79
B 8 73-76
B- 7 70-72
F 0
Students are advised to review the WLU website for information regarding academic
misconduct. Please note that “Wilfrid Laurier University uses software that can check for
plagiarism. Students may be required to submit their written work in electronic form and
have it checked for plagiarism.”
Social Policy Proposal for group homes in Kitchener
SK641(4) – Social Policy Analysis – Instructor: Ernie Ginsler
Social Policy Proposal by Faruk Arslan
November 29th, 2013
Summary
The Hope for Youth Centre (HYC) has proposed social policy recommendations with
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implications for all levels of government, identifying the following necessary strategies.
The economic insecurity surrounding people with disabilities in Canada creates many
barriers, including difficulties finding adequate housing, pursuing higher education and
becoming stuck below the poverty line as unattached disabled individuals. There are
several vicious circles of marginalization, isolation and exclusion that occur for the
jobless or working poor with disabilities, and these may lead them into further mental
and physical health problems. Social connections and participation are at a very low
level for people with disabilities who are seeking employment or living in intimate
relationships with a partner. The disabled need to access and retain well-paid jobs in
order to escape from economic insecurity. Public servants at different levels of
government, and also people at a variety of levels of society still treat the disabled with
unequal, unfair and discriminatory practices (1). Canada must ensure that services
provided for disabled people are in accordance with a human rights approach based on
the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. All levels of government
must demonstrate full respect for people with psychosocial disabilities, enabling them
choice, dignity and control over the services provided. The HYC is against the City of
Kitchener’s zoning regulations and restrictions for group homes, which has a
discriminatory feature because the bylaw was enforced to restrict affordable housing by
limiting available sites, forcing housing providers to abandon certain locations in order to
find ideal housing opportunities. The HYC disagrees with the new federal Basic Income
program (2012) that recently replaced provincial/territorial social assistance for most
working age persons with severe disabilities. Merging the Ontario Disability Support
Program with the Ontario Work program and converting the existing non-refundable
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Disability Tax Credit into a refundable Disability Tax Credit will extend the extra costs of
disability to the lowest-income people with disabilities. These federal income security
initiatives must free up provincial and territorial revenues for investment in urgently
needed disability support and services. The HYC recommends a new age of
enlightened programs for those with severe disabilities, with a modest but liveable
assured minimum income and a system of support for daily living, which could be
achievable at a cost that is realistic in light of other fiscal choices (2). A federal or
provincial government or a municipality cannot discriminate against people and put
minimum-distance separations in place, because of the Disability Act, the Ontario
Human Rights Chapters and Canada’s Constitution. Any group home for people with
physical, mental, intellectual or emotional disabilities must be permitted to open
anywhere, without regard to other group homes. The HYC is also against the existing
separation rule that still applies to halfway houses for released prisoners. The HYC has
recommended that the new city plan ensure policies that promote the quality of life for
all people, including those with disabilities and any ex-offenders in accordance with the
principles of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED), the pattern of
movement, and the physical and social connections that exist between people and
places (3).
Introduction
The Hope for Youth Centre (HYC) is dedicated to encouraging disabled teens and youth
to complete their secondary education with after-school programs, providing effective
group homes for the disabled population, consulting with them regularly to continue on
to post-secondary education. The group home service is available to junior and senior
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students aged 12 to 15 and 16 to 24. The target groups in the HYC project are disabled
youths between the ages of 12 and 15 and those living in the area of the Paulander
Community, which is bounded by Lawrence Avenue to the south, and Paulander Drive
to the west and east in Kitchener. The HYC provides persons with disabilities with the
support and opportunities necessary to participate in Canadian life and defends the
physical, social, civic, economic, and cultural rights’ violations experienced by people
with disabilities. Dealing with disability is not simply a matter of intervening medically
(4). The HYC’s project serves as an educational, human-health centered service related
to physical and mental functions, and it assists the community with its developmental
needs while serving disabled youth, weighing their needs, using its resources at hand,
showing compassion, respecting and encouraging each disabled person, and seeking
justice for the marginalized. More than half of the area has social housing, mostly for the
marginalized population, such as lone parents, attached or unattached disabled men
and women, and immigrant or low-income ethnic Canadian families that live beneath
the poverty line. Their disabled children are assisted with their physical, psychological,
and emotional needs, and with any troubles they confront at school such as doing
homework, especially with mathematics and science courses. These youth need free
tutoring and a group home facility to operate all of the special programs they attend.
The free activities offered to them provide disabled youths with opportunities to hone
their skills in mathematics, science, and other courses they face difficulty with, and at
the same time provide opportunities for self-assessment and job and life skills’
development. Youth are given the option to participate in fields that interest them in
order to gain cross-discipline exposure.
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Problem Description and Scoping the Local Problem:
A group home is a licensed residence that is funded under a federal or provincial statute
for the accommodation of three to ten persons who require a group-living arrangement
for their well-being. Group Homes are registered under municipal government under the
by-law 2005-158 (5). In 2010 the City of Kitchener Council proposed that group homes
in the city must be 400 meters apart. The city of Kitchener has claimed that the number
of group homes nearly doubled over the past 18 years. The bylaw of zoning regulations
contained a minimum separation, which was enforced to restrict affordable housing by
limiting available sites, forcing housing providers to abandon certain locations in order to
find ideal housing opportunities (6). In 2010, the cities of Kitchener, Toronto, Sarnia and
Smiths Falls faced challenges under the Ontario Human Rights Act. Kitchener
negotiated a settlement. A public meeting and consultation challenged this
discriminatory feature and the public disagreed with the city because there had been no
complaints filed over the past 20 years, before this restriction was introduced through a
bylaw. Finally, the City of Kitchener Council dropped the restriction, because of public
disagreement, and replaced this controversial bylaw on September, 24, 2012 with a
promise to allow group homes to open anywhere, thereby ending a human rights
challenge (7). The City of Kitchener contested this issue at the Ontario Human Rights
Tribunal, because the Legal Support Centre had filed a complaint against Kitchener, as
the city was accused of creating zoning bylaws that were discriminatory against people
with disabilities. This case was handled by the Human Rights Legal Support Centre in
Toronto, and evidence was presented in 2010 when eight individuals with disabilities
claimed to be facing discrimination. Most of the concerns raised by the city’s council
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members, who had defended themselves about this issue with group homes, centered
on claims that group homes were not meant for disabled people, but rather for “young
people with legal troubles, including people with physical and mental challenges.” Such
homes were to contain a “support worker [who] helps [these individuals] with
medication, meals and daily living” (8). The Legal Support Centre had a strong position,
defending their stance with the statement that the minimum-separation distances may
mean that parts of the city become off-limits, or unavailable, for more supportive
housing. This was a human rights issue because the city wanted to put extra restrictions
on the location of housing based on the characteristics of the people who lived in that
housing, although this violated the rights of the disabled population and left them at a
high risk of poor living conditions and locked them in poverty. The Ontario Human
Rights Commission said that minimum-distance bylaws impact the choice, cost and
availability of affordable housing, particularly for group homes. This discriminatory law
approach was changed and in turn challenged similar bylaws elsewhere. For example,
the City of Toronto is now creating a single zoning bylaw, which is a perfect opportunity
to drop the requirements for minimum-distance separations. However, some officers
say that if the zoning bylaws are struck down, the City of Kitchener may have to ban
group homes from some neighborhoods altogether to prevent concentrations. City
planners tend to see this problem as one that concerns land usage, distribution, and the
concentration of any type of group home (as they will have to be more distanced and
separated), which may have a positive outcome as is claimed; although it does not
involve the discrimination issue, even while it excludes people with disabilities from this
service (9).
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The Scope: Disability Federal and Provincial Level Problems
The current conservative federal government pushes disabled people from welfare into
the workplace in the provincial system, forcing them to take whatever job they can find
without providing them proper social support. This means that the working poor disabled
population will increase in upcoming years, with mental health problems being the main
issue among disabled communities. Statistics Canada’s Participation and Activity
Limitation Survey (PALS) divides the population of persons with disabilities into four
groups based on severity of disability: mild (855,600), moderate (625,260), severe
(652,820) and very severe (324,260) (10). Caledon Institute of Social Policy made a
survey and looked at 10 types of disability based on the 2006 statistics. Among working
age individuals with severe/very severe disabilities, pain is the most prevalent problem
(afflicting 871,300 people), followed closely by mobility (864,220), and agility problems
(845,670). Next come emotional issues (367,680), learning (349,120), seeing (289,980),
memory (273,640), communication (270,280), hearing (240,230) and developmental
(95,170). Persons with mild/moderate disabilities experience the same three largest
problems − pain (958,580), mobility (716,560) and agility (692,060). However, the other
types of disability are not, for the most part, in the same order – hearing (299,600),
learning (181,250), seeing (158,540), emotional (137,950), unknown (68,080),
communication (66,070), memory (47,290) and developmental (34, 130). (11).There is a
striking difference in the number of disabilities (from one to six or more) between the
two categories. Among persons with severe/very severe disabilities, 48.9 percent or
477,990 have four or five disabilities, followed by 24.6 percent or 240,540 with six or
more disabilities, 23.0 percent or 224,450 with three disabilities, 2.8 percent or 27,430
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with two disabilities and none with only one disability. Among persons in the
mild/moderate disabilities category, 32.0 percent or 474,300 have only one disability,
29.8 percent or 441,830 have three disabilities, 25.1 percent or 372,010 have two
disabilities, 12.8 percent or 189,650 have four or five disabilities, and a mere 0.2
percent or 3,010 have six or more disabilities (12).
Canada ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities;
therefore, many areas still require progress in improving the disabled person’s situation.
Canada’s levels of benefits to persons with disabilities are very low when compared to
the other wealthy developed nations of the OECD (13). It is also below the OECD
average regarding its support for integration of persons with disabilities into society.
The percentage of Canadians reporting a disability is 12.4%. Among children less than
14 years, the rate is less than five percent, but for adults aged 15 to 64 years, the rate
rises to 11.5%. For those aged 65 and over, the rate is more than 40%. People with
disabilities are less likely to be employed and, when they are employed, earn less than
people without disabilities. Only 35% of men with disabilities were employed full-
time/full-year in 2000 and the figure for women with disabilities was 23%. In contrast the
figures for those without disabilities working full-time/full-year were 53% for men and
37% for women. More troubling, 36% of men and 47% of women with disabilities did not
work at all in 2000. The figures of those not working at all for those without disabilities
were only 13% for men and 22% for women. For those with disabilities who do work, in
2001, the average earnings were $32,385, whereas the average earnings of those
without a disability were $38,677. Over 40% of Canadians with disabilities are not in the
labour force, forcing many of them to rely upon social assistance benefits. These
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benefits are very low in Canada and do not bring individuals even close to the poverty
line in most cities. This should not be surprising as Canada is one of the most frugal
OECD nations in its allocation of benefits to people with disabilities. In fact, Canada
ranks 27th of 29 in public spending on disability related issues (14). The OECD carried
out an extensive analysis of disability policy in its member nations. It created indices of
compensation and integration for persons with disabilities. Each index consisted of ten
measures of the extent to which governments provide benefits and supports to persons
with disabilities. Figure 16.1 shows that Canada, outside of Korea, provides the lowest
compensations and benefits to its citizens with disabilities. Canada has some of the
strongest restrictions on receiving benefits and its levels of benefits are very low.
Canada does somewhat better – but still falls below the OECD average – in efforts to
integrate persons with disabilities into the workforce. Clearly, there is much work to be
done in assisting persons with disabilities in Canada. Many employment issues are
related to the workplace being either unable or unwilling to accommodate the Ontario
Disability Support the needs of persons with disabilities. Many of the required
modifications are rather minor and almost all of these would have annual costs of less
than $1,500. For many persons with disabilities, an employer’s reluctance to provide
accommodation on the job can be extremely disheartening and frustrating (15).
The HYC’s Objectives and Project Description:
The HYC’s target for group homes is to increase self-esteem among disabled youths.
They are given a sense of value along with the ingrained knowledge that they are loved,
capable, and unique. Our disabled youth are to have good self-esteem, including a
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healthy view of themselves, a quiet sense of self-worth, a positive outlook on life, a
feeling of satisfaction with themselves most of the time, and a motivation to set realistic
goals. Showing children that they are loved and accepted will make them feel
comfortable, safe, special, confident, mutually trusted and secure, and ultimately open
them to social activity and communication for a healthy, vibrant and safe living. The
HYC provides programs that target pre-teenagers and adolescent, disabled youths and
gives them meaningful and productive after-school and weekend activities and the
opportunity to express their creativity. The HYC operates a group home and after-
school project at 20 Paulander Drive; and it anticipates forming a healthy collaboration
of programs and using a bright environment to ensure that all the needs of the
community are met. The main target group for the HYC’s program consists of pre-
teenagers and disabled, young adolescents between the ages of 12 to 19 years, up to
24 years of age, who are:
1- At risk of problematic behaviors;
2- Unemployed and/or a high school dropout;
3- Unoccupied (not participating in anything meaningful);
4- Interested in getting assistance for mostly math and science-related studies and
homework;
5- Living with a lone parent, have low-income families, are LGBTQ, are immigrants
and newcomers, or are unattached/lonely individuals.
All Level of Government Policy Recommendations and Implications
First of all, there is a new mechanism needed to deal with complaints and
discrimination-based complaints that come only from people with disabilities. An

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auditor or Ombudsman-type body would work specifically on disability
discrimination issues in order to ensure and compel the government to act upon
its human rights obligations.
In the short-term, the municipal government (the City of Kitchener) must:
• Remove the restriction of the 400 metre separation rule completely that forced
the zoning regulation for group homes, which has a discriminatory feature.
• Provide City-owned affordable housing, subsidy houses or available sites or
properties for group homes as rent or rent to buy options without any restrictions.
Longer-term strategies are:
• Improve the Kitchener transportation system to support mobility and the
social participation of persons with disabilities.
In the short-term, the provincial government must:
• Raise the income level, stop the merging system (ODSP and OW) and
review the eligibility rules regarding the provincial income assistance
program, to ensure the right to a decent living for all persons with
disabilities across the province.
• Stimulate and support the employment of persons with disabilities by
creating supports to employers who hire persons with disabilities and
supports to persons with disabilities in the workplace.
• Restore benefits, dental and visual care, food hampers, interpreter services
and funerals for people receiving Ontario Works and ODSP benefits.
• Consider the creation of a specific Ombudsman-type body to work on
disability discrimination issues.
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• Make use of social networks (e.g. Facebook) for campaigns to raise
awareness about their rights among people with disabilities.
• Allocating adequate resources to disability assistance and support
services today will be a smart option that will save money in the future.
• Improve psychosocial support services and care in the province and work
to reduce the stigma associated with mental health problems.
• Recognize, accept, provide specialized schools for severe learning
disabilities and hire more trained special teachers.
In the short-term, the federal government must:
• Commit to a framework that will assist individuals to meet the costs of disability-
related supports; support family/informal caregivers; and enable community
capacity to provide supports and inclusion.
• Make a ‘down payment’ on a transfer to enhance the supply of disability
supports, and commit to a national program of disability supports.
• Commit to a ‘disability dimension’ in new initiatives, including Caregivers,
Childcare, Cities and Communities, and the Gas Tax Rebate to enhance
accessible transportation and other services.
• Commit to a study of poverty and disability for exploring an expanded role for the
federal government in addressing income needs.
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• Explore a further role for the federal government in addressing poverty, by
meeting individual costs of disability through an expenditure program, perhaps
modeled after the National Child Benefit.
• Integrate the Caregiver Agenda into a Framework for Investment in Disability
Supports (16).
Local Community Problem with Disabilities
The City of Kitchener Official Draft Plan 2012 is committed to creating a sustainable,
complete community that is safe, stimulating, and innovative, as well as consisting of
aesthetically pleasing, universally accessible and barrier-free environments in which to
live, work and play (17). On the other hand, the Paulander area is under-serviced and
none of the high standards and criteria of an urban design environment fit into the plan
of this area; therefore, there is a need for more facilities to be available for disabled
youth. There is only one recreation center, one park and one community centre
available in the community. The schools that previously opened for after-school
programs are not available unless a fee is paid. Disabled young people cannot afford to
pay high fees for extra-curricular activities, immigrant disabled kids suffer in their
schools, and they cannot obtain post-secondary education as their grades needed to
improve in order to get into colleges and universities in the future. The Mosaic
Counseling Centre and other organizations including the Paulander community centre
offer some after-school programs, but only for children aged 7-13 without disabilities.
They do not have after-school programs for youth aged between14-19 designed for
disabled individuals, and the facilities to accommodate everyone in the area are lacking.
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They have been trying to get more programs running for able teenagers, but they do not
have enough space. The above analysis shows that there is a need for more programs
offered for disabled youth in a group home environment. It is due to these facts that the
Hope for Youth Centre was formed. It is due to the lack of programs and the need for
disabled young people to be placed in trustworthy programs and mentored that such an
organization came into existence, especially in order to help low income families and/or
single-family homes.
Key Participants
The group of people that started this organization was comprised of Faruk Arslan,
M.Fatih Yegul, Varol Soyler, Harun Kalayci, Anar Mehraliyev and Saadettin Ozcan. Our
organization came together in the spring of 2012 because we were a group of people
sharing the same safety concerns for disabled youth with their high drop-out rates, poor
education and skills, unemployment conditions, and other detrimental conditions that
make their lives harder. The HYC decided to purchase a group home, located at 20
Paulander Drive, Kitchener, Ontario, N2M 5A5, to assist disabled populations. Our
working group had been coming together every week for four hours to work on the HYC
Project and its programs. The group met with community outreach workers, social
planners, public health officers, journalists, counselors and MPPs to understand and
analyze the needs of the community. After many meetings with community members,
the group decided to start this project and bought a house in the process.
Partnerships and Grants:
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The HYC has focused on developing and maintaining a number of partnerships with
other agencies. These include the Mosaic Counseling Centre, Family Violence Project,
Lang’s Farm Village Association, KW Counseling Centre, Forest Heights and Waterloo
Collegiate Institutes’ school managements, and the Kitchener-Waterloo School Board. It
gratefully acknowledges two significant grants that will fund disabled students in the
HYC’s group home during after-school programs, in order to develop sustainable
programs. The Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation and Ontario Endowment
for Children and Youth in Recreation Fund are providing $37,500 for the HYC’s after-
school programs to be utilized at our group home during the 2012-2013 school year.
Estimated expenses are still below budget, so the possibility exists to eliminate an
anticipated deficit for the disability group home project. Any individual, company, and
group can make a gift of cash, stocks, bonds, real estate, or any other assets to our
charitable community foundation. Most charitable gifts qualify for a maximum tax
advantage under federal law.
Programs:
The HYC’s program was established in the month of September 2012 as a non-profit,
charitable organization. The agency is dedicated to expanding knowledge and to
empowering disabled community members to increase in human dignity and to enjoy a
reduction in inequality and oppression. The HYC strives to work with a diverse group of
disabled students and drop out youths, especially those who are in need of support, to
further their education and employment opportunities. The program is designed to
provide useful and transferable skills to youth members with the aim of providing
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disabled youth with opportunities to form connections with their community, upgrade
their grades at school, and attend colleges and universities after much counseling
advice, thereby reducing disabled youth exposure to crime, violence, drug abuse, and
victimization. The project will employ a multidisciplinary, professional teacher who is
specialized in mathematics and science especially, as these are the fields that students
face the most hardship in; social workers will provide counseling services for the
students’ multiple needs through disabled workshops, art studios, and physical fitness
programs; and other adult and homework clubs, study and fun trips, and many other
social activities will be provided.
Future Developments and Evaluations
The HYC starts its work by placing 10 disabled youths aged 12-15 in a residential home
as a group and working with an average of 20 young people per program by using
community facilities. The mathematics, science and homework club classes have 20
students each; together they serve 60 students during a week. These students, after a
period of time, alternate through the programs so that they are offered something from
each. This allows us to provide each student with individualized attention and allows
each student to explore their strengths and weaknesses and learn independently. The
HYC will double up class sizes and student numbers in its second year and open up
more group homes. This free service also involves subsidies and grants. Free tutoring
and after-school programs are offered with free transportation for each poor, disabled
student to bring them to class every day.
Needs, Client Groups, Programs/Services
The Paulander community is in need of more facilities and free activities for youth
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between the ages of 12-14 and 15-19 up to 24 years of age. In the past ten years, the
Paulander community has experienced an increase in youth-related deviant behavior,
misdemeanor crimes, and dropout rates in high school among disabled youths, who end
up at home alone. This rise can be attributed to a lack of parental supervision, a
decreasing commercial district to provide employment opportunities, and lack of safe,
supervised social gathering places. The disabled youth of this community are in great
need of a constructive way to spend their time after school or even to reconnect to
school. This project will help serve this educational, humane service, and will thereby
have satisfied the community’s developmental needs for its disabled youth. The
Paulander community is a neighborhood in the city of Kitchener that contains both low
and middle-income families and that features less affordable homes and mature streets.
The community is a so-called “marginalized” community; they face “extra” barriers
because they are labeled as a “bad area”, and the neighborhood is quite diverse in
terms of languages spoken and religions practiced, which is not a typical type of
community in the city of Kitchener. The majority of people who live in the area are lone
parents and immigrants with low to mid-range incomes. Economically, the area is
somewhat poor with the incidence of low-incomes being approximately estimated at
60% of the average income nationwide, making a sum of $22,000 per year.
Conclusion
The HYC believes that 2013, whatever we do, will be a transitional year. By 2014, the HYC
would have a clearer sense of which social policies will be implemented and what the
situation will be like in terms of which programs we will support and what we will offer to
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people going forward. Social services and benefits are being slashed at all levels of
government in Canada for people with disabilities. Local social service agencies are
expected to push hard for the region to maintain most or all of the benefits, as their
budget pressures will make it difficult for them to pick up the slack (18). Every individual
should have equal opportunities, as equity is an important human right or value. For
instance the City Council, the city planners, counselors, politicians, and bureaucrats
should not separate out immigrants, seniors or other groups as marginalized people,
since this is exactly why the aforementioned bylaw broke the code of ethics and human
rights for people with disabilities. The City of Kitchener must ensure that existing sites
are redeveloped, transportation systems well-developed and that the community
infrastructure is planned to support and contribute positively to environmental protection
and viability, energy conservation, long-term maintenance, and safety for all, thereby
enhancing many aspects of human life and accessibility for people with disabilities. This
also contributes positively to the need of disabled residents for a group home and an
additional overall improvement in their lives. The HYC agrees with the Council of
Canadians with Disabilities and the Canadian Association for Community Living’s
proposal for federal level improvements and additionally to seek new mechanisms from
the provincial and municipal levels of the government.
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References
1-Pinto, Paula; Naidoo,Vishaya; Dinca-Panaitescu, Mihaela. Disability Rights
Promotion International Canada (DRPI-Canada, 2012). Accessed on November 18,
2012 at http://drpi.research.yorku.ca/NorthAmerica/resources/VancouverReport
2- Mendelson M., Battle K.,Torjma, S., Lightman, E. A Basic Income Plan for
Canadians with Severe Disabilities. Ottawa: Caledon Institute of Social Policy,
November 2010.
3-Draft City of Kitchener Official Plan: A Complete & Healthy Kitchener.(2012). Pages 1-
317. Accessed on October 20, 2012 at
http://www.kitchener.ca/en/insidecityhall/resources/JUNEVERSION-
CityofKitchenerDraftOP_June20.pdf
4- Rioux, M. and Daly, T. ‘Constructing Disability and Illness’, in T. Bryant, D. Raphael,
and M. Rioux (eds.), Staying Alive: Critical Perspectives on Health, Illness, and Health
Care. 2nd edition. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2010, pp. 347-370.
5-Group Homes - Registration. (2005), (2011). General Chapter 430. Article 1 and 2.
Accessed on October 20, 2012 at http://code.municipalworld.com/kitchener/430.pdf
6- Metroland News Service (2012). “City of Kitchener to scrap minimum distance rules
for group home.” Accessed on October 20, 2012, at
http://metronews.ca/news/kitchener/268794/city-of-kitchener-to-scrap-minimum-
distance-rules-for-group-homes/
7-Outhit, Jeff. (2012). “Kitchener council drops restrictions on group homes.” Record
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Newspaper.Accessed on October 20, 2012,
http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/806345--kitchener-council-drops-
restrictions-on-group-homes
8- Pender, Terry (2010). “Kitchener Zoning Bylaws are Thought to be Discriminatory.”
The Record.com. Accessed on October 20, 2012 at http://www.cdss.ca/elxis-
media/print/kitchener-zoning-bylaws-are-thought-to-be-discriminatory.html
9- Pender, Terry (2010).
10- Mendelson M., Battle K.,Torjma, S., Lightman, E. A Basic Income Plan for
Canadians with Severe Disabilities. Ottawa: Caledon Institute of Social Policy,
November 2010, Figure 3.
11- Mendelson, M.,et.al. Figure 4.
12- August, R. Paved with Good Intentions: The Failure of Passive Disability Policy in
Canada. Ottawa: Caledon Institute of Social Policy, April 2009.
13- Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD). A Call to Combat Poverty and
Exclusion of Canadians with Disabilities by Investing in Disability Supports. Ottawa:
CCD, 2005.
14- Jackson, A. Work and Labour in Canada: Critical Issues. 2nd edition. Toronto:
Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2009.
15-Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Transforming Disability
into Ability. Paris: OECD, 2003.
16- Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD). A Call to Combat.
17- Draft City of Kitchener Official Plan. pp. 9,39.
18- Flanagan, Ryan. “Social services benefits could be slashed” in Kitchener Post,
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2012.
Hope Youth Centre (HYC) Project for the Teesdale Community in Toronto
April 30, 2008
Table of Content……………………………………………………………. Page
1. Executive Summary…………………………………………………… 2
2. Organizational Credibility……………………………………………… 3
History……………………………………………………………… 3
Vision, Mission and Goal Statement ………………………………. 3
Incorporation………………………………………………………... 3
Significant Accomplishments………………………………………. 3
Future Developments…………………………………………………3
Board of Directors…………………………………………………… 4
Needs, Client Group, Program/Service……………………………….4
3. Defining Needs……………………………………………………………4
Problem Identification and Area Description………………………….5
Needs Statement………………………………………………………. 5
Project Importance and Community Strengthening……………………5
Geographic Analysis……………………………………………………6
Community Participation……………………………………………….6
4. Project Description…………………………………………………………7
Goals and Objective…………………………………………………….7
Project Activities and Strategies………………………………………...8
Clientele…………………………………………………………………8
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Project Outcomes and Benefits to the Community……………………...8
5. Evaluation and Monitoring………………………………………………….9
Anticipated Outputs……………………………………………………..9
Participants Impacts……………………………………………………..9
Specific Outcomes………………………………………………………9
Monitoring………………………………………………………………10
Reporting……………………………………………………………….. 10
6. Financial Management……………………………………………………… 10
Budget…………………………………………………………………… 11
Advertising and Promotion……………………………………………… 12
1. Executive Summary
Canadian Turkish Friendship Community (CTFC)- “Hope Youth Centre” ( HYC) was created
and is dedicated to encourage high-risk teens-youth to complete their secondary education with
after school programs, and consult to continue their education on to post secondary. Our services
are available to junior and senior students from age 12 to 15 and 16 to 21.
The target groups for CTFC- HYC project are those living in the area of the Clairlea-Birchmount
Community that neighbourhood is bounded by Eglinton to the North, Birchmount to the East
(although it follows St. Clair to the railway tracks), Mack Ave to the South and Victoria Park
Ave to the West.
This project will help serve the educational, human service, and community development needs
of the community youth. More than half of area population is immigrants, mostly living in under
the poverty line. Their children are in trouble at school such as doing homework, especially
courses of math and science. They need free tutoring of those.
The activities provide youth with opportunities to hone their skills in math, science, and
homework club while opportunities for self-assessment, job and life skills development. The
programs offer youth the options to participate in fields that interest them to gain cross-discipline
exposure.
Our program was established in the year of September 2008 is for non-profit. This agency is
dedicated to expand knowledge and to empower the community members to support high-risk
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youth. We strive to work with a divers group of students especially those who are in need of
support to further their education.
The program will be designed to provide useful and transferable skills with the aim of providing
youth with opportunities for reconnections back into the community, upgrade their grades at
school, advocate and counselling to go colleges and universities thereby reducing youth exposure
to crime, violence, drug abuse, and victimization. The project will employ a multidisciplinary
professional math, science, and Homework club who’s able to instruct the participants in many
activities.
2. Organizational Credibility
2.1 History
Our organization came together in the fall of 2007 as a result of group of people sharing a desire
to see some good done in the Clairlea-Birchmount neighbourhood area for the teen and youth of
this trouble plagued are of Toronto. The group of people that started this organization were Faruk
Arslan, M.Fatih Yegul, Varol Soyler, Harun Kalayci, Anar Mehraliyev and Saadettin Ozcan.
Working Group has been coming together every week four hours to work on After School
Project for the Clairlea-Birchmount Community. Group met with Scarborough West Ward
Counsellor Adrian Heap and NDP area MP candidate Alam Husein to understand and analyze
community needs. After many meetings with community members, group has decided to start
project.
3.1 Vision, Mission and Goal Statement
a) Vision: To create community that is vibrant, thriving, peaceful and safe, free from crime and a
better place for all to live in for Social Justice.
b) Mission: Oneness helps our struggle to harvest our dreams.
c) Goal: To establish an after school programs and consulting service, which provide youth with
an opportunity to develop their interest and talent, to channel their energy toward constructive
activities, and to build positive relationship with others.
2.3 Incorporation
Canadian Turkish Friendship Community (CTFC) is a non-profit and charitable organization. Its
objective is to support educational and cultural activities open to the public. Within this
framework, the aforementioned enhancements will serve to strengthen intercultural bridges by
reaching out to a greater community within Ontario and beyond its borders. Reaching out to a
greater public will help us attract greater number of sponsors, which will be very helpful for the
future organization of cultural and educational activities by CTFC. HYC will be working under
the CTFC with charitable and not – profit status.
2.4 Significant Accomplishment

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CTFC is established Nil Academy in 2005 to meet the needs for a better education and a brighter
future for our children. NA is a private school with experienced staff determined to maximize
students' opportunities for success. The school has built its reputation on catering for individual
needs and diversity. CTFC and Nil Academy has proved itself last three years, and ability to
undertake the projects with Community support and with its sponsors.
HYC activity goes under the CTFC that has been a non-profit and charitable organization since
2005. HYC is targeting students outside of Nil Academy and its students in the Clairlea-
Birchmount Community from low-income families and immigrant population.
2.5 Future Developments
HYC starts to work with an average of 20 young people per program. Math, Science and
Homework Club classes have 20 students each, together serve 60 students each day. This allows
us to provide each student with individualized attention and allows each student to explore
independently. HYC will double up class size and student numbers in second year. Key factor of
succeeding this project is free TTC tickets. Free tutoring after school program offers free of
transportation for each poor student to bring them in class every day.
2.6 Board of Director
President –
Vice President-
Chair Person –
Secretary –
Treasurer –
Member-
Member-
Member-
Member-
Member
2.7 Needs, Client Group, Program/Services
This community is in need of more facilities and activities for youth between the ages 12-14 and
15-19 up to 24 years of age. In the past ten years The Clairlea-Birchmount Community,
especially Teesdale community has experienced an increase in youth related deviant behavior
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and misdemeanor crimes. This rise can be attributed to lack of parental supervision, a decreasing
commercial district to provide employment opportunities, and lack of safe, supervised social
gathering places. The youth of this community are in great need of constructive way to spend
after school time.
This project will help serve the educational, human service, and community development needs
of the community youth. More than half of area population is immigrants, mostly living in under
the poverty line. Their children are in trouble at school such as doing homework, especially
courses of math and science. They need free tutoring of those. The activities provide youth with
opportunities to hone their skills in math, science, and homework club while opportunities for
self-assessment, job and life skills development. The programs offer youth the options to
participate in fields that interest them to gain cross-discipline exposure.
3. Defining Needs
3.1 Problem Identification and Area Description
Clairlea-Birchmount is a neighbourhood in the city of Toronto, but more specifically

Scarborough. The neighbourhood is bounded by Eglinton to the North, Birchmount to the East
Ave to the West.
Clairlea-Birchmount is low-income and a middle income neighbourhood that features less

affordable homes and mature streets. The Tisdale Community is a so-called “ marginalized”
community; they face ‘extra’ barriers because they are labelled as a bad area in the Clairlea-
Birchmount community. The Warden Woods ravine is a the landmark of the neighbourhood,
offering some downtown nature. There is a large Filipino contingency in this neighbourhood, at
least compared to the rest of the city (8%) and a correspondingly large number of residents who
speak Tagalog. The neighbourhood is quite diverse from languages spoken to religions practiced
which is typical in the city of Toronto.
There are 19.855 individuals who live within a 5.0 kilometers radius around the area. The
population has decreased –0.7 % since the last census completed in 2006. There has been 6.9 %
increase in the number of youths between the ages of 15-24 years, 3.3% the ages of 10-14, and
huge increase on female youth 13.2 % the ages of 15-24 from 2001 to 2006. The majority of
people who live in the area are immigrants with low to mid-range incomes. Economically, the
area is somewhat poor with the incidence of low-income being 30 %, with the average household
with children under making $30,000 per year.
3.2 Statement of Need
This area is under serviced and there is a need for more facilities to be available for the youth.
There is only one recreation center and one community center. The schools that previously open
for after school programs have been stopped unless you pay a fee. Young people cannot afford to
pay high fees for the extra curricular activities. Immigrant kids suffered in their schools, and
their grades need to be improved to get in colleges and universities for their future.
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Some organizations including Warden Wood Community Center and Teesdale Centre offer after
school programs only for children 7-13; however, they do not have after school program for the
age of 14-19 and the facilities to accommodate everyone in the area.
They have been trying to get more programs running for teenagers but they do not have enough
space. The above figures show that there is a need for more programs offered to youth. It is due
to these statistics Hope Youth Centre was formed. It is due the lack of programs and need for
young people to be mentored especially those in low income and/or single-family homes.
3.3 Project Importance and Community Strengthening
Due to dwindling commercial district the opportunities for youth employment in the community
is very low. There are few safe and supervised gathering places for youth to meet and socialize.
This lack of space forces them to congregate in less appropriate areas, such as parking lots, store
fronts, and apartment building lobbies. There exist programs for children, adults and seniors, but
very few specifically for youth and pre-teenagers.
After school programs in the city have been always successful in keeping youth off the street in
safe, stimulating and supervised environment. These programs offer youth the chance to express
them creatively therefore preventing them from seeking out more destructive outlets.
3.4 Geographic Analysis
The Clairlea-Birchmount community is a mixed residential and commercial area. Residentially,

this neighbourhood is a mixture of small bungalows and high-rise apartment buildings, built
between 1946 and 1960. Straddling Birchmount Road just south of St. Clair Avenue East is
Birchmount Park. One of the first working-class suburbs to emerge after the Second World War,
BP was conceived when eager developers and a permissive local government first made low-cost
mass accommodations on raw land a possibility. Housing consists mostly of detached homes and
a mix of low- and high-rise apartment complexes.
There are very few parks with then exception of school yards and park, located at the southern
most tip of the community and difficult to access without a vehicle. Warden and Eglinton
intersection offer the primary place for people to gather and socialize, and community activities.
After Wall-Mart moved from Mall in 2007, many businesses slowed down, and social activities
are disappeared. When the area first started to be built it was compromised mainly of single-
family dwellings such as freehold townhouses and townhouses. However as the community has
expanded there has been a big increase in apartments buildings and social housing. The increase
of apartments means that they can have more people living in a smaller piece of land. Very little
development has been done in this area both residentially and commercially in over 30 years, and
there are very limited planned developments in the near future.
3.5 Community Participation
These programs will offer youth the chance to improve their grades therefore preventing them
from seeking out more destructive outlets. These programs will build caring, compassionate and
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supporting children in intellectual endeavors; bringing children, youth, service providers,
community leaders, police and family members together. Our program is with aim of providing
youth with encouragement with going to high school, colleges and universities thereby reducing
pre-youth exposure to crime, violence, drug abuse, and victimization.
Currently, Warden Woods Community Centre began as a Mennonite Church response to the
needs of residents in a new government housing project in southwest Scarborough. Built in the
early 1960s to accommodate 347 families and 392 senior citizens, Warden Woods had no
recreational facilities and few public amenities. The Community Centre at 74 Fir Valley Court
was built in 1970 with leadership and capital funding supplied by Mennonite Church Eastern
Canada. It has governed by a local board of directors since 1985. Centre added after-school
programs and family support program in the Birchmount and St. Clair area in 2003, but victim
target population are still vulnerable, because after schools has limited space and target only
certain age of group. Youth population grew last five years, and this Center doesn’t meet needs
now. New community center will be built up as scheduled by Scarborough West City
Community Developer, but populations suffer everyday, and pre-teenagers, teens and youth
don’t know where to go.
4. Project Description
4.1 a) Goals: The program will be designed to provide useful and transferable skills with the
aim of providing youth with opportunities for reconnections back into the community, upgrade
their grades at school, advocate and counselling to go colleges and universities thereby reducing
youth exposure to crime, violence, drug abuse, and victimization. The project will employ a
multidisciplinary professional math, science, and Homework club who’s able to instruct the
participants in many activities.
4.1 b) Objectives
1- To provide youth with a safe and stimulating environment where they can be engaged in
Math, Science and Homework club activities, and socialize with peers in an appropriate manner.
2- Free tutoring to youth with after school program to improve their grade in their school.
3- Provide opportunities for the youth to spend their time pursuing more productive activities
to become confident and successful individuals.
4.2 Project Activities and Strategies
The target groups for CTFC- HYC project are those living in the area of the Clairlea-Birchmount
Community that neighbourhood is bounded by Eglinton to the North, Birchmount to the East
Ave to the West.
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The CTFC- HYC program will run after school hours 4.00 pm to 7.00 pm weekdays Monday,
Tuesday to Thursday at Nil Academy classes located at 25 Civic Road, Scarborough, Ontario
L5N 4V9.
4.2 Activities
The program hours will be weekdays and discipline explored each day:
• Monday – Math, Science and Homework club.

• Tuesday - Math, Science and Homework club.
• Thursday- Math, Science and Homework club.
Teachers will be hired based on their professional portfolios, proven ability in various form of
their field, their experience working with youth, and knowledge of youth related issues. We will
be also relying upon the support of local volunteers to aid in setting up classes, inventorying
supplies, monitoring attendance, and assisting during the session with some artistic know-how.
The project will be administered through paid staff who will be accountable to it financial and
administratively. We are determined to target that the youth of community.
4.2 Strategies
We have developed an approach that incorporated the following strategy elements:
* Low participant to instructor in ratio- we work with an average of 20 young people per
program. Math, Science and Homework Club classes have 20 students each, together serve 60
students each day. This allows us to provide each student with individualized attention and
allows each student to explore independently.
* Key factor of succeeding this project is free TTC tickets. Free tutoring after school program
offers free of transportation for each low-income family student to bring them in class every
day. Through counseling and interviewing with trained social service worker, we will know low
income family student who in need for TTC ticket.
* Self-determination approach- each session is open to participants to explore math, science and
homework in their own creative way. Participants are nor restricted to one program to another,
and are encouraged to participate in other programs. We believe that this self-determination
approach will make the project more inviting for youth by allowing them to follow their own
creative paths and perhaps discover new ones.
* Flexibility: because we are community-based organization, we have the opportunity to explore

issues that may not be part of the standard school curriculum.
* Math, science and homework as a tool – we believe that solving problems with math and
science can be powerful enabling toll that can support critical thinking and other developmental
skills.
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* Youth Service as an advocacy - we will do informal counseling, advocacy, information,
referrals, crisis intervention and life skills training for youth and their families.
4.3 Clientele
The main target group for HYC program is pre-teenagers to young adolescents between the ages
of 12 to 19 years up 24 years of age who are:
1- At risk for problem behaviors;
2- Unemployed
3- Unoccupied ( not participating in anything meaningful) and
4- Interested or trouble in expression in math, science and homework.
5- Belong to low-income families and newcomers.
Our focus will be the youth who live in neighbourhood is bounded by Eglinton to the North,
Birchmount to the East (although it follows St. Clair to the railway tracks), Mack Ave to the
South and Victoria Park Ave to the West. The attached pie chart shows 30% of households
within our catchment area have incomes less than $ 30,000 per year. 22% are lone-parents and
48% couple with children. With 70% of our catchment area occupied by low socio-economic
families, immigrants we believe out HYC program will be beneficial.
HYC feels strongly that our program targeting pre-teenagers and adolescent youths, will give
youths a meaningful and productive after-school and weekend school activities and opportunity
to express their creativity. HYC will operate from Nil Academy, 25 Civic Road, Scarborough,
which is located Warden and Eglinton intersection across the stress from Rona and McDonalds.
HYC anticipates forming a healthy collaboration of programs and uses bright environments of
Nil Academy to ensure that all needs of the community are met.
4.4 Project Outcomes and lasting benefits to the community
The main outcome for our project is to basically have created a interaction effect where the
program stays consistence. We want it so that those that come into the program are able to stay
for as long as possible, compare to most programs when after a certain age you can no longer
participate. The point is for the youth that are part of the programs are able to give to self-esteem
to complete their education, and be a positive role model to others.
HYC does not discriminate race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic and socio-economic
background or situation. Our project’s long-term goal is to give youth the opportunity to make
positive choices in life through mentoring and training. It is geared specifically to pre-teenagers
to youth aged 12 to 19 years who are from single parents families and/or low-income families.
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These programs will build caring, compassionate, and encouraging and supporting children and
youth in academic and employment endeavors; bringing children, youth, service providers,
community leaders, police and family members together; helping children and youth take
ownership and responsibility and be accountable for their actions; improving the
cultural/spiritual awareness of children and youth; providing role-models and mentors for
children, youth and their families.
5. Evaluations and Monitoring
5.1 Anticipated Outputs
The anticipated output from this program would be to reach youth before they begin to get into
trouble, and improve their grades. This program would be self-esteem and character builder.
5.2 Participant Impacts
As the youths go through the program they learn how to upgrade their grade and become better
people; i.e self-value and self worth to learn about personal changes.
5.3 Specific Outcomes
Helping teens and youth (which are kids from 12 to 24) learn how to be better people, teach them
how to be more helpful in their community, but most of all, it will teach them about what they
may expect regarding the changes their bodies and minds.
5.4 Monitoring
Program staffs such as teachers and executive director do monitoring, as well as we would have
one Social Service Worker on staff.
5.5 Reporting
This program would work in cooperation with CTFC and Nil Academy as well as Funder.
Executive Director is responsible for reporting for Monthly, Quarterly and yearly to those places,
and CTFC Accountant supervises accounting.
6. Financial Management
Nil Academy offers physical needs for free tutoring after school program. HYC wont spend
budget for start-up and equipments at all. HYC will use Nil Academy’s existing facilities after
4.00 pm to 7.00 pm. Nil Academy is established in 2005 to meet the needs for a better education
and a brighter future for our children.
6.1 Budget
BUDGET - START-UP COST
Personnel (Part-Time for 10 Months) Hourly Rate Monthly Rate Annual Salary
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Executive Director 28.00 (3) 1008.00 12,096.00
Science teacher 20.00 (3) 720.00 8640.00
Math teacher 20.00 (3) 720.00 8640.00
Homework club teacher 20.00 (3) 720.00 8640.00
Social Service Worker 20.00 (3) 720.00 8640.00
Total 3888.00 46,656.00
Real Estate Monthly Annualy

Rent ( included utilies) 1500.00 18,000.00
Total 1,500.00 18,000.00
Inventory items Unit Cost Extended Cost

Reception& Office
Modular workstation 1 800 800.00
Samsung-Printer-Copier/Fax 1 499 499
General 2 line speakerphone 5 280 1,400.00
Office computer and instalation 5 500 2500
Manager Tables 4 104 416
Stackable Chairs 50 10 500
Adverstising material 500
Internet/Email 250
Television 1 2000
DVD player 1 150
Display case/flyer rack 1 300 300
Book shelf set 3 100 300
Desk 4 119 476
Office chairs 8 80 640
Low back manager chair 4 104 416
Couch 2 550 1100
Barfridge 1 350 350
Kettle, coffemachine set 1 150 150
Office stationary supplies 1000
Cleaning material and supplies 150
Renovation and Setup

Lawyer fee- incorporate fee one time 1 1000 1000
Accountant fee( volunteer) 0 0
Rent deposit 0 0
Signage ( one time fee) 3,500.00 3,500.00
Grand Total 18397.00
Start-up expenses
Personnel Total 3888.00
Space Rental Total 1500.00
Inventory Total 18397.00
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Start-up Total 23,785.00
OPERATING BUDGET
Personnel (Part-Time) Hourly Rate Monthly Rate Annual Salary
Executive Director 28.00 (3) 1008.00 12,096.00
Science teacher 20.00 (3) 720.00 8640.00
Math teacher 20.00 (3) 720.00 8640.00
Homework club teacher 20.00 (3) 720.00 8640.00
Social Service Worker 20.00 (3) 720.00 8640.00
Total 3888.00 46,656.00
Real Estate Monthly Annualy

Rent ( included utilies) 1500.00 18,000.00
Total 1,500.00 18,000.00
Inventory- Ongoing expenses Unit Monthly Annualy

Reception& Office
Telephone bill 60.00 680.00
TTC tickets for students 1300.00 13,000.00
Office Supplies 250.00 2500.00
Advertising material 200.00 2000.00
Internet high speed business 80.00 860.00
Misc.( stamps, cleaning supplies) 200.00 2400.00
Grand Total 2090.00 21,440.00
ANNUAL OPERATIONAL TOTAL

Salary Total 46,656.00
Space Rental Total 18,000.00
Inventory Total ,21,440.00
TOTAL 86,096.00
MONTHLY OPERATIONAL TOTAL

Salary Total 3888.00
Space Rental Total 1500.00
Inventory Total 2090.00
TOTAL 7478.00
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6.2 Advertising and Promotion
HYC intends on putting out flyers and brochures amongst the community of Eglinton to the
North, Birchmount to the East (although it follows St. Clair to the railway tracks), Mack Ave to
the South and Victoria Park Ave to the West, and its boundaries.
Flyers will be placed in bus shelters, especially since many youth (participants who we are trying
to attract to the program/agency) take the bus home to from school and work. The flyers and
posters will be placed in the high schools of the area so students will be aware of the
program/agency and what we are about.
HYC will also look into local grocery stores to post flyers. HYC must seek permission form the
manager of the store; it should be not a problem. HYC will raise awareness for our program
through morning announcements at both high schools for students who may not see the flyers or
brochures around the community.
We will also be placing them in libraries and Malls where people can pick them up. We will use
local newspaper to get attraction.
Other advertisement promotions will consider further by our Finances and

Advertising/Fundraising Manager.
SK641(4) – Social Policy Analysis – Instructor: Ernie Ginsler
Social Policy Proposal for disabled population in the Paulander Community
by FarukArslan
Due: November 29th, 2013
Summary
The Hope for Youth Centre (HYC) has proposed social policy recommendations with
implications for all levels of government, identifying the following necessary strategies. The
economic insecurity surrounding people with disabilities in Canada creates many barriers,
including difficulties finding adequate housing, pursuing higher education and becoming stuck
below the poverty line as unattached disabled individuals.There are several vicious circles of
marginalization, isolation and exclusion that occur for the jobless or working poor with
disabilities, and these may lead them into further mental and physical health problems. Social
connections and participation are at a very low level for people with disabilities who are seeking
employment or living in intimate relationships with a partner. The disabled need to access and
retain well-paid jobs in order to escape from economic insecurity. Public servants at different
levels of government, and also people at a variety of levels of society still treat the disabled with
unequal, unfair and discriminatory practices (1). Canada must ensure that services provided for
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disabled people are in accordance with a human rights approach based on the UN Convention on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. All levels of government must demonstrate full respect
for people with psychosocial disabilities, enabling them choice, dignity and control over the
services provided. The HYC is against the City of Kitchener’s zoning regulations and restrictions
for group homes, which has a discriminatory feature because the bylaw was enforced to restrict
affordable housing by limiting available sites, forcing housing providers to abandon certain
locations in order to find ideal housing opportunities. The HYC disagrees with the new federal
Basic Income program (2012) that recently replacedprovincial/territorial social assistance for
most working age persons with severe disabilities. Merging the Ontario Disability Support
Program with the Ontario Work program and converting the existing non-refundable Disability
Tax Credit into a refundableDisability Tax Credit will extend the extra costs of disability to
thelowest-income people with disabilities. These federal income security initiatives must free
upprovincial and territorial revenues for investment in urgently needed disability support
andservices. The HYC recommends a new age of enlightened programs for those with severe
disabilities, with a modest but liveableassured minimum income and a system of support for
daily living, which could be achievable at a cost that is realistic in light of other fiscal choices
(2). A federal or provincial government or a municipality cannot discriminate against people and
put minimum-distance separations in place, because of the Disability Act, the Ontario Human
Rights Chapters and Canada’s Constitution. Any group home for people with physical, mental,
intellectual or emotional disabilities must be permitted to open anywhere, without regard to other
group homes. The HYC is also against the existing separation rule that still applies to halfway
houses for released prisoners. The HYC has recommended that the new city plan ensure policies
that promote the quality of life for all people, including those with disabilities and any ex-
offenders in accordance with the principles of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design
(CPTED), the pattern of movement, and the physical and social connections that exist between
people and places (3).
Introduction
The Hope for Youth Centre (HYC) is dedicated to encouraging disabled teens and youth to
complete their secondary education with after-school programs, providing effective group
homes for the disabled population, consulting with them regularly to continue on to post-
secondary education. The group home service is available to junior and senior students aged 12
to 15 and 16 to 24. The target groups in the HYC project are disabled youths between the ages of
12 and 15 and those living in the area of the Paulander Community, which is bounded by
Lawrence Avenue to the south, and Paulander Drive to the west and east in Kitchener. The HYC
provides persons with disabilities with the support and opportunitiesnecessary to participate in
Canadianlife and defends thephysical, social, civic, economic, and cultural rights’violations
experienced by people with disabilities.Dealing with disability is not simply a matter
ofintervening medically (4). The HYC’s project serves as an educational, human-health centered
service related to physical and mental functions, and it assists the community with its
developmental needs while serving disabled youth, weighing their needs, using its resources at
hand, showing compassion, respecting and encouraging each disabled person, and seeking justice
for the marginalized. More than half of the area has social housing, mostly for the marginalized
population, such as lone parents, attached or unattached disabled men and women, and
immigrant or low-income ethnic Canadian families that live beneath the poverty line. Their
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disabled children are assisted with their physical, psychological, and emotional needs, and with
any troubles they confront at school such as doing homework, especially with mathematics and
science courses. These youth need free tutoring and a group home facility to operate all of the
special programs they attend. The free activities offered to them provide disabled youths with
opportunities to hone their skills in mathematics, science, and other courses they face difficulty
with, and at the same time provide opportunities for self-assessment and job and life skills’
development. Youth are given the option to participate in fields that interest them in order to gain
cross-discipline exposure.
Problem Description and Scoping the Local Problem:
A group home is a licensed residence that is funded under a federal or provincial statute for the
accommodation of three to ten persons who require a group-living arrangement for their well-
being. Group Homes are registered under municipal government under the by-law 2005-158 (5).
In 2010 the City of Kitchener Council proposed that group homes in the city must be 400 meters
apart. The city of Kitchener has claimed that the number of group homes nearly doubled over the
past 18 years. The bylaw of zoning regulations contained a minimum separation, which was
enforced to restrict affordable housing by limiting available sites, forcing housing providers to
abandon certain locations in order to find ideal housing opportunities (6). In 2010, the cities of
Kitchener, Toronto, Sarnia and Smiths Falls faced challenges under the Ontario Human Rights
Act. Kitchener negotiated a settlement. A public meeting and consultation challenged this
discriminatory feature and the public disagreed with the city because there had been no
complaints filed over the past 20 years, before this restriction was introduced through a bylaw.
Finally, the City of Kitchener Council dropped the restriction, because of public disagreement,
and replaced this controversial bylaw on September, 24, 2012 with a promise to allow group
homes to open anywhere, thereby ending a human rights challenge (7). The City of Kitchener
contested this issue at the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, because the Legal Support Centre had
filed a complaint against Kitchener, as the city was accused of creating zoning bylaws that were
discriminatory against people with disabilities. This case was handled by the Human Rights
Legal Support Centre in Toronto, and evidence was presented in 2010 when eight individuals
with disabilities claimed to be facing discrimination. Most of the concerns raised by the city’s
council members, who had defended themselves about this issue with group homes, centered on
claims that group homes were not meant for disabled people, but rather for “young people with
legal troubles, including people with physical and mental challenges.” Such homes were to
contain a “support worker [who] helps [these individuals] with medication, meals and daily
living” (8). The Legal Support Centre had a strong position, defending their stance with the
statement that the minimum-separation distances may mean that parts of the city become off-
limits, or unavailable, for more supportive housing. This was a human rights issue because the
city wanted to put extra restrictions on the location of housing based on the characteristics of the
people who lived in that housing, although this violated the rights of the disabled population and
left them at a high risk of poor living conditions and locked them in poverty. The Ontario Human
Rights Commission said that minimum-distance bylaws impact the choice, cost and availability
of affordable housing, particularly for group homes. This discriminatory law approach was
changed and in turn challenged similar bylaws elsewhere. For example, the City of Toronto is
now creating a single zoning bylaw, which is a perfect opportunity to drop the requirements for
minimum-distance separations. However, some officers say that if the zoning bylaws are struck
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down, the City of Kitchener may have to ban group homes from some neighborhoods altogether
to prevent concentrations. City planners tend to see this problem as one that concerns land usage,
distribution, and the concentration of any type of group home (as they will have to be more
distanced and separated), which may have a positive outcome as is claimed; although it does not
involve the discrimination issue, even while it excludes people with disabilities from this service
(9).
The Scope: Disability Federal and Provincial Level Problems
The current conservative federal government pushes disabled people from welfare into the
workplace in the provincial system, forcing them to take whatever job they can find without
providing them proper social support. This means that the working poor disabled population will
increase in upcoming years, with mental health problems being the main issue among disabled
communities. Statistics Canada’s Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS) divides
the population of persons with disabilities into four groups based on severity of disability: mild
(855,600), moderate (625,260), severe (652,820) and very severe (324,260) (10). Caledon
Institute of Social Policy made a survey and looked at 10 types of disability based on the 2006
statistics. Among working age individuals with severe/very severe disabilities, pain is the most
prevalent problem (afflicting 871,300 people), followedclosely by mobility (864,220), and agility
problems (845,670). Next come emotional issues(367,680), learning (349,120), seeing (289,980),
memory (273,640), communication (270,280),hearing (240,230) and developmental (95,170).
Persons with mild/moderate disabilities experiencethe same three largest problems − pain
(958,580), mobility (716,560) and agility (692,060). However, the other types of disability are
not, for the most part, in the same order – hearing (299,600), learning (181,250), seeing
(158,540), emotional (137,950), unknown (68,080), communication (66,070), memory (47,290)
and developmental (34, 130). (11).There is a striking difference in the number of disabilities
(from one to six or more)between the two categories. Among persons with severe/very severe
disabilities, 48.9 percentor 477,990 have four or five disabilities, followed by 24.6 percent or
240,540 with six or moredisabilities, 23.0 percent or 224,450 with three disabilities, 2.8 percent
or 27,430 with twodisabilities and none with only one disability. Among persons in the
mild/moderate disabilitiescategory, 32.0 percent or 474,300 have only one disability, 29.8
percent or 441,830 have threedisabilities, 25.1 percent or 372,010 have two disabilities, 12.8
percent or 189,650 have four orfive disabilities, and a mere 0.2 percent or 3,010 have six or more
disabilities (12).
Canada ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; therefore, many
areas still require progress in improving the disabled person’s situation. Canada’s levels of
benefits to persons with disabilities are very low when compared to the other wealthy developed
nations of the OECD (13). It is also below the OECD average regarding its support for
integration of persons with disabilities into society. The percentage of Canadians reporting a
disability is 12.4%. Among children less than 14 years, therate is less than five percent, but for
adults aged 15 to 64 years, the rate rises to 11.5%. For those aged65 and over, the rate is more
than 40%. People with disabilities are less likely to be employed and, when they are employed,
earn less than people without disabilities. Only 35% of men with disabilitieswere employed full-
time/full-year in 2000 and the figure for women with disabilities was 23%. Incontrast the figures
for those without disabilities working full-time/full-year were 53% for men and37% for women.
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More troubling, 36% of men and 47% of women with disabilities did not work at all in 2000.
The figures of those not working at all for those without disabilities were only 13% for men and
22% for women. For those with disabilities who do work, in 2001, the average earnings were
$32,385, whereas the average earnings of those without a disability were $38,677. Over 40% of
Canadians with disabilities are not in the labour force, forcing many of them to rely upon social
assistance benefits. These benefits are very low in Canada and do not bring individuals even
close to the poverty line in most cities. This should not be surprising as Canada is one of the
most frugal OECD nations in its allocation of benefits to people with disabilities. In fact, Canada
ranks 27th of 29 in public spending on disability related issues (14).The OECD carried out an
extensive analysis of disability policy in its member nations. It createdindices of compensation
and integration for persons with disabilities. Each index consisted often measures of the extent to
which governments provide benefits and supports to persons with disabilities. Figure 16.1 shows
that Canada, outside of Korea, provides the lowest compensations and benefits to its citizens
with disabilities. Canada has some of the strongest restrictions on receiving benefits and its
levels of benefits are very low. Canada does somewhat better – but still falls below the OECD
average – in efforts to integrate persons with disabilities into the workforce. Clearly, there is
much work to be done in assisting persons with disabilities in Canada. Many employment issues
are related to the workplace being either unable or unwilling to accommodate the Ontario
Disability Support the needs of persons with disabilities. Many of the required modifications are
rather minor and almost all of these would have annual costs of less than $1,500. For many
persons with disabilities, an employer’s reluctance to provide accommodation on the job can be
extremely disheartening and frustrating (15).
The HYC’s Objectives and Project Description:
The HYC’s target for group homes is to increase self-esteem among disabled youths. They are
given a sense of value along with the ingrained knowledge that they are loved, capable, and
unique. Our disabled youth are to have good self-esteem, including a healthy view of
themselves, a quiet sense of self-worth, a positive outlook on life, a feeling of satisfaction with
themselves most of the time, and a motivation to set realistic goals. Showing children that they
are loved and accepted will make them feel comfortable, safe, special, confident, mutually
trusted and secure, and ultimately open them to social activity and communication for a healthy,
vibrant and safe living. The HYC provides programs that target pre-teenagers and adolescent,
disabled youths and gives them meaningful and productive after-school and weekend activities
and the opportunity to express their creativity. The HYC operates a group home and after-school
project at 20 Paulander Drive; and it anticipates forming a healthy collaboration of programs and
using a bright environment to ensure that all the needs of the community are met. The main
target group for the HYC’s program consists of pre-teenagers and disabled, young adolescents
between the ages of 12 to 19 years, up to 24 years of age, who are:
1- At risk of problematic behaviors;
2- Unemployed and/or a high school dropout;
3- Unoccupied (not participating in anything meaningful);
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4- Interested in getting assistance for mostly math and science-related studies and homework;
5- Living with a lone parent, have low-income families, are LGBTQ, are immigrants and
newcomers, or are unattached/lonely individuals.
All Level of Government Policy Recommendations and Implications
First of all, there is a new mechanism needed to deal with complaints and discrimination-based
complaints that come only from people with disabilities. An auditor or Ombudsman-type
body would work specifically on disability discrimination issues in order to ensure and
compel the government to act upon its human rights obligations.
In the short-term, the municipal government (the City of Kitchener) must:
• Remove the restriction of the 400 metre separation rule completely that forcedthe zoning
regulation for group homes, which has a discriminatory feature.
• Provide City-owned affordable housing, subsidy houses or available sites or properties
for group homes as rent or rent to buy options without any restrictions.
• Improve the Kitchener transportation system to support mobility and the social
participation of persons with disabilities.
In the short-term, the provincial government must:
• Raise the income level, stop the merging system (ODSP and OW) and review the
eligibility rules regarding the provincial income assistance program, to ensure the
right to a decent living for all persons with disabilities across the province.
• Stimulate and support the employment of persons with disabilities by creating
supports to employers who hire persons with disabilities and supports to persons
with disabilities in the workplace.
• Restore benefits, dental and visual care, food hampers, interpreter services and
funerals for people receiving Ontario Works and ODSP benefits.
• Consider the creation of a specific Ombudsman-type body to work on disability
discrimination issues.
• Make use of social networks (e.g. Facebook) for campaigns to raise awareness about
their rights among people with disabilities.
• Allocating adequate resources to disability assistance and support services today

will be a smart option that will save money in the future.
• Improve psychosocial support services and care in the province and work to reduce
the stigma associated with mental health problems.
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• Recognize, accept, provide specialized schools for severe learning disabilities and
hire more trained special teachers.
In the short-term, the federal government must:
• Commit to a framework that will assist individuals to meet the costs of disability-related
supports; support family/informal caregivers; and enable community capacity to provide
supports and inclusion.
• Make a ‘down payment’ on a transfer to enhance the supply of disability supports, and
commit to a national program of disability supports.
• Commit to a ‘disability dimension’ in new initiatives, including Caregivers, Childcare,
Cities and Communities, and the Gas Tax Rebate to enhance accessible transportation
and other services.
• Commit to a study of poverty and disability for exploring an expanded role for the federal
government in addressing income needs.
• Explore a further role for the federal government in addressing poverty, by meeting
individual costs of disability through an expenditure program, perhaps modeled after the
National Child Benefit.
• Integrate the Caregiver Agenda into a Framework for Investment in Disability Supports
(16).
Local Community Problem with Disabilities
The City of Kitchener Official Draft Plan 2012 is committed to creating a sustainable, complete
community that is safe, stimulating, and innovative, as well as consisting of aesthetically
pleasing, universally accessible and barrier-free environments in which to live, work and play
(17). On the other hand, the Paulander area is under-serviced and none of the high standards and
criteria of an urban design environment fit into the plan of this area; therefore, there is a need for
more facilities to be available for disabled youth. There is only one recreation center, one park
and one community centre available in the community. The schools that previously opened for
after-school programs are not available unless a fee is paid. Disabled young people cannot afford
to pay high fees for extra-curricular activities, immigrant disabled kids suffer in their schools,
and they cannot obtain post-secondary education as their grades needed to improve in order to
get into colleges and universities in the future. The Mosaic Counseling Centre and other
organizations including the Paulander community centre offer some after-school programs, but
only for children aged 7-13 without disabilities. They do not have after-school programs for
youth aged between14-19 designed for disabled individuals, and the facilities to accommodate
everyone in the area are lacking. They have been trying to get more programs running for able
teenagers, but they do not have enough space. The above analysis shows that there is a need for
more programs offered for disabled youth in a group home environment. It is due to these facts
that the Hope for Youth Centre was formed. It is due to the lack of programs and the need for
disabled young people to be placed in trustworthy programs and mentored that such an
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organization came into existence, especially in order to help low income families and/or single-
family homes.
Key Participants
The group of people that started this organization was comprised of FarukArslan, M.FatihYegul,
VarolSoyler, HarunKalayci, AnarMehraliyev and SaadettinOzcan. Our organization came
together in the spring of 2012 because we were a group of people sharing the same safety
concerns for disabled youth with their high drop-out rates, poor education and skills,
unemployment conditions, and other detrimental conditions that make their lives harder. The
HYC decided to purchase a group home, located at 20 Paulander Drive, Kitchener, Ontario,
N2M 5A5, to assist disabled populations. Our working group had been coming together every
week for four hours to work on the HYC Project and its programs. The group met with
community outreach workers, social planners, public health officers, journalists, counselors and
MPPs to understand and analyze the needs of the community. After many meetings with
community members, the group decided to start this project and bought a house in the process.
Partnerships and Grants:
The HYC has focused on developing and maintaining a number of partnerships with other
agencies. These include the Mosaic Counseling Centre, Family Violence Project, Lang’s Farm
Village Association, KW Counseling Centre, Forest Heights and Waterloo Collegiate Institutes’
school managements, and the Kitchener-Waterloo School Board. It gratefully acknowledges two
significant grants that will fund disabled students in the HYC’s group home during after-school
programs, in order to develop sustainable programs. The Kitchener and Waterloo Community
Foundation and Ontario Endowment for Children and Youth in Recreation Fund are providing
$37,500 for the HYC’s after-school programs to be utilized at our group home during the 2012-
2013 school year. Estimated expenses are still below budget, so the possibility exists to eliminate
an anticipated deficit for the disability group home project. Any individual, company, and group
can make a gift of cash, stocks, bonds, real estate, or any other assets to our charitable
community foundation. Most charitable gifts qualify for a maximum tax advantage under federal
law.
Programs:
The HYC’s program was established in the month of September 2012 as a non-profit, charitable
organization. The agency is dedicated to expanding knowledge and to empowering disabled
community members to increase in human dignity and to enjoy a reduction in inequality and
oppression. The HYC strives to work with a diverse group of disabled students and drop out
youths, especially those who are in need of support, to further their education and employment
opportunities. The program is designed to provide useful and transferable skills to youth
members with the aim of providing disabled youth with opportunities to form connections with
their community, upgrade their grades at school, and attend colleges and universities after much
counseling advice, thereby reducing disabled youth exposure to crime, violence, drug abuse, and
victimization. The project will employ a multidisciplinary, professional teacher who is
specialized in mathematics and science especially, as these are the fields that students face the
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most hardship in; social workers will provide counseling services for the students’ multiple
needs through disabled workshops, art studios, and physical fitness programs; and other adult
and homework clubs, study and fun trips, and many other social activities will be provided.
Future Developments and Evaluations
The HYC starts its work by placing 10 disabled youths aged 12-15 in a residential home as a
group and working with an average of 20 young people per program by using community
facilities. The mathematics, science and homework club classes have 20 students each; together
they serve 60 students during a week. These students, after a period of time, alternate through the
programs so that they are offered something from each. This allows us to provide each student
with individualized attention and allows each student to explore their strengths and weaknesses
and learn independently. The HYC will double up class sizes and student numbers in its second
year and open up more group homes. This free service also involves subsidies and grants. Free
tutoring and after-school programs are offered with free transportation for each poor, disabled
student to bring them to class every day.
Needs, Client Groups, Programs/Services
The Paulander community is in need of more facilities and free activities for youth between the
ages of 12-14 and 15-19 up to 24 years of age. In the past ten years, the Paulander community
has experienced an increase in youth-related deviant behavior, misdemeanor crimes, and dropout
rates in high school among disabled youths, who end up at home alone. This rise can be
attributed to a lack of parental supervision, a decreasing commercial district to provide
employment opportunities, and lack of safe, supervised social gathering places. The disabled
youth of this community are in great need of a constructive way to spend their time after school
or even to reconnect to school.This project will help serve this educational, humane service, and
will thereby have satisfied the community’s developmental needs for its disabled youth. The
Paulander community is a neighborhood in the city of Kitchener that contains both low and
middle-income families and that features less affordable homes and mature streets. The
community is a so-called “marginalized” community; they face “extra” barriers because they are
labeled as a “bad area”, and the neighborhood is quite diverse in terms of languages spoken and
religions practiced, which is not a typical type of community in the city of Kitchener. The
majority of people who live in the area are lone parents and immigrants with low to mid-range
incomes. Economically, the area is somewhat poor with the incidence of low-incomes being
approximately estimated at 60% of the average income nationwide, making a sum of $22,000 per
year.
Conclusion
The HYC believes that 2013, whatever we do, will be a transitional year. By 2014, the HYC
would have a clearer sense of which social policies will be implemented and what the situation
will be like in terms of which programs we will support and what we will offer to people going
forward. Social services and benefits are being slashed at all levels of government in Canada for
people with disabilities. Local social service agencies are expected to push hard for the region to
maintain most or all of the benefits, as their budget pressures will make it difficult for them to
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pick up the slack (18). Every individual should have equal opportunities, as equity is an
important human right or value. For instance the City Council, the city planners, counselors,
politicians, and bureaucrats should not separate out immigrants, seniors or other groups as
marginalized people, since this is exactly why the aforementioned bylaw broke the code of ethics
and human rights for people with disabilities. The City of Kitchener must ensure that existing
sites are redeveloped, transportation systems well-developed and that the community
infrastructure is planned to support and contribute positively to environmental protection and
viability, energy conservation, long-term maintenance, and safety for all, thereby enhancing
many aspects of human life and accessibility for people with disabilities. This also contributes
positively to the need of disabled residents for a group home and an additional overall
improvement in their lives. The HYC agrees with the Council of Canadians with Disabilities and
the Canadian Association for Community Living’s proposal for federal level improvements and
additionally to seek new mechanisms from the provincial and municipal levels of the
government.
References
1-Pinto, Paula; Naidoo,Vishaya; Dinca-Panaitescu, Mihaela. Disability Rights Promotion

International Canada (DRPI-Canada, 2012). Accessed on November 18, 2012 at
http://drpi.research.yorku.ca/NorthAmerica/resources/VancouverReport
2-Mendelson M., Battle K.,Torjma, S., Lightman, E. A Basic Income Plan for Canadians with
Severe Disabilities.Ottawa: Caledon Institute of Social Policy, November 2010.
3-Draft City of Kitchener Official Plan: A Complete & Healthy Kitchener.(2012). Pages 1-317.
Accessed on October 20, 2012 at
http://www.kitchener.ca/en/insidecityhall/resources/JUNEVERSION-
CityofKitchenerDraftOP_June20.pdf
4- Rioux, M. and Daly, T. ‘Constructing Disability and Illness’, in T. Bryant, D. Raphael, and
M. Rioux (eds.), Staying Alive: Critical Perspectives on Health, Illness, and Health Care.2nd
edition. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2010, pp. 347-370.
5-Group Homes - Registration.(2005), (2011). General Chapter 430. Article 1 and 2. Accessed
on October 20, 2012 at http://code.municipalworld.com/kitchener/430.pdf
321
6-Metroland News Service (2012). “City of Kitchener to scrap minimum distance rules for group
home.” Accessed on October 20, 2012, at http://metronews.ca/news/kitchener/268794/city-of-
kitchener-to-scrap-minimum-distance-rules-for-group-homes/
7-Outhit, Jeff. (2012). “people recommend thisKitchener council drops restrictions on group
homes.” Record Newspaper.Accessed on October 20, 2012,
http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/806345--kitchener-council-drops-restrictions-on-
group-homes
8- Pender, Terry (2010). “Kitchener Zoning Bylaws are Thought to be Discriminatory.” The
Record.com. Accessed on October 20, 2012 at http://www.cdss.ca/elxis-media/print/kitchener-
zoning-bylaws-are-thought-to-be-discriminatory.html
9- Pender, Terry (2010).
10-Mendelson M., Battle K.,Torjma, S., Lightman, E. A Basic Income Plan for Canadians with
Severe Disabilities.Ottawa: Caledon Institute of Social Policy, November 2010, Figure 3.
11-Mendelson, M.,et.al. Figure 4.
12- August, R. Paved with Good Intentions: The Failure of Passive Disability Policy in
Canada.Ottawa: Caledon Institute of Social Policy, April 2009.
13- Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD). A Call to Combat Poverty and Exclusion of
Canadians with Disabilities by Investing in Disability Supports. Ottawa: CCD, 2005.
14- Jackson, A. Work and Labour in Canada: Critical Issues. 2nd edition. Toronto: Canadian
Scholars’ Press, 2009.
15-Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Transforming Disability into

Ability.Paris: OECD, 2003.
16- Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD). A Call to Combat.
17-Draft City of Kitchener Official Plan. pp. 9,39.
18- Flanagan, Ryan. “Social services benefits could be slashed” in Kitchener Post, 2012.
Instructor: Kate Ross- Rudow SK 552 (Section 2)
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Clinical Social Work and Practice with Families
Family Assessment in Clinical Social Work and Practice with Families
Client: Emma Kurt
Age: 38
Date of Birth: September 20, 1975
Date of Referral: March 13, 2013
Referral Source: Maternal grandmother, Monica
Date of Interviews: March 15, 2013 and March 18, 2013
Date of Assessment: March 18, 2012: I have met with the client, conducted an interview,
gathered data from her, and have gained sufficient information.
Address: 265 Lawrence Avenue #H3 Kitchener, On N2J 2M4
Tel: (Cell) 226-978-2627 (W): N/A (Home): 519-926-000
Referring Information: Emma and her family were referred to the Children Aid’s Society of
Brant by her maternal grandmother, Monica (58), who called to advise of concerns she had about
her daughter, based on what she noticed when she went to pick up her granddaughters, Ana
(13), Barbara (9), and Carmen (7), after Ana called her for help. Monica said that her daughter
Emma had been out that day and Ana had been talking to Emma’s boyfriend, Larry King (40), as
he was at the house. During this conversation Larry told Ana that her mother, Emma, was doing
crack cocaine and showed Ana where it was located in Emma’s bedroom. Ana went back and
took a photograph which she has on her cell phone. Monica had been wondering for a while if
Emma was using drugs, however she could not prove it. Ana had previously found crack pipes
while the family were moving from one home to another, but Emma said they were her ex-
boyfriend’s. Monica mentioned that Emma has a diagnosis of Schizo-Affective Disorder, but that
Emma has been off her medication for a few months now, and Monica has also noticed that
Emma seems to be manic. Presently Barbara and Carmen and their youngest sister Mary (7) have
gone to live with their paternal grandmother, Rachel (60). Monica advises that Ana does not
want to go back to her mother’s home and says she has also tried to contact Rachel to let her
know not to return the girls. The other two girls have been at Ross’s (one of Emma’s exes) for
the weekend.
Family composition: Emma presently resides with four children in the suburbs in a two-storey
home where each child has their own bedroom. Her current boyfriend, Hugh Grant (36), visits
very often and she has a son, Ariel (6), with him, but Ariel is presently residing with his father.
Emma has one child, Mary, from another boyfriend, Larry, and she has three children from a
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previous boyfriend, Ross. Emma’s father, David, died two years ago and her 33 year old brother,
Tristan, lives in the city. Emma continues to see her mother, Monica, and paternal mother-in-
law, Rachel, regularly. Emma also has a close relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Larry King,
who resides in close proximity. Larry visits Emma’s house almost every weekend, and checks up
on his daughter, Mary, as a part of mutual agreement. There is no custody issue or court order for
this arrangement. Emma works part-time as a cashier at Wall-Mart. Hugh works full-time as a
mechanic, while Larry receives monthly Ontario disability benefits and doesn’t have a job.
Emma and Huge do not see each other much due to Hugh’s work schedule. This family file has
been opened fifteen times previously by the Society, for issues including care-giver with a
problem, domestic violence, a sexual abuse investigation, and neglect concerns. Emma has not
always worked cooperatively with the Society in the past. Her family doctor, Allen Shift, and
psychiatrist, Ryan Miller, have considered her past depression issue. She doesn’t easily follow
through with instructions.
Current Situation/Concerns: The children are in danger of exposure to drugs when Emma
smokes cocaine her bedroom. When Larry showed Ana the crack pipe, she took a picture of it,
and this situation teaches children it is fine to experiment with drugs. Before arranging an
interview with the family, I spoke to Ana to confirm her understanding of what had transpired.
Ana was quite tearful on the phone and said she was talking to Larry and told Larry she didn’t
believe anything her mother says. For some reason this conversation led to Larry showing Ana
the crack cocaine. Ana had noticed strange behaviour from her mother recently, and had
observed that her mother had been moody. Ana had wondered if her mother had been using
drugs, since she found the pipes on an earlier occasion. Ana described her mother’s day-to-day
activities and her mood differences, but could not explain them. Ana also claimed that her
mother did not get up in the mornings. She (Ana) gets up on her own and wakes her sisters and
gets them off to school. Ana reiterated that she does not want to go to home. After conducting an
interview with Emma, not only her drug related problems, but also other 4 P factors were
observed, and sufficient information was gathered to write a family assessment. Grandmothers
Monica and Rachel, along with all the children and the CAS, are concerned that the mother of
the children, Emma, is using crack cocaine and hiding her drugs in the home. She is not taking
her medication, could well be displaying manic episodes, and is not concerned about her own or
her children’s health. I met with Emma, Kurt and Ana for just 40 minutes at her house. I will first
provide a comprehensive assessment of Emma’s problem and psychosocial history, while also
formulating a socio-psychological family assessment of current issues. I will then discuss
theoretical models concerning safety approaches, child protection concerns, adult conflicts and
drug addiction issues, and finally I will define the presenting problem, describe my intervention
goals, outline an assessment of Emma’s family situation, and formulate solution-focused therapy
and narrative therapy and summarize the intervention plan and treatment goals set for the family.
Theoretical Model/ Approaches
The Self-in-Relation theory, currently called the Relational-Cultural theory, and the Self
Psychology theory have both psychological and sociological implications for understanding
women’s development, as exemplified in the case of Emma. The relational model affirms the
power of connection and the pain of disconnection for women, and states that relationships are
both internal and external, and can also be real and imagined, while intrapsychic and
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interpersonal perspectives are central (Aron, 1996). Relational-Cultural theory addresses the
importance of relational exchange and is related to development. It emphasizes health and
elaborates on some of the most basic feminist principles, since it has “emerged from dialogues
about therapeutic relationships, considering the voices and experiences of women in therapy”
(West, 2005). At the practical level, instead of the “self” as a primary focus, the primary focus of
attention is on relational development. Experiences of connection and disconnection are central
issues in personality development, with repeated disconnections having psychological
consequences. Relational theorists are in favour of social constructivism and claim that
knowledge and meaning are created through dialogues, social institutions and interpersonal
negotiations based on context (Mitchell, 1988). Jean Baker Miller mentions that a woman’s path
to maturity is different from that of men. A woman’s primary motivation is to build a sense of
connection with others, and women develop a sense of self and self-worth when their actions
arise out of, and lead back into, connections with others. Connection, not separation, is the
guiding principle of growth for women (Miller, 1986). Miller suggests that true connections are
mutual, empathic, creative, energy-releasing, and empowering for all participants (Miller, 1988).
Such connections are so crucial for women that women’s psychological problems can be traced
to disconnections or violations within relationships. Mutuality and empathy have different
meanings in Relational-Cultural Theory, although both empower women not with power over
others, but rather power with others.
In fact, disconnection from others is one of the primary sources of human suffering, and a sense
of interconnectedness is crucial for a healthy psychological development rather than the separate
self-paradigm (Jordan, 2004). The Relational-Cultural theory is based on mutual, empathic, and
empowering relationships, which produce five psychological outcomes. All participants gain: 1)
increased zest and vitality, 2) empowerment to act, 3) knowledge of self and others, 4) self-
worth, and 5) a desire for more connection (Miller & Striver 1986, 1997). These outcomes
constitute psychological growth for women. Mutuality, empathy, and power with others are
essential qualities of an environment that will foster growth in women. Borden (2000) formulates
the relational paradigm as the “ongoing effort to connect biological, psychological and social
domains of concern, to enlarge conceptions of person and environment, and to deepen
appreciation of interactive processes at multiple systems levels.”
As a matter of fact, the relational paradigm works with solution-focused therapy in providing
conversational tools and techniques that social workers can use in patiently, consistently,
coherently, and respectfully working with consumers who struggle every day with the complex
challenges presented by having a severe mental disability and disconnections from abusive
relationships (Greene et al., 2006). Well-detailed and accurate information is essential to
building a cooperative relationship and developing plans that are tailored to each case. Within a
solution-focused therapy as in the family therapy practice, I acknowledge this involves placing
“ourselves in the same location or position as the client in his or her process of dealing with the
problem’’ (Butler and Powers, 1996). The practice of solution-focused therapy usually involves
five stages: (a) co-constructing a problem and goal, (b) identifying and amplifying exceptions,
(c) assigning tasks, (d) evaluating the effectiveness of tasks, and (e) re-evaluating the problem
and goal (de Shazer, 1994; de Shazer et al., 1986; Molnar & de Shazer, 1987). However, there is
a gap between meets and needs, so therapists mostly focus on the supportive family functions,
and the family’s resilience and ignore the other needs (Marsh, 1997).
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Emma has some level of family resilience in this particular case. The concept of family resilience
extends beyond seeing individual family members as potential resources for individual
resilience, to focusing on risk and resilience in the family as a functional unit (Walsh, 1996). The
solution-focused modalities lie at the heart of the ‘signs of safety approach’ in the child
protection field. Collaborative problem-solving and conflict management are also essential for
family resilience, with activities such as creative brainstorming and encouraging resourcefulness
which open new possibilities for overcoming adversity and for healing and growth out of tragedy
(Walsh, 2003).
On the other hand, the ultimate aim of all child protection work should be to create safety for the
child, preferably within the natural family (Turnell & Essex, 2006). Social workers have been
challenged by innovative thinkers and advocates who insist that they adopt a strength-based
perspective as a heart of helping: a collaborative relationship, in other words. Rather than a
problem-solving model or solution-focused model as a kind of medical approach, they advocate
a new perspective which focuses on solution building (Turnell & Essex, 2006). Today, child
protection workers are challenged to reconcile the seemingly mutually exclusive goals of
ensuring the child’s safety and maintaining the parent’s dignity. Clients’ wishes and desires are
important as is listening to the clients’ goals. Social Workers assess the client’s situation and
family together, and their motivation from a person-in-environment perspective, along with their
progress, and then determine possible steps to achieve goals that would be best not only for the
children, but for the family as a whole.
Furthermore, the interpersonal theory of the self seeks to understand the interaction between
intrapsychic, dynamic and interpersonal relationship from birth onward, as individuals relate to
other people and form attachments. The self is at the centre as the initiator and organizer of the
experience, a process in which the self is driven by ambition, ideals, and the need for
recognition. In order to understand the power of the situation for the person, it is important to
recognize every individual has a connection to an internal world of relations between self and
others that is soothing, and that there are then the complex realities and external relationships
with others (Kohut, 1977). The self is best understood through empathy, rather than through the
insight that the self is a social construct. Boundaries are critical in the growth and the integration
of psychological life, where the cohesive self-center is the healthy self, derived from experiences
in relationships with self-objects in a person’s internal and external worlds. Self-objects are a
source of mirroring, giving the self what it needs in order to be energetic and cohesive. Every
individual has a similar need to feel at one with others: examples would be the general emulation
of others and their interactions (Kohut, 1977). Benjamin (1988), Stolorow, Brandchaft and
Atwood (1987) have contributed to this concept of inter-subjectivity and emphasise the
development of the self in relation and connection to other selves as part of the psychic world of
individuals who interact with each other constantly (Atwood, Stolorow, 1997). In this regard,
Benjamin argues we need to negotiate and relate to others as objects of our own need in order to
contexualize separation and individuation, with the connection and mutuality that happens at the
same time (Benjamin, 1999).
Emma and her family were involuntary clients at the beginning of the process. I used the solution
focused model and then as the nature of our alliance shifted, this impacted on my choice of
narrative therapy as the more appropriate theoretical modality, because she had by then become a
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voluntary client for psychotherapy. My practice in searching for this second aspect of truth-
seeking was to apply adequately the technique of synoptic listening during the initial stage of
meeting with the client. The technique of synoptic listening involves the capacity to take a
multiple listening stance to the case, so that as the client tells her personal version of the story, I
am not simply ‘‘listening’’, that is, passively taking in what she says about the genealogy of her
distress (Foucault, 1980). Rather, I engage actively in five dimensions of disciplined listening,
encompassing “empathic listening” to help me become attuned to and show solidarity with the
client’s feelings of pain and resentment that accompany her narration. In handling Emma’s case I
engaged in this kind of listening to confer on her the conviction that ‘‘I am with you’’ and will
work with you to the end. An increasing number of family practitioners have also noted the
significance of stories and narratives in the lives of people. For example, Laird (1989) points out
the important relationship between narrative and meaning. She states that to understand or
interpret a narrative one must understand not only the facts of the story, but also the meaning the
narrator makes of the events and the narrator’s worldview, or belief system. In this sense, a
narrative recounts a story that gives meaning to how people view their past, their present, and
their hopes for the future.
Epston et al. (1992) indicate that, in counseling, stories determine the meaning that people give
to their experience, in terms of what aspects of experience they choose to speak about. In family
practice, stories provide themes and issues that can help social workers to understand families’
and cultural groups’ connections to their past, and ultimately may help families to understand
their current situations and narratives. (Freeman & Couchonnal, 2006). The feminist therapy
model and narrative therapy approach can be combined when therapists help by externalizing the
problem—naming it and placing it outside of the person or family rather than viewing it as innate
or inseparable from the person or their family (Vangari & Gosling, 1996).
4 P’s in the Case
There is considerable evidence suggesting that events in the past are likely to be related to the
creation of Emma’s present vulnerability, such as her depression, which started in her teenage
years. Throughout two interviews, Emma continually identified a number of boyfriend and
parental concerns, as well as ongoing stressors. These included verbal abuse by her own brother,
family disintegration, the loss of her father recently, and loss of contact with her social network,
cultural and spiritual life. Emma has multiple experiences of loss and failure of integration,
which could have shifted her sense of security from a relatively secure one very early in her life
to a much more insecure and anxious attachment style now. Her formation of a fulfilling self-
identity of the self and of her sexual identity was initially problematic, as she has changed her
partners regularly. She has difficulty communicating with others, and has only one friend, Helen,
among her peers. She needs to improve relationships and connections with others. The family
feels overwhelmed, threatened and inadequate when Emma’s daughter Ana loses herself, and
feels burdened when she manifests her Asperger’s disorder symptoms. Psychologically, Emma
sometimes has low self-esteem and finds it difficult to trust others; her anger and stress may have
led her to an imminent state of depression and other emotional dysfunctions, including disturbed
thoughts, to the point where she once left home for a week. Emma’s problems are likely to be
perpetuated by her low self-esteem, her negative beliefs about herself and her insecure
attachment style. Her view of herself as inadequate, failed and ill is likely to be maintained by
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her position as a depressed patient. More positively, Emma’s perspective on her environment is
influenced by her interest in ecological systems, and her holistic, multi-level style of relational
assessment focuses on issues of diversity, oppression, and strength (Laird, 1989). Familial and
socio-cultural factors therefore both play a role in her situation and indicate that her depression
may affect her dignity, which has already been traumatically trampled on—her humiliation
seems to be temporarily engraved into her consciousness. There is a combination of factors
maintaining the problems of depression and addiction, such as the lack of social support systems,
and a low level of involvement with past activities and interests.
Formulating/ Defining the Present problem
At home, most of the concerns were revealed by Ana. I have interviewed other children shortly
and used the Tree Houses as a tool to gather their worries and future expectations. Emma
appeared surprised by and unaware of some of Ana’s difficulties, especially as Emma places a
lot of responsibility on Ana’s shoulders regarding care-giving for her siblings. There is a lot of
fighting between Emma and her boyfriend, which has caused emotional harm and several
traumas for the children. For example, two boyfriends fought in front of the children on March 2,
2013. Larry broke the front door, and tried to get his daughter, Mary, out of the house without a
court order. The children were very scared and confused. The police became involved in the
incident; however, this adult conflict is ongoing. Emma then left the home for a week on March
7, 2013, leaving the children to fend for themselves. Financial difficulties were disclosed by Ana
and her siblings, in that Emma buys an expensive drug, crack cocaine. Ana felt quite tired of
caring for her siblings by herself and having “to do it all”, including cleaning the home. Emma is
using illegal street drugs, and not taking her medication for her mental health. She is not getting
out of bed on time in the morning, nor is she feeding the children properly, buying sufficient
food, or preparing lunch for them and is leaving them unsupervised.
Family Interaction
Emma (38) is a female single mother who has five children from three different boyfriends. She
experiences periods of depression, anxiety and has a diagnosis of Schizo-Affective Disorder
diagnosis. Daughter Ana has been diagnosed with Asperger’s Disorder. This puts additional
stress on Emma. Her disconnected and unstable relationships with her boyfriend make her feel
moody, unhappy and unworthy. Ana is at the beginning of puberty and experiencing teenager
crises. Depression and abuse of drug substances have impacted on Emma’s life psychologically,
culturally and socially in a number of ways, in that the influences of guilt, anger and self-blame
are evident in her life. She lost her strong support, her father, two years ago. Her brother, Tristan
has been verbally bullying and threatening her, that is, emotional abuse which harms her sense of
self-worth by putting her at risk of serious behavioral, cognitive, emotional, social and mental
disorders. Her mother, Monica, disagrees with her about issues related to finances, such as
spending her child benefits on drugs, and also has disagreement with her about her boyfriend
conflict\relationship issues. Emma is no longer involved in social activities, wanting more free
time for herself. Emma speaks with her mother on the phone every day, given that she has a
strong emotional connection to her mother who functions as her protection factor. Given Emma’s
traumatic experiences to date, it seems likely that she may need time to feel safe and to put
strategies in place to manage her boyfriends and her children and get help when she needs it.
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Initial Impression/ observation
Emma’s drug addiction causes her social isolation by poisoning and terrorizing the home
atmosphere, and Emma has verbally and physically caused a deep family trauma because of
domestic violence. Emma is having delusive, moody, flat and persistent, narrowing thoughts, due
to the fact that she is stuck within her gender role and feels frustration and rage, while her
boyfriend exhibits unpredictable behaviour. Emma has disconnected herself from self-realization
and from her individual identity, and has locked herself within a lonely drug addictive lifestyle.
Emma exhibits symptoms of depression, anxiety and moodiness – observations of her include a
depressed mood, compulsive nose touching and skin pinching. There are deep and relational
emotional experiences in her relationships, and Emma explains that she feels easily distracted,
sad and pessimistic, and has feelings of irritability and other mood disturbances. Emma has
concerns about her children’s future and Ana’s disabled condition, and feels trapped, frustrated
and helpless. She does not have the ability to trust others or the capacity for closeness. Neither
does she have the ability to put some distance between herself and other people, because of her
fear of accusation, blame and prejudice. She has a sense of guilt and shame about herself, and
feels responsibility toward her children. She has a rigid and isolated personality type and
character, is excessively focused on herself and tends to attempt excluding herself from others.
People like Emma can often feel isolated and disconnected from relationships when faced with a
problem, and can relapse into addiction. However, Emma can equally readily make a
commitment with somebody else’s help. Her areas of personal interest have decreased and given
Emma’s traumatic experiences to date, it seems likely that she may need time to feel safe and to
have strategies in place to manage her personal time more effectively.
Treatment Planning and Intervention
Emma prefers to understand the meaning of the problems and reach solutions on her own.
However, my miracle questions didn’t work on her, but confidence, motivational and
relationship scaling worked well on children. The flexible use of a solution building process
needs to provide structure and guidance in order to work with clients collaboratively. First of all,
I recommended the solution focused model because Emma is a goal-oriented person who likes
planning her future. Through it, I emphasize clients’ strengths, assist clients in becoming
autonomous individuals with access to and capability for using personal resources so they can
solve their problems on their own. Goals were defined by the client and I focused on Emma’s
motivations. We didn’t talk problems, rather we talked solutions. As a facilitator, I focused on
what the client wanted. My treatment objectives had a pragmatic focus in creating sufficient
change to build enough safety to close the case. Goals are defined by the service recipients and
the statutory agency, CAS of Brant. This requires close collaboration with the statutory worker,
since they are crucial in defining what sufficient safety looks like. Service users are thus
designed for service recipients. I detailed the solution picture, engaged with Emma to find out
her coping strategies in the past, found her motivation, and put a small step to go to 10 from the 5
that she scaled. My skills lay in joining her world to listen her concerns, and as a professional, I
was comfortable exercising some level of social control and leverage. I asked for help from my
supervisor and manager when I was stuck, because good practice requires cooperation and
respect between all the professionals involved, along with advance collaboration between
agencies, and including all family members (Turnell & Essex, 2006). Over the past two decades,
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the field of family therapy has refocused attention from family deficits to family strengths
(Nichols & Schwartz, 2000). The therapeutic relationship has become more collaborative and
empowering of client potential, with recognition that successful interventions depend more on
tapping into family resources than on therapist techniques (Karpel, 1986). Through direct
counselling, I have helped this client identify her real concerns, have provided concrete
information, and have helped her to consider further solutions. I identified and created a safety
network for Emma and focused on safety risks.
Issues, safety risks and safety goals:
The solution-focused therapy safety goals and rules target the return of Emma’s children to her
care, because the CAS of Brant took away them from her temporarily and placed them in the
homes of the two grandmothers, Monica and Rachel. The first safety risk is her mental
condition. Emma must seek medical attention and start taking her medication. Emma also seeks
treatment for her addiction issue. The Family Safety network will monitor and check on her,
ensuring she is taking her medication on time. One of the two grandmothers will visit at 8:00
a.m. daily and check on how Emma is doing. She has to go to counselling and must follow
through with her addiction treatment. If Emma is to leave the home, the safety network will take
care of the children and babysitters must be approved by this network. Since she has been using
addictive substances, Emma will be tested regularly by the family physician in the form of a drug
test after the children are returned to the home. Emma has promised not to use drugs at home
while the children are around. If Emma is going to use drugs she will ask the safety network to
take care of the children until the safety network agrees that Emma is sober. The safety network
will visit and talk to the children about who comes to the home, and issues about school, and also
they will ask about the kids’ feelings regarding adult conflict or if their mother has a new partner.
Emma and the safety network will not fight and argue in the presence of the children. Discussion
between them will happen when the children are not there. The children-centred safety plan was
developed with simple words and pictures that all children can understand. The children will
attend counselling to address issues related to their mother’s drug and mental treatments.
Everyone agreed the children will be out of ear-shot or asleep during these sessions.
Using narrative modality:
I used narrative therapy and intervention goals, thereby providing resources that will be of
further assistance to her in the future. Therapists are no longer neutral with their subjective
understanding through which they “recognize others in return-mutual recognition” (Berman
1997; McLaughlin, 1991). From this psychodynamic, psychological and postmodernist model, I
used narrative therapy intervention and formulation to focus on the meaning and understanding
of the client’s perspective. Emma’s assessment of her ego’s strengths and functions has different
degrees of regression, stability, and variability, depending on the context of the situation. The
nature of her needs and internal capacities depend on her relation to the conditions of the
surrounding environment (Goldstein, 1995). She has been through a painful process; firstly
confrontation with pain, as well as anger, resentment, guilt and shame, but later on has found the
strength that will lead to her true self. As a counselor, I gave her free space as co-author in order
to recreate her story, talked positively to empower her, and encouraged her to fight for her
survival. Using narrative therapy, I provided her with useful formulas to help stop any form of
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identity crisis preventing her reaching well-being. After building a healthy trusting relationship
with my client, I was able to become her ally in order to assist her in focusing on finding a
healthy environment. I also provided support in order to back her up by deconstructing her
particular ideas, beliefs and principles. My empathetic understanding of the present problem was
clear to me, although my answer to the client does reflect my own biases. The truth about the
client will change over time, and I therefore need more collaboration, time and alliance with her.
I re-discovered more about her internal and external worlds in order to externalize her problem
and help her find a solution that could be inside of her. Emma needs a longer period of time to
cope with the problem and her brother has been invited to attend the next sessions, something
that she approves of, because she is comfortable about dealing with her drug addiction problem.
Integration of models for the family needs
In summary, I have provided an intervention plan and goal setting for Emma and her family
together. I have focused on her desires, intentions, preferences, values, beliefs, hopes, personal
qualities, commitments and plans, in order to assist her in deconstructing her ideas, beliefs and
principles and in forming new ones by building a new story. I have followed firstly the solution-
focused modality and secondly the narrative model and have used the formulation of assessment.
However, her interests involve more than simply discovering meaning, which is why
intervention has shifted to a reflective model, allowing me to provide her with more free space,
and to use only what works for her. Emma’s past and current relational and cultural experiences
and her rejuvenated self-identity shape how she manages distress and deals with the addiction
issue, including her ability to place her past experiences into narratives. During the interview, I
gathered sufficient information concerning the meanings of her past experiences necessary to
shift her toward a new way of understanding. I helped her in setting her future goals, and these
changes can help her to think about the past, herself and the future in many different ways. Her
drug substance, DV, and traumatic experiences are evidences of severe depression, including
anxiety, frustration, excessive feelings of guilt and shame, and lack of attention from her
environment. She has strong feelings of unworthiness that are beginning to overwhelm her. She
displays a capacity for empathy with others, as well as self-empathy, self-reflection, insight, and
introspection, and she can acknowledge the other person’s point of view. Emma has difficulty
identifying her inner emotional states, including expressing her emotions verbally. She is open to
engagement and attachment to me because I actively listen to her problems, do not judge her by
any of her feelings, and she is comfortable talking with me. Therapy objectives are well-being,
insight, growth, self-actualization and healthy functioning. The therapist should always
remember that a hypothesis is a construction, not a reflection of a reality. It is a supposition:
tentative, limited, value laden. In the therapist’s hypotheses, deficit terminology (Gergen, 1991)
is avoided. The family members are not described as sick, crazy, or bad, but as unique human
beings doing the best they can to deal with the obstacles and difficulties they encounter in their
lives (Rober, 2002).
In conclusion, reality and knowledge will be created through language in constructivist ways
using narrative therapy, while facts will be deconstructed by the client and I together, using
narratives. The client’s view of the world reveals that there is no single solution, and therefore
some critical pieces of information may be missing. Problem finding requires creativity, which
calls for a mediator to negotiate with clients collaboratively by dealing with problems, from
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which the client must be distanced, because otherwise there may be no clear solution or multiple
solutions. A person who is operating at this stage is able to generate many possible solutions to
ill-defined problems and to see old problems in new ways. Problem finding is a clear stage that
can assist me with my respectful empowerment, while performing actions that are of use and real
worth to my client, but this is only to be achieved by healthy and trust-based relationships. I am
flexible, open-minded and humble, and therefore able to cope with difficult situations and use the
correct methods to solve disputes, such as the use of metaphors, empathy, respectful curiosity
and the externalization of the problem. The shifting perspectives of the client were not the
problem, but rather, the problem was the problem. A therapist must be a person who has the
ability to come up with effective strategies to make the right decisions and collaborate with the
client positively in order to reduce tension and create a trust-filled alliance. The form of
relationship between Emma and her family members will now take place within a wider social-
cultural context, which can include ideas about relations and gender expectations and cultural
differences and their effect on emotional well-being. A revision of her story that separates her
problem from herself may develop into some different relational and interpersonal narratives,
which might in turn free her from her overwhelming sense of inadequacy and unworthiness. This
intervention typically would give greater weight to formulating meaning and directing attention
to the individual’s power to re-narrate or re-write, as author or co-author, their own story and
link it to their past, which is typically the case when a new framework is offered to the
individual. I offered a treatment plan tentatively, bringing my values and my own assumptions to
its formulation, and thus my formulation was a collaborative construction, as I am aware of the
need to reformulate a new plan based on the client’s feedback and their needs for the future.
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SK 552 Clinical Social Work (Section 2) Instructor: Kate Ross-Rudow
Family Therapy Challenge- A Sexual Assault Case
By Faruk Arslan
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Child abuse is a subject that carries a considerable taboo as well as shame in most countries,
including Canada. Cases where there is denial of child abuse are difficult to handle; and the
social worker needs to work very carefully, respectfully and sensitively with everyone involved.
One particular sexual assault case has challenged my beliefs in clinical work. Monique and
Mike have been divorced over a year and have joint custody of Tom (8). Their marriage broke up
because of secrecy over child abuse and consequent denial-type behavior. After their separation,
Monique called to say her son, Tom, was making serious sexual abuse allegations against his
biological father, Mike Becker, after Tom had returned from an access visit. The Police and the
Children Aid’s Society opened a joint investigation as part of a 24-hour response process, and
the police laid charges against the father, as the child’s report appeared to be credible. Tom
disclosed that in his last weekend visit, his father pulled his pants down while he was on the
couch and “licked his butt hole.” His father also put his child’s penis in his mouth and went
‘back and forth” with his mouth. He disclosed that when he and his father were in the bath tub,
his father helped him to touch his father’s penis until ‘semen” came out and went onto the child’s
hand. In this difficult case, I have learned to ask questions, using art-based techniques such as
“Three Houses” and “Tree Columns” which are aimed at children and that open up possibilities
in practice where the client then points towards the solution.
My supervisor and I were involved with this case as part of a 24-hour response team covering
child protection concerns for the family in crisis. This case shocked me deeply to think a father
could be sexually abusing own son. Tom and his half sibling, Hugh (13), were interviewed at
school, and Tom disclosed being sexually touched by his father in graphic detail. On April 13,
2013, Tom was having his bath around 7:00 pm., Tom said his bum was itchy, and his father
then licked his bum and blew on it. Tom also mentioned that his father took a bath with him and
showed him “semen.” Tom also showed Monique, with his mouth, that his father had put his
mouth on Tom’s penis, and was going up and down. Tom said at first it hurt, then it didn’t hurt
again. This morning, Tom said his ‘pouch” (the word he uses for his testicles) was itchy, and
when he told his father this last night, his father licked his pouch. What asked how he felt about
what happened; Tom reported feeling “bad, good, then bad.” He said his mother ‘did not like”
what had happened. Monique told him she will protect him and there will be “no more daddy
time.” During his interview at school, Tom told me that “this guy” really hurt and pointed at his
penis. When asked why, he said maybe it is because “dad was too rough when he cleaned it.” He
said his father “touched his pee pee to clean it.” He also disclosed that when he and his father
were in the bath tub, his father said, “It is OK to touch his thing” while the child was forcibly
touching his father’s penis. His father’s sperm came onto Tom’s hand during the masturbation,
which Tom calls “semen”. In both his private interviews with us and with Detective Boyd, Tom
was asked and clarified if he knew what “semen” was. Tom described semen as “white stuff’ but
it does not smell” and it “smells like nothing.” His half sibling, Hugh, didn’t witness Tom being
sexually assaulted or touched by his father. However, Hugh reported his step-father made him
feel uncomfortable when he tickled him and Tom and slapped their butts. He told the step-father
to stop, but he did not. It was the worst and most stressful case that I have ever faced.
As a matter of fact, I saw that there are no benefits to an alleged perpetrator admitting to abusing
a child. If this person takes responsibility for seriously abusing his own child, he may garner a
clearer conscience, but very likely face criminal charges, job loss, exclusion from the family and
community and many other negative results (Turnell & Essex, 2006, p. 20). Mike denied the
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allegations, and blamed the mother who was supposedly arranging the situation and Tom’s story
in order to have full custody rights. I was disappointed when my supervisor told me that Mike
can plead not guilty to indecent assault, or that the judge may give him no more than a two year
suspended sentence. Mike needs to attend sexual abuse treatment and counseling in order to
access his son again. I have observed that the assessment form and policies move from a
traditional useless dichotomy-based approach to strength-based or client-centered practice in the
child protection field. Neutrality or transparency, anti-oppressiveness and diversity become
more important in solving problems. Establishing a relationship and making an ally is a key for
starting a healthy therapeutic process. Lack of cooperation causes hold-ups in the case, especially
when dealing with socially constructed problems in old ways which aren’t working. The
strengths perspective does not ignore a problem such as child abuse, or minimize diagnoses or
diagnostic skills, but helps us understand the difference between identity, attribute, and behavior
as assert contextual and as part of a larger process (Graybeal, 2001, p. 236).
Within a solution-focused therapy as in the CAS practice, I acknowledge this involves placing
‘ourselves in the same location or position as the client in his or her process of dealing with the
problem’’ (Butler and Powers, 1996, p. 229). The practice of solution-focused therapy usually
involves five stages: (a) co-constructing a problem and goal, (b) identifying and amplifying
exceptions, (c) assigning tasks, (d) evaluating the effectiveness of tasks, and (e) re-evaluating the
problem and goal (de Shazer, 1994; de Shazer et al., 1986; Molnar & de Shazer, 1987). Because
each client and family is unique, these stages serve as a guide that will at times require detours
by therapists (Molnar & de Shazer, 1987; O’Hanlon & Weiner-Davis, 1989). However, in this
case, the child’s experience was very distressing and emotionally overwhelming for the mother.
For this reason, I tried to read the narratives with minimum emotion, and in a very neutral, flat
manner, not to create confusion, but to get across the information conveyed by the exploration
of the child’s perspective of the abuse, concentrating on what the child thought. It was not easy
to create empathy, keeping a not-knowing stance as an ethical ideal, and at the same time see life
through the client’s eyes. To establish client-centered collaboration or a therapeutic relationship
we need “extreme respectfulness in which only the view of the client is important, and in which
the therapist or the social worker as a person disappears” (Rober, 2002, p.668). In the child
protection field, the CAS workers are sometimes blamed for using excessive power with clients
and that is what I felt in this case. Our power and our knowledge are risky and place more
responsibility on us for the sake of meeting the client’s needs, maintaining the client’s
confidentiality and obeying ethical considerations (Lamer, 1999).
Personally, I feel that my hypothesis may be a construction, and not a reflection of a reality that
it is “supposition: tentative, limited, value laden” (Rober, 2002, p.468). I have enjoyed using the
practical tools that my supervisor implemented of strength, normalcy, resilience, and a solutions-
model in this particular case as a means of identifying and utilizing personal and environmental
resources and strengths for the sake of the client. The Resources, Opportunities, Possibilities,
Exceptions, and Solutions (ROPES) model developed by Greybeal also offers a new challenge
for social workers in managing their cases. Personally, I have been using problem solving skills
along with reinforcing a new paradigm at practice level and consciously getting rid of the deficit-
thinking dominant paradigm for helping people. In fact, “pursuing a practice based on the ideas
of resilience, rebound, possibility, and transformation is difficult, because oddly enough, it is not
natural to the world of helping and service” (Saleebey, 1996, p. 297).
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In conclusion, this case was very stressful for me. Intervention and management strategies
focused on a safety plan aimed at strengthening the likely safer parent, building a network of safe
adults around the family, and making public the concerns and allegations to as many people as
possible in and around the family in order to address the seriousness of the allegations. Monique
and the two boys were instructed by the CAS of Brant to stay at a safe location until further
notice as the father works and lives at the same apartment as a superintendant. Monique and the
two boys have chosen to stay in their grandma’s house. Mike was charged and jailed; however,
the whole of the resolution process was targeted at preventing re-abuse and enabling the
professionals, the family and their safety network to collaborate together within a constructive,
future-focused context, concentrating on creating a rigorous, family-enacted safety plan for the
future. To do this, in the first Sign of Safety (SOS) meeting, we described the words and picture
process and asked the young person how, and whether, an agreed-on, out-in-the-open
explanation will make his life safer and different. Through this experience, I learned how to
build a safety network, establish relationships with the family with a view to a more purposive
safety-building task. It is worth noting that everything was clear and transparent. The final safety
plan was designed to be a working document with more details added later in order to create a
rigorous plan including identifying safety objects such as a phone for Tom, so that the whole
family, and particularly the children, can understand and cope with the situation.
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Francisco: JosseyBass
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Molnar, A., & de Shazer, S. (1987). Solution-focused therapy: Toward the identification of
therapeutic tasks. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 13, 349–358.
O’Hanlon, W. H., & Weiner-Davis, M. (1989). In search of solutions: A new direction in

psychotherapy. New York:Norton.
337
of marital and family therapy. 28 (4), 467-478.
Saleebey, D. (1996). The strengths perspective in social work practice:
Extensions and cautions. Social Work, 41, 296–305.
Turnell, A., Essex, S. ( 2006). Working ‘Denied’ Child Abuse. The resolutions approach. USA:
Open University Press.
`
WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY
Spring Term 2013 Instructor: Kate Ross- Rudow

SK 552 (Section 2) Telephone: 519 -747-9125
Clinical Social Work Email: krossrudow@wlu.ca or
Practice with Families terkate&rogers.com
Office hours by appointment
Course Description:
This course provides a critical study of widely used ap
hes to practice with diverse family forms within social work settings. Emphasis will be placed on
influential theories that impact and guide the methods used in the practice of family social work.
1. To be able to critically examine the challenges faced by present day families, as well as
multiple influences.
2. To discuss family practice from a diverse social contextual framework, and explore issues
related to culture, gender, class, sexual orientation, ability/disability, mental health, etc.
3. To develop a basic understanding of various models of family therapy ( Narrative, Solution-
Focused, Structural, Trans -generational, Collaborative Problem Solving, Emotionally-
Focused and Multi-Systemic) as well as applying key concepts and skills .
4. To explore and practice the use of” hypothesizing” when working with families.
5. To develop skills in order to conduct a family assessment, and explore various options for
treatment planning and intervention strategies
6. To increase personal confidence regarding the use of language and questioning skills,
especially pertaining to “difficult” issues.
7. To challenge and explore one’s own developing personal style and theoretical preferences.
338
Attendance and Participation:
I encourage you to attend class regularly and express your views. A supportive and respectful
environment will be fostered, allowing you to openly share your opinions, ideas and ask
questions. You will be encouraged to participate in class discussion, role-plays, small group case
analysis and practice exercises Active participation elevates your level of learning, and
contributes to rich discussions, benefiting all class members. I will ask that cell phones be turned
off during class and that lap tops are used for note taking purposes during the presentation of
material, versus when fellow students are sharing personal experiences.
Required Text:
Ross- Rudow, Kate. (Spring 2013). Clinical social work practice with families.
SK 552. ( 2) Course package is available at WLU bookstore.
Nichols, M.P. (2010). The essentials of family therapy (5th Ed). Boston: Pearson.
Recommended Texts:
Almeida, R. V.,Dolan-Del Vecchio, K, & Parker, L. (2008). Transforming family therapy: Just
families in a just society. Boston, Mass: Allyn & Bacon.
Collins, D, Jordan, C, Coleman, H. (2007). An introduction to social work. (2nd Ed).

Belmont, CA: Thomson-Brooks-Cole.
Cunningham, Phillippe, B., Henggeler (1999). Engaging multiproblem families in treatment:

Lessons learned throughout the development of multisystemic therapy”, Family Process, (38), 1.
Gehart, Diane. (2010). Mastering competencies in family therapy: A practical approach to

theories and clinical case documentation.CA: Brooks/Cole.
Greene, Ross. W. (2010). Lagging skills and unsolved problems, In The explosive child: A new
approach for understanding and parenting easily frustrated, chronically inflexible children.
New York: Harper Collins Publishers.
Kilpatrick, Allie C, Holland, Thomas P. (2009). Working with families: An integrative model by
level of need: ( 5th Ed). Toronto: Allyn & Bacon.
Madsen, William. C. (1999). Therapy with multi-stressed families. New York: The Guilford
Press. .
McGoldrick, M, Carter, B, Garcia- Preto , N. (2011). The expanded life cycle:

Individual, family and social perspectives. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
339
McGoldrick, M., & Hardy, K. (Eds). (2008). Re-visioning family therapy: Race, culture and
gender in clinical practice. (2nd Ed). New York: Guilford Press.
Okun, Barbara, F. (1996). Understanding diverse families: What practitioners need to know.
New York: The Guilford Press.
Pipher, Mary. (1996). The shelter of each other: Rebuilding our families. New York: G.P
Putnam’s and Sons.
available on campus. The Laurier Writing Centre has excellent services and support for
students wanting to improve their writing. Students with disabilities or special needs are
advised to contact Laurier’ s Accessible Learning Office for information regarding its
services and resources. In order to create a supportive learning environment, students
should advise the instructor about any special needs and considerations they might require.
Course Assignments:
Assignment #1:
Assignment #1 – Family Therapy Challenge- Value: 30% (Approx. 5 pages)
Due: Week #5 – May 20
This assignment is designed to encourage you to; identify potentially uncomfortable or

difficult situations you may encounter in therapy with families, review
the literature to assist in your understanding of what might be contributing to the
difficulty as well as how you may proceed.
With this in mind:
1 a) Choose a potentially challenging situation that you may experience

or have experienced in your clinical work with families. This issue may or did
challenge your values, beliefs ,experiences, comfort level, boundaries ,ethics, etc.
For example, a child behaving aggressively or swearing at their parents in the session
b) Describe the reason for choosing this issue.
c) Review 2-3 relevant references that relate to your situation and discuss how the
literature;
• Increased your understanding of your issue, possibly your own reactions, and that
340
of your clients,
• Identified possible interventions or management strategies.
Your paper needs to reveal a combination of personal reflections, and

critical analysis of the readings – approximately 5 pages in length.
2 ) Without identifying your name, write a one page summary, single spaced,
with the following headlines;
a) The difficult situation (briefly outline the challenging situation)
b) References utilized ( identify the articles or book chapters)
c) Summary of relevant information ( useful information that increased your under-
standing of the challenging issue)
d) Management strategies
e) You are then asked to make 28 copies for your classmates, which will be distributed
in week 5.
Please note: You will want to select articles or chapters in books that are not in the
course recommended readings. You are encouraged to review your challenging
situation with the instructor prior to writing your paper .Please ensure you have
attached the summary sheet to the assignment.
Each student will have examples of 28 potentially “challenging” situations with a

broadened understanding based of the literature reviews and summaries by your
classmates.
Assignment # 2– Family Assessment - Value: 70% (approx. 15-17

pages )
Due: Week # 9
In this paper you will write a family assessment based on a family you have previously
worked with, or from a selection of movies that will be discussed in class. Please use the
generic assessment format provided in class. In the paper, you will incorporate one or
more theories/approaches discussed in class With this in mind, write approximately a
15 page paper, and include the following:
1) Demonstrate how you might assess a family including: referring information; family
composition; relevant present or past history; concerns or issues/stories that brought
the family to treatment; families’ description of the concerns, family interactions, risk
factors, strengths, influences effecting the family, or one or more members of the
family, possible cultural factors, and/or diversity)
Value: 20%
2) Select one or more theoretical model/s/approaches to family work that were

discussed in class and apply to the family you are discussing.
341
a.) Identify how you might conceptualize, or relay impressions about the
information/observations presented. Value: 15%
b ) Discuss how you might proceed with the family regarding treatment planning and
intervention Value: 15%
.
3) Describe the theoretical model or integration of models that would address the
family’s needs. Explain the reasons for your choice/s of model/s and use examples
from the family to support your approach. Any personal reactions to the family or
issues they describing?
Value: 20%
4) Provide appropriate references.
Due date: Class #9
Standards:
.Typed, double spaced, correct grammar and spelling, pages numbered

.The paper should be written in APA style (using references where
appropriate)
In marking your papers, I will be evaluating the presentation of your ideas on:
1) Clarity and Accuracy of ideas: Do your ideas regarding the approaches

reflect those articulated by their proponents?
2) Written Expression; Clarity, conciseness, logical flow and

cohesiveness of ideas.
3) Use of Examples: The examples should clearly reflect the

ideas you are addressing.
4) Use of Self Besides referencing, ability to describe

personal preferences, reactions, and reasons
for choosing the theoretical model/s.
6) Logic of Chosen Approach/s
7) Appropriate use of references
342
Note: Students are advised to review the WLU website for information regarding
academic misconduct. Please note that Wilfrid Laurier University uses software that can
check for plagiarism. Students may be required to submit their written work in electronic
form and have it checked for plagiarism
Class #1 – April 22 - Introductions, Course Planning, Beginnings, Stages of Change, Core

Factors for Effectiveness, Family definition and Purpose
Cultural Influence
Required readings:
Nichols: Chapter 1
Okun, Barbara, F. (1996). Diverse families in context. Understanding diverse families: What
practitioners need to know. New York: The Guilford Press. pp. 7-23. Course Pack
Pipher, M. (1996). Thirsty in the rain. The Shelter of Each Other: Rebuilding our families.
New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. pp. 9 - 32. Course Pack
Prochaska, J. & DiClemente, C. (1991). Prochaska and DiClemente’s six stages of change .In
W. Miller & S. Rollnick. Motivational interviewing: Preparing people to change addictive
behaviour. New York: Guilford Press. p. 15. Course Pack
Recommended readings:
Duncan, Barry, Miller, Scott D, & Sparks, Jacqueline. (2007). Common factors and the
uncommon heroism of youth. Retrieved Online Nov. 24, 2007 from:
http://www.talkingcure.com/uploadedFiles/HeroismOfYouth.pdf
Miller, William & Rolinic, S. (2002). What is motivational interviewing? Motivational

Interviewing: Preparing People for Change (2nd. Ed). New York: The Guilford Press. pp. 33-42.
Class #2 &3 - April 29, May 6 - Family Assessment (Eco-systemic, Family Life Cycle,
Strength-Based ), Diversity, Hypothesizing
Required Readings:
Nichols: Chapter 4
Bryan, L. (2001). Neither mask nor mirror: One therapist`s journey to ethically integrate feminist
family therapy and multiculturalism. In T. Zimmerman. (Ed). Integrating gender and culture in
family therapy training. New York: Haworth Press. pp. 105-121. Course Pack.
343
Collins, D, Jordan, C, Coleman, H. (2007). Qualitative family assessment: In An introduction to
social work. (2nd Ed). Belmont, CA: Thomson-Brooks-Cole. pp. 217-253. Course Pack
Congress, E. & Kung, W. (2005). Using the Culturagram to assess and empower culturally
diverse families . In E. Congress & W. Klung (Eds). Multicultural perspectives in working with
families . (2nd Ed). New York: Springer. pp. 3-21. Course Pack
Furito , S. (2004). Theoretical perspectives for culturally competent practice with immigrant
children and families, In. R. Fong. (Ed.). Culturally competent practice with immigrant and
refugee children and families. New York: The Guilford Press, pp. 19-38. Course Pack

paradigm. Families in Society.82 (3), 233-242.On Line
Marshak , L. Seligman, M. & Prezant, F. (1999). Families coping with disability:

Foundational and conceptual issues. In L. Marshak, M. Seligman & F. Prezant . In Disability
and the family Life Cycle. New York: Basic Books, pp. 1-37. Course Pack
McGoldrick, M, Carter, B, Garcia- Preto, N. (2011) ( Eds ). Overview: The life cycle in its
changing context: Individual, family and social perspectives. The expanded life cycle. (4th Ed)
Boston: Allyn & Bacon .pp. 1-19. Course Pack
McGoldrick, M, Carter, B, Garcia- Preto, N. (2011). The individual life cycle in context. In The
expanded life cycle: Individual, family and social perspectives. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. pp. 32-
35. Course Pack
McGoldrick, M, Carter, B, Garcia-Preto, N. (2011). Additional stages of family life cycle for
divorcing and remarrying families. In The expanded life cycle: Individual, family and social
perspectives. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. pp.320-321. Course Pack
conversation: Some ideas about knowing and not knowing in the family therapy session.
Journal of marital and family therapy. 28(4), pp. 467-478. On-line
Thomlinson, B. (2002). Guiding principles of assessment. In Family assessment handbook.

Belmont, C.A. Thomson-Brooks-Cole. pp. 16-23.Course Pack.
Recommended Reading:
Adams et al. (2004) Counselling gay and lesbian families: Theoretical considerations The
Family Journal. 12, pp. 40-42
344
AACAP Official Action. ( 2007). Practice parameter for the assessment of the family. The
journal of the American academy of child and adolescent psychiatry 46 (7). pp. 922-937.
Allison, S., Stacey, K., Dadds, V., Roeger, L. Wood, A. Martin, G. (2003). What the family
brings: Gathering evidence for strengths-based work Journal of family therapy, 25, pp. 263 –
285,
Barbara, Angela & Farzana, Doctor. (2004). Asking the right questions: Talking with clients
about sexual orientation and gender identity in mental health, counseling and addiction settings
Toronto: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
Barnard, P., & Kuehl, B. (1995). Ongoing evaluation: In session procedures for enhancing the
working alliance and therapy effectiveness. The American journal of family therapy, 23 (2),
pp.161-359.
Beeler, J. (1999). Family adjustment following disclosure of homosexuality by a member:

Themes discerned in narrative accounts. Journal of marital and family therapy. 25 (4). pp. 443-
459.
Bernstein, A.C. (2000). Straight therapists working with lesbians and gays in family therapy.
Journal of marital and family therapy. 5. (314). pp. 75-98
Bertrando, P. & Arcelloni, T. (2006). Hypotheses are dialogues: Sharing hypotheses with
clients. Journal of Family Therapy. pp 370-387.
Boyd, Webb, Nancy. ( 1996). The biopsychosocial assessment of the child. In Social work
practice with children. New York: Guilford Press. pp. 57-97.
Collins, D, Jordan, C, & Coleman, M. (1999). Gender-sensitive practice, In An introduction to

family social work. Itasca, Illinois: F. E. Peacock Publishers, Inc., pp. 200 – 212.
Dolan-Del Vechio, K., Chapter 13. Dismantling white male privilege within family therapy,
Revisioning Family therapy, pp. 159 – 176.
Dyche, L. & Zayas, L. H. (1995). The value of curiosity and naivete for the cross-cultural
psychotherapists. Family Process, 34, pp. 389-399.
Early, T., Glenmaye, L., (March 2000). Valuing families: Social work practice with families
from a strength perspective, Social Work: Journal of the National Association of Social
Workers, 45 (2), NASW pp. 118 - 130.
Fong, R. (2004). Contexts and environments for culturally competent practice. In R. Fong
(Eds.). Culturally competent practice with immigrant and refugee children and families.
New York: The Guilford Press. pp. 39-59.
345
Green, R. J.(1998). (Eds). Race and the field of family therapy. In McGoldrick, M. Revisioning
family therapy: Race, culture and gender in clinical practice. New York: Guildford Press,
pp. 93 - 100.
Kindton, Daniel. (2001). Raising Cain. New York: Ballantine Inc., ISBN 0345-434-854.
Laszloffy, T. A., Hardy, K. U., (Spring 2000). Uncommon strategies for a common problem:
addressing racism in family therapy, Family Process 39 (1). pp. 35 – 49.
Meares, Paula Allen. (1995). A transactional framework: Assessment and intervention. Social
Work with Children and Adolescents. New York: Longman Publishers. pp. 3-19.
Okun, Barbara, F. (1996). Treatment issues pertaining to adoption. In Understanding

diverse families: What practitioners need to know.New York: The Guildford Press pp. 81 –105,
Pipher, Mary. (1999). Another country: Navigating the emotional terrain of our elders. New
York:
Rich, Philip. (1980). Differentiation of self in the therapist’s family of origin. In Social
casework: The journal of contemporary social work. (Sept.) pp. 394-399.
Sheafor, B. W., Horejsi, C. R, & Horejsi, G. A. (1997). Genograms and ecomapping: Social
support assessment, In B. W. Sheafor, C. R. Horejsi, & G. A. Horejsi. Techniques and
guidelines for social work practice, (4th Ed) Boston: Allyn & Bacon. pp. 329 - 337.
Sperry, Len, Fernandez, Sylvia. (2003). Culture and families of children with traumatic injuries,
The family journal, 11, (3), pp. 292-296.
Terkelson, K. ( 1984). Toward a theory of the family life cycle. In Carter, & McGoldrick, M.
(Eds). The family life cycle, New York: Guildford Press. pp. 21- 52.
Tomm, Karl, (1987). Interventive interviewing: Part l. Strategizing as a fourth guideline for the
therapist. Family Process. 26, pp. 3-13.
Tomm Karl, (1987). Interventive interviewing: Part ll.. Reflexive questioning as a means to
enable self healing. Family Process . 26. pp. 167-183.
Tomm, Karl. ( 1988). Interventive interviewing: Part lll. Intending to ask lineal, circular,
strategic, or reflexive questions. Family Process. 27. pp. 1-15.
Walsh, Froma. (2003). Family resilience A framework for clinical practice, Family Process,
(42). 1, pp. 1 – 17.
Class #4 – May 13- Narrative Required Reading:
Nichols: Chapter 1
346
Freeman, EM, & Couchonnal, G. (2006). Narrative and culturally based approaches in practice
with families. Families in society. 87 (2) .pp. 198-208. On- Line.
White, M. (1988). The process of questioning: A therapy of literary merit? Dulwich Centre
Newsletter. Winter. Course Pack.
Nicholson, Susan. (1995). The narrative dance: A practice map for White’s therapy”. The
Australian and New Zealand journal of family therapy. Vol. 16 (1). pp. 23-28. Course Pack.
Sveaass, N., Reichelt, S. (2001). Refugee families in therapy: From referrals to therapeutic
conversations, Journal of family therapy, 23, pp. 119 - 135.On-Line
Andersen, Tom, (1987). The reflecting team: Dialogue and meta-dialogue in clinical work.
Family Process. 26. pp. 415-428.
www.narrativeapproaches.com www.dulwichcentre.com.au
www.narrativetherapycentre.com www.narrativebooks.com
www.adelaidenarrativetherapycentre.com.au
Gilligan, S. & Price, R. (1993). Therapeutic conversations. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Inc.
Hewson, D. (1991). From laboratory to therapy room: Prediction questions for reconstructing the
new-old story. Dulwich centre newsletter. 3, pp. 5-12.
Nwoye, A. (2006). A narrative approach to child and family therapy in Africa. Contemporary
Family Therapy. 28 (1), pp. 1-23.
Vangari, M. E. & Gosling, A. (1996). Feminist family therapy and the narrative approach:
Dovetailing two frameworks for therapy. Journal of Feminist Family Therapy. 8. (1). pp. 47-63.
White, M. (1988/89). The externalizing of the problem and the reauthoring of lives and
relationships. Dulwich centre newsletter. Summer, pp. 3-20.
White, M. (1993). Deconstruction and therapy. In Therapeutic conversations, Norton and

Company Inc. pp. 22-59.
Class #5 – May 20 - The Collaborative Problem Solving Approach, Bowen-Inter-Generational

Family Therapy
Required Reading:
Chapter 5
347
Greene, Ross. W. (2010). Lagging skills and unsolved problems, In The explosive child: A new
New York: Harper Collins Publishers. pp. 21-47. Course Pack.
Greene, Ross. W. & Ablon, Stuart J. (2006). Plan B basics In Treating Explosive Kids: The
Collaborative Problem-Solving Approach. New York: Guilford Press. pp. 50-92. Course Pack.
Brooks, R., & Goldstein, (2001). Raising Resilient Children. Chicago IL: Contemporary Books.
Chansky, Tamar E. (2004). Freeing your child from anxiety: Powerful practical solutions to
overcome your child’s fears, worries, and phobias. New York: Broadway Books.
Chansky, Tamar, E. (2001). Freeing your child from obsessive-compulsive disorder: A powerful,
practical program for parents of children and adolescents, New York: Three Rivers Press.
Greene, Ross W. (2008). Lost at school: Why our kids with behavioral challenges are falling
through the cracks and how we can help them. New York: Scribner Inc.
Kurinka, Mary Sheedy. (2006). Raising your spirited child: A guide for parents whose child is
more intense, sensitive, perceptive, persistent and energetic. New York: The Guilford Press.
Class # 6 –May 27 -Solution-Focused
Nichols –Chapter 12
Castro,S. D. & Guterman, J. T. (2008). Solution-focused therapy for families coping with
suicide. Journal of marital and family therapy. 34 (1). pp. 93-106. On Line
services. 87, (3). pp. 339-350.
Koob, Jeffrey, J. (2009). Solution-focused family interventions. In Working with families: An

integrative model by level of need. ( 5th Ed). Boston: Pearson Inc. pp. 146-166.Course Pack.
www.sfbta.org
www.brieftherapynetwork.com www.solutions-centre.nl/
www.motivationalinterview.org.
Class # 7 – June 3 - Structural and Multi-Systemic Family Therapy

348
Nichols – Chapter 7
Henggeler, S. et al. (1998). Clinical foundations of MST. In S. Henggeler et. al. Multisystemic
treatment of anti-social behaviour in children and adolescents.: New York: Guilford Press. pp.
305-341. Course Pack.
Kim, J.M. (2003). Structural family therapy and its implications for the Asian American family.
The family journal: Counselling and therapy for couples and families. 11(4), pp. 388-392. On –
Line
Vetere, A. (2001). Structural family therapy. Child psychology & psychiatry review. 6(3), 133-
139. Course Pack.
Groves, B. (2002). Children Who See Too Much. Boston: Beacon Press.
Harrison, Susan, $ Carver, Virginia (ED). (2004). Alcohol and Drug Problems: A Practical
Guide for Counsellors, (3rd Ed).Toronto: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
Holliday , M, & Cronin, R. (1990). Families first: A significant step toward family
Preservation,
In Families in society: The journal of contemporary human service, 71 (5), pp. 303 - 306.
Madsen, William. C. (1999). Working with multi-stressed families: From technique

to attitude. In Collaborative therapy with multi-stressed families. New York: The Guilford Press.
pp. 9-44.
intervention. Professional psychology: Research and practice. 28, (3) pp. 229-237.
McDowell, Teresa. (April 1999). Systems consultation and head start: An alternative to
traditional family therapy, In Journal of marital and family therapy, 25 (2). pp. 155 - 168.
Rojano, Ramon. (2004). The practice of community family therapy. Family Process. 43 (1). pp.
59-77.
Price, J., Margerum, J. (2000). “The 4 Common Mistakes in Treating Teens”, in Family Therapy
Ramsay, R., Tanney, R., Lang, W., Tierney, R., Kinzel, T., Turley, B. (1993) (3rd edition) (Ed).
Suicide Intervention Handbook. Calgary: Livingworks Education Inc., ISBN 0-9698448-0-8.
Sheinberg, M., & Fraenkel, P. (1999). “Loyalty Violated”, in Family Therapy Networker, 23
(3),
349
pp. 63 – 78.
VanDenberg, John E., (1996). Individualized services and supports through the wraparound
process: Philosophy and procedures, Journal of Child and Family Studies, 5 (1), pp. 422-436.
Weingarten, K. (1995). Cultural Resistance: Challenging Beliefs about Men, Women, and
Therapy. New York: Haworth Press.
Wolf, A. E. (1991). Get Out Of My Life: But First Could You Drive Me and Cheryl To The
Mall? New York: The Noonday Press, ISBN 0-374-52322-3.
Woodcock, Jeremy. (2001). Threads from the labyrinth: Therapy with survivors of war and
political oppression, Journal of Family Therapy, 23, pp. 136 - 154.
Zayas, L. H., Kaplan, C., Turner, S., Roman, K., Gonzalex-Ramus, G. (2000). “Understanding
Suicide Attempts By Adolescent Hispanic Females”, in Social Work: Journal of the National
Association of Social Workers, 45 (1), pp. 53 - 63.
Class # 8 – June 10- Emotionally-Focused Family Therapy (EFFT), and Comparison of

Theories
Required Readings:
Johnson, S. & Lee, A. (2000). “Emotionally Focused Family Therapy: Restructuring

Attachment:” In Bailey, E. (Ed.) Children in Therapy: Using the Family as a Resource.
New York: Norton Publishers. Pp. 112-133.
Kilpatrick, Allie, C. (2009). Levels of family need. In A. Kilpatrick & T Holland. Working with
families: An integrative model by level of need. Toronto: Allyn & Bacon. pp. 3-14.
Bush, M., Caronna, L.B. Spratt, S. E., Bigby, J. (1996). Substance abuse and family dynamics,
In Freidman, L., Fleming, N., Roberts, D., Hyman, S. (Ed). Source book of substance abuse and
addiction. Maryland: Williams and Wilkens, Chapter 4, pp. 57 - 69.
Neufeld, Gordon, Mate, Gabor. (2005) Collecting our children. Hold on to your kids: Why
parents need to matter more than peers Canada:Vintage. pp. 179-195.
Van Loon, R. A. (1999). “Desire To Die In Terminally Ill People: A Framework For
Assessment And Intervention”, in Health and Social Work, 24 (4), pp. 260 - 268.
Class #9 ( June 17) – Termination/Endings, Outcomes, Compassion Fatigue, Vicarious

Trauma.
350
Required Readings:
Nichols – Chapter 14 & 15
Collins, D, Jordan, C, & Coleman, H. (2007). The termination phase. In An introduction to

family social work. (2nd ed.), Belmont, CA: Thomson/Brooks-Cole. pp. 350-376. Course Pack
CSQ-8 Client Satisfaction Questionnaire. In L. Sederer & B. Dickey (Eds.). (1996). Outcome
assessment in clinical practice. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins. pp. 278.
Recommended Readings:
Barnard, P., & Kuehl, B. (1995). Ongoing evaluation: In session procedures for
enhancing the working alliance and therapy effectiveness. The American journal
of family therapy, 23 (2). pp.161-359
Figley, C.R. (1995). Compassion fatigue: Coping with secondary traumatic stress disorder in
those who treat the traumatized. New York:: Brunner/ Mazel Publishers.
This outline shows the scheduled dates for class sessions and the topics that will be covered, in
their anticipated order. Because of the nature of this course, however -- as in social work practice
itself -- responsiveness to the needs and interests of class members (occasionally including the
instructor) may require flexibility with regard to order and/or duration of some topics.
` WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY

Course Description:
351
This course provides a critical study of widely used approaches to practice with diverse family
forms within social work settings. Emphasis will be placed on influential theories that impact
and guide the methods used in the practice of family social work.
2. To discuss family practice from a diverse social contextual framework, and explore
issues related to culture, gender, class, sexual orientation, ability/disability, mental health,
etc.
3. To develop a basic understanding of various models of family therapy ( Narrative,
Solution-Focused, Structural, Trans -generational, Collaborative Problem Solving,
Emotionally-Focused and Multi-Systemic) as well as applying key concepts and skills .
5. To develop skills in order to conduct a family assessment, and explore various options
for treatment planning and intervention strategies
7. To challenge and explore one’s own developing personal style and theoretical
preferences.
Required Text:
Recommended Texts:

352


Greene, Ross. W. (2010). Lagging skills and unsolved problems, In The explosivechild: A new
Madsen, William. C. (1999). Therapy with multi-stressed families.New York: The Guilford
Press.
McGoldrick, M, Carter, B, Garcia- Preto , N. (2011). The expanded life cycle: Individual, family
and social perspectives. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Course Assignments:
Assignment #1:

353
With this in mind:
literature;
• Increased your understanding of your issue, possibly your own reactions, and that of your
clients,
354
in week 5.
situation with the instructor prior to writing your paper. Please ensure you have
classmates.
pages )
Due: Week # 9
generic assessment format provided in class. In the paper, you will incorporate one or more
theories/approaches discussed in class With this in mind, write approximately a 15 page paper,
and include the following:
composition; relevant present or past history; concerns or issues/stories that brought the family to
treatment; families’ description of the concerns, family interactions, risk factors, strengths,
influences effecting the family, or one or more members of the family, possible cultural factors,
and/or diversity)
Value: 20%
discussed in class and apply to the family you are discussing

355
3) Describe the theoretical model or integration of models that would address the family’s
needs. Explain the reasons for your choice/s of model/s and use examples from the family to
support your approach. Any personal reactions to the family or issues they describing?
Value: 20%
Due date: Class #9
Standards:
appropriate)
1) Clarity and Accuracy of ideas: Do your ideas regarding the

approaches
reflect those articulated by their

proponents?
356
check for plagiarism. Students may be required to submit their written work in electronic
form and have it checked for plagiarism
Cultural Influence
Required readings:
Nichols: Chapter 1

357
Required Readings:
Nichols: Chapter 4


and the family Life Cycle.New York: Basic Books, pp. 1-37. Course Pack
35. Course Pack
358
285,
about sexualorientation and gender identity in mental health, counseling and addiction settings
Toronto: Centre forAddiction and Mental Health.
pp.161-359.

459.
Boyd, Webb, Nancy. ( 1996). The biopsychosocial assessment of the child. In Social
workpractice with children. New York: Guilford Press. pp. 57-97.

359
from a strength perspective, Social Work: Journal of the National Association of SocialWorkers,
45 (2), NASW pp. 118 - 130.
family therapy: Race, culture and gender in clinical practice. New York: Guildford Press, pp.
93 - 100.
Meares, Paula Allen. (1995). A transactional framework: Assessment and intervention.

SocialWork with Children and Adolescents. New York: Longman Publishers. pp. 3-19.
York:
Rich, Philip. (1980). Differentiation of self in the therapist’s family of origin. In Socialcasework:
The journal of contemporary social work. (Sept.) pp. 394-399.
support assessment, In B. W. Sheafor, C. R. Horejsi, & G. A. Horejsi. Techniques
andguidelines for social work practice, (4th Ed) Boston: Allyn & Bacon. pp. 329 - 337.
360
(42). 1, pp. 1 – 17.
Nichols: Chapter 1
White, M. (1988). The process of questioning: A therapy of literary merit? DulwichCentre

361
White, M. (1993). Deconstruction and therapy. In Therapeutic conversations, Norton

andCompany Inc. pp. 22-59.
Family Therapy
Required Reading:
Chapter 5
Chansky, Tamar E. (2004). Freeing your child from anxiety: Powerful practical solutions
toovercome your child’s fears, worries, and phobias. New York: Broadway Books.
Chansky, Tamar, E. (2001). Freeing your child from obsessive-compulsive disorder: Apowerful,
362
services. 87, (3). pp. 339-350.

www.sfbta.org
Henggeler, S. et al. (1998). Clinical foundations of MST. In S. Henggeler et. al.

Multisystemictreatment of anti-social behaviour in children and adolescents.: New York:
Guilford Press. pp. 305-341. Course Pack.
Line
139. Course Pack.
Preservation,
pp. 9-44.
363
59-77.
(3), pp. 63 – 78.
Theories
Required Readings:

364
In Freidman, L., Fleming, N., Roberts, D., Hyman, S. (Ed). Source book ofsubstance abuse and
Neufeld, Gordon, Mate, Gabor. (2005) Collecting our children. Hold on to your kids:
Whyparents need to matter more than peers Canada:Vintage. pp. 179-195.
Trauma.
Required Readings:
Collins, D, Jordan, C, & Coleman, H. (2007). The termination phase. In An introduction

tofamily social work. (2nd ed.), Belmont, CA: Thomson/Brooks-Cole. pp. 350-376. Course Pack
CSQ-8 Client Satisfaction Questionnaire. In L. Sederer & B. Dickey (Eds.). (1996).

Outcomeassessment in clinical practice. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins. pp. 278.
working alliance and therapy effectiveness. The American journal of family therapy, 23 (2).
pp.161-359
those whotreat the traumatized. New York:: Brunner/ Mazel Publishers.
their anticipated order. Because of the nature of this course, however -- as in social work
practice itself -- responsiveness to the needs and interests of class members (occasionally
including the instructor) may require flexibility with regard to order and/or duration of some
topics.
365
` WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY

Course Description:
This course provides a critical study of widely used approaches to practice with diverse family
forms within social work settings. Emphasis will be placed on influential theories that impact
and guide the methods used in the practice of family social work.
2. To discuss family practice from a diverse social contextual framework, and explore
issues related to culture, gender, class, sexual orientation, ability/disability, mental health,
etc.
3. To develop a basic understanding of various models of family therapy ( Narrative,
Solution-Focused, Structural, Trans -generational, Collaborative Problem Solving,
Emotionally-Focused and Multi-Systemic) as well as applying key concepts and skills .
5. To develop skills in order to conduct a family assessment, and explore various options
for treatment planning and intervention strategies
7. To challenge and explore one’s own developing personal style and theoretical
preferences.
366
Required Text:
Recommended Texts:


Madsen, William. C. (1999). Therapy with multi-stressed families.New York: The Guilford
Press.
McGoldrick, M, Carter, B, Garcia- Preto , N. (2011). The expanded life cycle: Individual, family
and social perspectives. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
367
Course Assignments:
Assignment #1:
With this in mind:
literature;
• Increased your understanding of your issue, possibly your own reactions, and that of your
clients,
368
in week 5.
situation with the instructor prior to writing your paper. Please ensure you have
classmates.
pages )
Due: Week # 9
369
generic assessment format provided in class. In the paper, you will incorporate one or more
theories/approaches discussed in class With this in mind, write approximately a 15 page paper,
and include the following:
composition; relevant present or past history; concerns or issues/stories that brought the family to
treatment; families’ description of the concerns, family interactions, risk factors, strengths,
influences effecting the family, or one or more members of the family, possible cultural factors,
and/or diversity)
Value: 20%
discussed in class and apply to the family you are discussing
3) Describe the theoretical model or integration of models that would address the family’s
needs. Explain the reasons for your choice/s of model/s and use examples from the family to
support your approach. Any personal reactions to the family or issues they describing?
Value: 20%
Due date: Class #9
Standards:
appropriate)
1) Clarity and Accuracy of ideas: Do your ideas regarding the

approaches
370
reflect those articulated by their
proponents?
check for plagiarism. Students may be required to submit their written work in
electronicform and have it checked for plagiarism
Cultural Influence
Required readings:
Nichols: Chapter 1

371

Required Readings:
Nichols: Chapter 4


and the family Life Cycle.New York: Basic Books, pp. 1-37. Course Pack
372
35. Course Pack
285,
about sexualorientation and gender identity in mental health, counseling and addiction settings
Toronto: Centre forAddiction and Mental Health.
pp.161-359.

459.
373
Boyd, Webb, Nancy. ( 1996). The biopsychosocial assessment of the child. In Social
workpractice with children. New York: Guilford Press. pp. 57-97.

from a strength perspective, Social Work: Journal of the National Association of SocialWorkers,
45 (2), NASW pp. 118 - 130.
family therapy: Race, culture and gender in clinical practice. New York: Guildford Press, pp.
93 - 100.
Meares, Paula Allen. (1995). A transactional framework: Assessment and intervention.

SocialWork with Children and Adolescents. New York: Longman Publishers. pp. 3-19.
York:
Rich, Philip. (1980). Differentiation of self in the therapist’s family of origin. In Socialcasework:
The journal of contemporary social work. (Sept.) pp. 394-399.
374
support assessment, In B. W. Sheafor, C. R. Horejsi, & G. A. Horejsi. Techniques
andguidelines for social work practice, (4th Ed) Boston: Allyn & Bacon. pp. 329 - 337.
(42). 1, pp. 1 – 17.
Nichols: Chapter 1
White, M. (1988). The process of questioning: A therapy of literary merit? DulwichCentre

375
White, M. (1993). Deconstruction and therapy. In Therapeutic conversations, Norton

andCompany Inc. pp. 22-59.
Family Therapy
Required Reading:
Chapter 5
Chansky, Tamar E. (2004). Freeing your child from anxiety: Powerful practical solutions
toovercome your child’s fears, worries, and phobias. New York: Broadway Books.
Chansky, Tamar, E. (2001). Freeing your child from obsessive-compulsive disorder: Apowerful,
376
services. 87, (3). pp. 339-350.

www.sfbta.org
Henggeler, S. et al. (1998). Clinical foundations of MST. In S. Henggeler et. al.

Multisystemictreatment of anti-social behaviour in children and adolescents.: New York:
Guilford Press. pp. 305-341. Course Pack.
Line
139. Course Pack.
377
Preservation,
pp. 9-44.
59-77.
(3), pp. 63 – 78.
378
Theories
Required Readings:

In Freidman, L., Fleming, N., Roberts, D., Hyman, S. (Ed). Source book ofsubstance abuse and
Neufeld, Gordon, Mate, Gabor. (2005) Collecting our children. Hold on to your kids:
Whyparents need to matter more than peers Canada:Vintage. pp. 179-195.
Trauma.
Required Readings:
Collins, D, Jordan, C, & Coleman, H. (2007). The termination phase. In An introduction

tofamily social work. (2nd ed.), Belmont, CA: Thomson/Brooks-Cole. pp. 350-376. Course Pack
CSQ-8 Client Satisfaction Questionnaire. In L. Sederer & B. Dickey (Eds.). (1996).

Outcomeassessment in clinical practice. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins. pp. 278.
working alliance and therapy effectiveness. The American journal of family therapy, 23 (2).
pp.161-359
379
those whotreat the traumatized. New York:: Brunner/ Mazel Publishers.
their anticipated order. Because of the nature of this course, however -- as in social work
practice itself -- responsiveness to the needs and interests of class members (occasionally
including the instructor) may require flexibility with regard to order and/or duration of some
topics.
The difficult Situation
Refusing of Cancer treatment is difficult situation to manage. A woman who is a 55- year old
diagnosed with breast cancer. Her mother passed away from cancer many years ago so, she fears
about side effects from cancer treatment and thinks that she cannot be relieved after treatment
and it makes her to feel depress so, she chooses alternative therapies such as spirituality and
prayer.
References Utilize
Citrin, D., Bloom, D., Grutsch, J., Mortensen, S., & Lis, C. (2012). Beliefs and perceptions of
women with newly diagnosed breast cancer who refused conventional treatment in favor of
alternative therapies. The oncologist, 0(46), 8. doi: 10.1634
Epston, D. & White, M. (1992). Experience, Contradiction, Narrative and Imagination.

Adelaide,Australia: Dulwich Centre Publications.
Stringer, S. (2009). Ethical issues involved in patient refusal of life-saving treatment. Queen’s
Medical Centre, Nottingham, 8(3), 33. Retrieved from www. cancernursingpractice.co.uk
Summary of Relevant Information
According to the breast cancer literature, reasons for refusing Cancer treatment are; need for
control, fear of adverse effects, cultural or religious, do not have enough information about
treatment options, depression, lack of capacity and power for making a right decision for cancer
treatment. In addition, patients who have witnessed bad outcomes or are generally distrustful of
the healthcare system may not be willing to put their faith in a treatment plan or medical team.
Also, some patients may feel comforted by entrusting her fate to a higher power.
Management Strategies:
Narrative Therapy would be fit with her health issue and be consistent with the patient and her
family’s ethnic, religious, culture, language and beliefs. Narrative Therapy explores what roles
these elements play in the client’s narrative and then works with the client to rewrite the negative
areas depicted in the narrative (Michael White, 1992). By Narrative Therapy, she will be able to
380
explore how rejecting treatment influences her life and her family. Narrative Therapy would help
her to revise her perspective about cancer treatment to make a right decision.
Case Formulation: (Revised from Gehart, 2010) Kate Ross-Rudow
Client: Age:
Family Members residing in the home and ages:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Additional Family or significant others( Sole or Joint Custody?):
Additional: (If relevant)
Family Culture ( Culturagram)____ yes/no
Language/s spoken ____ Cognitive ability _____
Interpreter Required _____ Sexual Orientation _____
Religion/Spiritual beliefs _____ Immigration/Refugee _____
Other_______
Current Involvement from Other Helping Professionals:
____ Family Physician ____ Pediatrician
____ Psychiatrist ____ Mental Health Worker
____ F&CS _____Specialist
___Employment Worker ____ Legal Representative
___Other_________________________________
381
Current Medication: ( Name, what targeting, who prescribed and is monitoring, targeting
what behaviour?)
Genogram and or Eco-map:
Presenting Concerns: (main concerns presented by different family members and their
explanations ) ( Revised from Gehart, 2010)
__Depression __Mood __Motor/Speech
__Anxiety __Medical __Self Regulation
__Anger __Behaviour __Development
__Family Systems: __Substances/Gambling __Legal Issues
__Loss/Grief: __Suicidality __Couple

__Separation/Divorce __Major Life Changes __ Eating
__Trauma __ Self Harm __Sleep
__Academic/Employment __ Blended Family __Sexual Abuse
__Parent/child conflict __Communication __Attachment
__Social __Withdrawal __Bullying
__ Child Abuse __Sexuality __ Tics
__Partner Violence __ School performance/attendance
__Truancy __Thoughts (Delusional/hallucinations)
__Other_________________________________________________
Concerns of Referring Sources, Summary of additional resources (schools, doctors,

agencies)
Background Information:
Relevant History:
Trauma/Abuse History ( recent and past)
Biopsychosocial factors of family members:
382
Attachment: (relevant history/current)
Substance Abuse/ Gambling/Other
Predisposing Factors:
Precipitating Events: ( recent stressors, life events)
Perpetuating Factors:
Protective Factors or Strengths: ( personal, relational, social, spiritual)
Previous Counselling, Family History of Mental Health Concerns.
Instrumental Needs: Food, Shelter, Financial, Other
Family Structure:
Family Life Cycle: Check all that apply:
__ single adult __committed couple __family with younger children
__ family with adolescent children __ family with adult children
__adult children with elderly parents __divorce __blended family
__launching children __later life
Describe Life Cycle struggles or developmental issues:
Cultural Factors/ Diversity: (include issues related to power, oppression, marginalization)
Environmental Factors ( societal, organizational, neighbourhood, school, )
Gender Issues:
Current Resources: ( personal, social, environmental, cultural)
Family Interactional Patterns/ Communication (Watzlawick, 1967)
A). homeostasis
. start of tension.
.symptom escalation
383
.tension subsides
B) Communication: Identify possible complementary patterns (may become problematic

when rigid and or exaggerated ) (Watzlawick)
. Good one /bad one
.Pursurer/distancer
. Logical one/emotional one
. Helpless one / Rescuer
. Overfunctioner/Underfunctioner
. Social/Withdraw
c) Interactional sequences – what occurred prior to the concern, where, escalation, how did
each family member respond, responses to that response, etc)
D) Observations of the Spoken and \Unspoken ( Family Dynamics, Voice Tone, Body
Language) Cultural?
Risk Factors:
Discussed _____ Denied_______
Describe: ( refer to ASIST through CHMA)
Suicidal Ideation:
Suicide Gesture:
Suicide Attempt:
Completed suicide by a family member:
Previous suicide attempt:
Current plan:
Current Pain:
Perceived Resources:
384
Able to state reasons to live___, Level of hope on a scale of 0-10____ Positive future
goals_____, Agreement to discard potentially dangerous items_____,
Willingness to engage in a safety plan______?
– CMHA)
Self Harm: (current, means, length of time, explanation, location, risk)
Bullying/ Harassment:
Family Violence: denies___, past_____, current_____, risk_____
Criminal History:
Abuse: Sexual, Physical, Elder: ( Current, past)
Eating Disorder:
Homicidal Ideation: (Gehart, 2010)
“__ no concerns __Denies
__active ideation __Passive ideation
__ intent with means __ Intent /no means to carry out intent
__Ideation during the past year __Violence past year
__ History of assault __ Cruelty to animals”
“Out of Control Behaviour:”
Specific Plan to reduce Risk: ( client in agreement)
Current Hypotheses: Conceptualization? (Shared with the family?)
Treatment Plan:
Initial goals and objectives:
Longer term goals and objectives:
Time Frame Stipulated:
Evaluation or Outcome measures; ( i.e. client satisfaction)
385
SK632 C
The Context of Health and Mental Health Practice
Winter 2014
Professor: Magnus Mfoafo-M’Carthy, PhD, RSW
The lack of culturally sensitive alternative therapy models in mental health.
By Faruk Arslan
Spirituality/transpersonal practices are not often taught as part of social work education,
because Western education tends to overemphasize the head and ignore the heart (Frager, 1997).
In contrast, spiritual psychology stresses the need to nourish and develop the heart (Chittick,
1998; 1999; Michel, 2005; 2012). Many people suffer from mental and spiritual shortcomings,
but there is a lack of attention to humanity’s spiritual nature in mainstream psychosocial
education in mental health. Transpersonal psychology has not been fully incorporated and is
often overlooked in undergraduate and graduate curricula in Canada, especially when compared
to the United Kingdom, where British policy respects diversity in mental health approaches.
Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health (2006) policy shows that evidence-based
approaches are still dominant in policy and practice, with the aim of enhancing services while
ensuring cost effectiveness (Regehr & Glancy, 2010, p. 33). In Canada, mental health legislation
concerning treatment and services has shifted from community and family-based care to
institutionalization and has now gone back to a community focus (Regehr & Glancy, 2010, p.
34). Stigmatization is still a major issue, with an unscientific understanding of some mental
illnesses reflected in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) Fifth
386
Edition (2013), which ignores spiritual psychology as well as cultural and religious diversity. It
seems the Canadian mental health system isn’t very open to diverse models, such as exist in
other parts of the world. The concepts of the spiritual heart and of spiritual infections do not fit in
the current model. For example, “The Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments:
Guidelines for Management of Patients with Bipolar Disorder” recommends psycho-education as
a first-line treatment approach in combination with medication (Yatham, et al, 2005; 2006).
However, a more recent adaptation of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness-Based
Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) involves combining cognitive strategies with medication (Regehr &
Glancy, 2010, p. 158). This model has been subject to rigorous testing with good results for both
bipolar disorder and depression (Yatham, et al, 2005; 2006; William et al, 2008).
In fact, humanity’s spiritual nature and needs are often ignored; psychology and social
work education systems have traditionally had little positive regard for the concepts of soul and
spirit in solving problems of depression and anxiety (Cunningham, 2006, p 63). The clinicians,
social workers, doctors and other health researchers or educators overlook experiential research
based on a perspective of positivism and objectivism, and mostly use the medical model to
justify treatment of client needs. The legislation guides the intervention, but in a very constricted
way and allows only a euro-centric theoretical perspective to guide social workers’ interventions
in this area. Existing theories address poorly the real problems that the client group faces. Euro-
centric interventions mostly address only the surface, and not the real problems that the clients
face. Current Canadian legislation and policy structure are unable to meet clients’ needs. In my
opinion, counselling changes are needed to address the impact of power relations on the service
structure. The medical model must recognize and use alternative talking cure and herbal
medicine models and those models should be included in policy, legislation and existing service
387
structures, because of the way that spirituality can alter the world, client experience and the
social worker.
There are some exceptions to the general trend, including two organizations existing in
the United States and one in Canada: The Society for Spirituality and Social Work, The North
American Association of Christians in Social Work (NAACSW), and The Canadian Network on
Spirituality and Social Work (CNSSW) (McKernan, 2005).
In response to this, I have challenged existing MBCT and Acceptance Commitment
Therapy (ACT) models, and have created a new Sufi therapy model in my master’s thesis with a
specific focus on preventing depression, anxiety and stress, as well as relapse/recurrence of
depression in mental health. The transpersonal field is varied, and has no agreed outcomes
supported by generally accepted curricula models for transpersonal education. I would like to
offer a Sufi path and an emerging model for a heart-based Sufi therapy, and suggest its use in the
psychology and social work education curricula at both undergraduate and graduate levels. There
is almost no course available to students that integrates social work with spiritual psychology
education. It is not enough merely to introduce ever greater levels of regulation of practice or
greater levels of results-oriented research.
In fact, many of our social work clients have spiritual beliefs that are of great importance
to them, but Canadian human services, including social work, psychology and psychiatry, have
become the places most commonly turned to in times of crisis, inheriting a role that was once
reserved for priests and ministers. Social workers are being challenged to honor the spiritual
issues woven into the concerns clients bring to them (McKernan, 2005). Alberta sociologist Reg
Bibby reports that 86 per cent of all Canadians surveyed report that they believe in God; that 74
per cent believe in miracle cures; that 61 per cent believe in angels; and, surprisingly, 25 per cent
388
believe in reincarnation. This same survey notes that only about 17 percent of Canadians attend
any formal religious gathering on a regular basis (Bibby, 2002). These figures are echoed in the
work of George Gallup and Michael Lindsay (Gallup and Lindsay, 1999). Currently, there is a
lack of credible and accessible means of integrating spirituality into social work practice. This
has implications for client engagement, as well as access to the resources that a client’s spiritual
beliefs and experience can offer (McKernan, 2005). As a matter of fact, cultural, ethical and
religious ethical dilemmas exist because of the lack of education about culturally-
sensitive psychotherapy models. The use of great, broad spiritual principles does not
necessarily mean religious content, but offers instead new ways of thinking to enhance our social
work profession.
This is not to suggest that this area is free from legitimate ethical and other concerns,
such as conflicts of interest and becoming ethnocentric. In this context, the use of the term
“religious” generally refers to church, mosque, synagogues or temple-based activities, which is
not the same as “spiritual,” which does not necessarily involve churches, mosques, synagogues
or other temples. The importance of these findings is the recognition that there are important
overlaps between spirituality and religion in the realm of practice and its impact on the health of
the individual. I focus on the question of how Social Work practice can engage spiritual
psychology and what changes should be made to curricula in Social Work education.
The heart occupies an important place is Sufism and is considered to contain the divine
spark that leads to spiritual realization. I studied and used Fethullah Gülen’s action-oriented Sufi
methods described in his book “The Emerald Hills of the Heart,” providing the basis for a heart-
based therapeutic intervention through self-journeying, which is the objective of my master’s
thesis. These self-purification and mindfulness-related transpersonal methods generate a form of
389
treatment that is culturally sensitive. Through my auto-ethnographic research, I transformed my
personal experiences into a transpersonal narrative by writing eighty poems in eighty days, and
this output functioned as the source of my intellectually generated data, and the basis for the new
therapy model. It took two forty-day periods in two different cultures—Canada and Turkey— to
reach the necessary divine knowledge for discovering the innate power of the spirit. The journey
involved seeking freedom from the ego, or the lower self, in order to reach self-awareness and a
conception of how to use the self. I also categorized seven different levels of development of the
soul, representing the levels or stages of the self, ranging from absolutely self-centered and
egotistical to pure spiritual human perfection. My examination of the two forty-day periods
revealed the seven categories of thankfulness, purity of intention, reflection, patience,
truthfulness, trustworthiness and presentation. From these I developed a model for ten weeks of
therapy. The research also includes an account of self-journeying experiences with a
transpersonal narrative, because Gülen’s Sufism texts are complex and complicated and difficult
to understand, and need to be simplified to extract useful techniques for psychotherapy. My
interpretation of Gülen’s Sufi writings includes the use of poetry as a social innovation method
and mindfulness. My contribution is conveyed in the form of auto-ethnographic research, making
use of my poetical writings as a reflexive analysis. The mindfulness therapies, although not
culture-free, seem particularly appropriate for a connection with Gülen’s open and tolerant
philosophy.
Sufi therapy is a prominent spiritual tradition, enhancing the socio-psychological well-
being of a large number of people not only in Islam, but also Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism,
Hinduism and many other belief systems. However, the divine creating “a mind/body/spirit
holism is often not mentioned in clinical psychology” in the West (James & Prillentensky 2002,
390
p. 1148). Sufi orientations and practices provide freedom from the self and the ego. Sufi therapy
has been gaining in popularity and acceptance within the mental health services, offering
alternative healing methods and extending the range of therapeutic interventions in social work
practice.
Sufi therapy is different from westernized therapies because it is “being in tune with the
client’s spiritual dimension and encouraging healing of the body, mind and spirit concomitantly”
(Shatii, 1989, p. 157). Humanitarian Sufism is a manifestation of ‘collective consciousness’
which acts as the bridge between ‘personal spirituality’ and ‘collective personal spirituality.’ It
comes into existence by internalizing within the Sufism culture of tolerant and humanitarian love
(Kim, 2008, p. 364). It is comparable to different heart-based methods and therapeutic
treatments. In this research, I focus on the importance and meaning of spirituality for individuals
seeking a form of help that is transpersonal, trans-human, and centered in the universe, that is, a
therapy for people who want to discover love and acceptance rather than relief from fear and
oppression.
Examining Gülen’s action-oriented Sufi therapy provides a heart-based intervention
through true self-purification and mindfulness-related transpersonal methods, which in turn
generates a form of treatment based on culturally-sensitive methods of healing. Spiritual teaching
as an Eastern therapy model has already found its place in the curriculum of many medical
schools in the Western world (Sims 1994, Puchaski, 2001, p. 4-5). Sufi therapy provides a
significant approach to social work, because Sufism offers collected wisdom transmitted down
through the centuries, by which a person can proceed towards a transformed mentality, deeper
love, more positive character traits and courage in order to work for the improvement of society
(Michel, 2005, p. 347).
391
As an Islamic science and social work, Sufism concentrates on the heart, but also respects
the body and mind. For Sufis, the heart is the source of human truth as it is the centre for all
emotions, intellectual and spiritual faculties. Spiritual health of the heart is vital for the health of
the whole body and that is the basis of the heart-based Sufi therapy. The Sufi therapy composes a
perfect individual in the crucible of striving, and such a striving is based on controlling carnal
desires and impulses. The self needs to possess an operative mechanism of conscience. As
human beings, our existence is beyond the limits of this body, and the reality of all our
existences and bodies is in fact a shadow. Humans have become different from animals through
reason, heart, light, and inner senses. Sufi poetry, music and dance have long been used for
mental health intervention in order to heal and cure people who are experiencing anxiety,
depression and stress (Mirdal, 2012, p. 1008).
Unfortunately, there is no unified theory as yet, since ‘transpersonal’ is an umbrella term,
covering a multitude of theories, and debates about them continue. Transpersonal social work
literature is a newly developing area (Canda & Furman, 1999b). Transpersonal content refers to
any experience in which an individual transcends the limitations of identifying exclusively with
the ego or personality and captures the heart of truth (Vaughan, 1979, p. 104).
Transpersonal content encompasses the discussion of ‘paranormal’ and/or spiritual
phenomena (Boorstein, 1986, p. 123). Transpersonal spirituality is based on a “developmental
perspective that acknowledges access to ‘higher’ levels of being, that is, to the ‘unitive self or
Real Self’ beyond the personal” that is the metaphysical and transcendent person (Cowley, 1993,
p.527). Existential theory, for example, focuses on meaning-making, and it operates from a
perspective that emphasizes that authentic meaning comes from personal experiences of a
transpersonal or sacred nature (Canda, 2006). Transpersonal Psychodynamic Theories look at
392
psychotherapy as healing for the soul (Cowley, 1993). Carl Jung’s version explains the
categories of preconscious, personal unconscious, and collective unconscious as universal
potentials for meaning which he terms “archetypes” and synchronicity (Canda & Furman, 1999a,
Canda & Smith 2001). Roberto Assagioli invokes misidentification with the sub-personalities of
the lower unconscious and making contact with the higher conscious—that so-called
“Transpersonal Self” (Assagioli, 1973, 1993, Robbins et al, 2006). Then there is Abraham
Maslow, who developed the theory of Self-Actualization and Self-Transcendence based on the
notion of living with dignity and worth, rather than living based on principles of
acquisitiveness/materialism (Cowley, 1993). Carl Jung writes in Modern Man in Search of a
Soul that it was our spiritual needs that led to the discovery of psychology in our time (Jung,
1955). Social work’s access to credible spiritual exploration is being made much easier by the
work of pioneers in many fields of inquiry (Mckernan, 2004). Social work can utilize the
techniques of many spiritual traditions, which offer practices for cultivation of greater maturity
of self-management or mindfulness, thus enabling individuals to become more fully present to
others and ourselves. This can be a powerful social work tool. This point is echoed in the
research on therapy effectiveness (Lebow, 2001).
Transpersonalism provides an opportunity to enhance the worker's ability to respect and
honour client self-determination, facilitate bio-psycho-social-spiritual growth and development,
and empower even the most vulnerable in our society (Cowley, 1996). It is a method inclusive
of all spiritual traditions and is holistic, and is one which seeks to effect structural change by
focusing on expanding individual, group, and societal consciousness to transcend the paradigm
of modernity in order to attain non-dualism, oneness, and interconnectedness. Challenges to
dualistic thinking mean that the personal and the political are similar to feminist formulations,
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and are inextricably interconnected, rather than being seen as juxtaposed. Personal experience is
validated and behaviour is legitimized rather than being pathologized. Social worker and client,
as seekers, are empowered through a process of growth and development through mutual self-
knowledge, self-care, and self-validation (Cowley, 1993, 1996). A transpersonal approach to
client care encompasses realms of expanding consciousness, unitive social and spiritual
connectedness, and human purpose and potentiality.
A holistic model of practice is more comprehensive with the incorporation of the
“phenomenological, the intuitive and the transpersonal” (Cowley, 1996, p. 668). A transpersonal
approach affords the worker added context, content, and processes for addressing environmental,
societal, and cultural stressors, non-pathologic transnational phenomena, and the grief associated
with human existential suffering. Spiritual seeking is a valid and healthy human urge (Rowan,
1993, Cowley, 1993, Canda & Furman, 1999). Personal or personality development, in a
psychotherapeutic context, is explained in terms of the “three forces” theory (Cowley, 1996).
The First Force is psychoanalytic, the Second Force is behavioral, and the Third Force is
humanistic. The First Force deals with unconscious drives and impulses mainly from a
pathological viewpoint. The Second Force, with its empirical focus, speaks to the process of
socialization and learning theory. The Third Force is associated with humanistic, experiential and
existential theory. Often associated with Abraham Maslow, Third Force self-actualization forms
the philosophical basis for a further Fourth Force of psychology which Maslow describes
(Cowley, 1996, p. 667).
Buddhism-based Sufi therapy models use a heart-based positive mind system of wisdom,
mindfulness and compassion similar to the Islam-based Sufi model; however, they are not
exactly the same. Several therapeutic approaches based on mindfulness have developed, e.g.,
394
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (Kabat-Zinn, 1990), Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy
(Segal et al., 2002), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (Linehan, 1993, 1994) and Acceptance and
Commitment Therapy (Hayes et al., 1999). Sufi therapy is similar but not the same as Yoga
therapy, and the Sufi mindfulness method is more connected to MBCT and ACT. It is similar,
but not the same as a manualized group skills-training program (Segal et al., 2002). It is based on
an integration of aspects of CBT for depression (Beck et al., 1979) along with those components
of the MBSR program developed by Kabat-Zinn (1990) which are applicable to Sufi therapy. It
is designed to teach patients in remission from major depression seven Sufi concepts of
categories and forty rules of Sufi teachings in order that they might become more aware of, and
relate differently to, their thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. For example, they will relate
to thoughts and feelings as passing events in the mind, rather than identifying with them or
treating them as necessarily accurate readouts on reality. The program teaches skills that allow
individuals to disengage from habitual (“automatic”) cognitive routines, in particular depression-
related ruminative thought patterns, as a way of reducing future risk of relapse and recurrence of
depression. It is the invention of a new Sufi model targeting greater connection with the spirit,
the mind and the heart, and connecting all of these for the unity and discovery of seven levels of
souls in the self.
Sufi therapy, in conjunction with MBCT and ACT, may be a cost-efficient and
efficacious intervention to reduce stress, depression, anxiety and relapse/recurrence in patients
with recurrent major depressive disorder. Sufi therapy, ACT and MBCT are all most effective in
preventing current/relapse/recurrence unrelated to environmental provocation. This finding is
consistent with Sufi therapy: increased mindfulness is relevant to the prevention of the
relapse/recurrence of depression, as it allows early detection of relapse-related patterns of
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negative thinking, feelings, and body sensations, and is provided through a 10-week phase of
Sufi therapy.
This paradigm conceptualizes the healthy person as an individual who can pilot his or her
own existential fate in the here-and-now, and who has far greater self-regulatory control over his
or her own body, mind, soul and heart than heretofore imagined. Concomitant with this new
paradigm is an attempt to develop and improve techniques by which people can self-observe
their behavior, change it (if desired), and then continually modify and monitor it according to
their needs. In order to acquire knowledge, mind uses two main methods in Islam. In its first
method, mind progresses gradually, acts slowly, and finishes its duty over a relatively long
period of time.
This method is named tefekkur (reflection). In the second method, mind leaves aside the
concept of time and reaches its aim in its first and sudden attempt. This second method is called
hads (intuition). The Sufi can reach the level of intuition either after intense effort or long
experiences. For Gülen, a Sufi must reach certainty, which is a level of assurance that is beyond
the point that can be reached after using all of the sources of knowledge, including every way of
disclosure and self-supervision. Therefore, even the least degree of certainty can fully enlighten
the heart, clean it of the “dirt” of doubts, and give joy and satisfaction (Gülen, 2006, p. 173).
Of course, depression is a major public health problem, in part because, like other chronic
conditions it tends to run a relapsing course (Judd, 1997; Keller et al., 1984). Without treatment,
people suffering recurrent depression experience relapse at rates as high as 80 percent (Frank et
al., 1990; Kupfer et al., 1992; Prien & Kupfer, 1986). Sufi therapy is related to MBCT and ACT
models which were themselves derived from a model of cognitive vulnerability to depressive
relapse that assumed that individuals who have previously experienced episodes of major
396
depression differ from those who have not, in terms of the patterns of negative thinking that
become activated in a mildly depressed mood (Segal, Williams, Teasdale, & Gemar, 1996;
Teasdale, 1988; Teasdale, Segal, & Williams, 1995). Specifically, it is assumed that in recovered
depressed patients, compared with never-depressed controls, dysphoria is more likely to activate
patterns of self-devaluative depressogenic thinking, similar to those that prevailed in preceding
episodes. Considerable evidence supports this assumption (Ingram, Miranda, & Segal, 1998;
Segal, Gemar, & Williams, 1999).
I suggest that depression, anxiety and stress can be healed by self-acceptance and keeping
the focus always on what is good for patients. Repeated associations between a depressed mood
and negative thinking patterns during successive episodes of major depression increase the
tendency for “depressogenic thinking” to be reactivated subsequently by a depressed mood
(Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002). This provides an explanation for the findings that risk of
further episodes increases with every consecutive episode, and that successive episodes of major
depression require less and less external provocation by stressful life events (Kendler, Thornton,
& Gardner, 2000; Lewinsohn, Allen, Seeley, & Gotlib, 1999; Post, 1992).
This is an ancient spiritual tradition of learning how to know your heart and to act, a
discipline that adjusts to the needs of the individual, the time and the place. Sufi practices are
applicable to daily modern life regardless of one’s spiritual direction and fit in with modernity,
according to Gülen’s wisdom (Ladinsky & Ansari, 2012). Sufis look in their heart and share
qualities like humility, asceticism, pietism and dedication to good deeds and Gülen utilizes this
religious language well in shaping the hearts and minds of his students along these lines. The
intention is not to turn them into religious zealots, but into social workers who strive for the
betterment of humanity in general. He describes his students as dervishes, angels, philosophers,
397
ascetics, holy mentors healers and similar and the altruistic Companions of the Islamic Golden
Age (Gülen, 2009, p. 12).
This is an ancient spiritual tradition of learning how to know your heart and to act, a
discipline that adjusts to the needs of the individual, the time and the place. Sufi practices are
applicable to daily modern life regardless of one’s spiritual direction and fit in with modernity,
according to Gülen’s wisdom (Ladinsky & Ansari, 2012). Canadian legislation and policies
could be changed to offer Sufi assessment where counselors, social workers are dealing with
clients. I suggest the potential assessment model to address one of the lacks of educational
curricula in in social work practice.
The Sufi Assessment

The assessment of Sufi beliefs and practices has to be tailored to the individual patient. The
assessment may best be deferred in an acutely-ill patient unless Sufi concerns contribute to the
acute condition. As a routine, a brief assessment may be followed by a more thorough one on an
as needed basis. Several brief assessment methods have been proposed for the assessment of
spirituality in general that may help screen the patients for further in-depth assessment (Koenig
& Pritchett, 1998, p.323). The four spiritual areas suggested by Koenig and Pritchett to be
screened in any psychiatric evaluation seem a good starting point, but need to be modified for
assessment of Sufi beliefs and practices. The initial assessment should include:
1. Faith: What is the importance of faith in day-to-day life? An increasing number of people
from different religious faiths, besides Islam, are following Sufi beliefs and practices and
hence considerable admixtures of beliefs and practices should be expected.
398
2. Influence: What is the influence of faith on life, past and present? The Sufi practices of
self-mortification may, apart from influencing the belief system, lead to significant
changes in the practical life, which needs to be understood in proper perspective.
3. Community: Are there affiliations with any religious or spiritual community? Almost all
Sufi believers belong to one or other lineage (silsila) which may significantly differ in
terms of beliefs and practices from one another. An exploration of the lineage would
provide a framework to understand a particular individual's view point vis-à-vis health
and illness.
4. Address: Are there spiritual needs to be addressed? The Sufi teacher with whom the
given individual has held the oath of allegiance may need to be incorporated in the
treatment plan to fulfill the spiritual needs.
5. An in-depth interview, from a clinical as well as a spiritual perspective, may follow this
depending upon the needs of the patient as uncovered during the screening (Josephson &
Peteet, 2004, pp. 15-17).
After an initial individual orientation session, the Sufi therapy program must be delivered
by an instructor, or a guide, in ten weekly sessions at the beginner level, involving two hour
group-training sessions with up to 10-12 depressed patients. During that period, the program
includes daily homework exercises, prayers, and meditation as dhikr. Homework invariably
includes some form of guided (taped) or unguided awareness exercises directed at increasing
moment-by-moment non-judgmental awareness of bodily sensations, thoughts, and feelings,
together with exercises designed to integrate application of awareness skills into daily life for
self-control, self-purification and self-realization (Teasdale & Ma, 2004).
Spiritually augmented cognitive behavior therapy is primarily a cognitive behavior
399
therapy which incorporates the individual's belief system, specifically the spiritual, to focus on
the existential issues. The therapist works with the individual's spiritual beliefs and practices
such as meditation, prayer, etc., but at no point attempts to instill his own beliefs or any beliefs
not held by the patient into the therapeutic process. The therapy spans ten sessions, each session
lasting 120 minutes, conducted once a week. The therapy could be demonstrated for its efficacy
in controlled trials with “reduction of relapse and re-hospitalization” in the treatment group
(D’Souza, 2009, p. 517).
In conclusion, I suggest that the processes mediating against depression, anxiety, stress,
relapse/recurrence become more autonomous with repeated experiences of depression. If a
transcendent person can learn to be aware of negative thinking patterns reactivated during
dysphoria and disengage from those ruminative depressive cycles (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991), then
Sufi therapy can change negative to positive thinking patterns (Nurbakhsh, 1992). I have
proposed a Sufi therapy that is designed to achieve these aims with the Emergent Spiritual
Practice. This Sufi model demonstrates how the Sufi path benefits therapeutic practice in social
work. I have intended to deconstruct, decolonize, reframe and clarify the role of the spiritual
physician in Sufi culture, and promote a wisdom-based individual culture where human rights
are very strong, and which is thus suitable for Western democracies. The heart plays an essential
role in self-purification and understanding others. I focus instead on the holistic Sufi therapy
healing model, because it is important for newcomers to a country to adapt to the structures and
order of that country‘s social, economic, political and cultural landscape. This new model may
have significant impact on the struggles of multicultural communities, thereby also having an
effect on mental health intervention, and on reshaping current healing techniques. Introducing
concepts, images and metaphors based on Gülen’s universal concepts and key principles could
400
constitute a meaningful alternative to mindfulness-based therapy—his Acceptance Commitment
therapy-inspired practice in trans-cultural psychotherapy in mental health. Spiritual psychology
should be married with social work education in Canada and legislation and polices must be
changed accordingly sooner or later. There are numerous texts, articles and models which could
be integrated into the current curricula as supplementary texts in transpersonal or spiritual
psychology for undergraduate and graduate studies which I used as references both for this essay
and when I was writing a heart-based Sufi mindfulness therapy model as my thesis.
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The Assertive Community Treatment Team (ACTT) and Ethical Dilemmas
By Faruk Arslan
SK632 C
Winter 2014
Faruk Arslan
407
Mental health legislation in Canada is complex and the focus has shifted from a base in
family care to a base in institutions, and then again to the current focus on a community base.
However, it is not clear that current strategies for community-based care will meet Canadian
needs (Regehr & Glancy , 2010, p.34). The Assertive Community Treatment Team (ACTT)
provides intensive support services for individuals with serious mental illness who have very
complex needs, and who find it difficult to engage with other mental health services. The main
goal is to support these individuals in their recovery and their desire to live in the community,
and to offer less restrictive intervention while they are living in the community rather than in
institutions. Integral to mental health reform in Ontario has been the funding of many Assertive
Community Treatment (ACT) teams across the province, however the question has now arisen
whether, since 1999, “ethical practice is possible under conditions of legislated coercion”?
(Everett, 2001, p. 5).
The recent implementation of community treatment orders (CTOs) is designed to achieve

five main goals, namely preventing and reducing hospitalization, homelessness, relapses,
violence and victimization. Unfortunately, the structure of the ACT service delivery model may
lead to client disempowerment, social exclusion and violation of some human rights. The Huron
Perth Assertive Community Treatment Team provides long-term treatment for individuals 16-50
years of age, seven days a week, in the client’s home and community, focusing on relapse
prevention, medication monitoring, psychiatric consultation and goal-specific treatment by a
multidisciplinary team. There were several difficulties captured during the daily rounds meeting
with staff at the program and in discussion with the team leader, who was able to provide
information regarding the way the team fits in the mental health system, the program’s
philosophy, how the program is evaluated, and the perspective of service users/clients about the
program. In this paper, I will critically analyze the ACT program, because the system needs to
be transformed using the transformative power model, rather than coercive power, thereby
moving towards a more egalitarian and voluntary partnership system based on a better recovery
model. It could turn into something more consistently collaborative, and become an effective
way of enabling clients through three common techniques and concepts: empowerment, social
inclusion and self-determination.
First of all, the stigma surrounding mental illness is a barrier to treatment, as are “poor
management of chronic illness and needless waits and delays” (Rachlis, 2004, p. 58). The fight
against this stigma must include well-developed long-term specific and comprehensive plans.
Scientific research can best define the targets of anti-stigma work, and mental health
professionals should lead anti-stigma programs, because community care for the mentally ill
requires destigmatized mental illness and psychiatry (Heather & Norman , 2012). CTOs are
generally applied to mental health service users who lack capacity and are a risk to others, but
who may be able to live in the community under controlled circumstances (Campbell al other,
2006, p. 1104). Some academics and service providers have suggested that CTOs are useless
and, at worst, are harmful. Everett (2006) introduced three practice approaches to reduce
coercion, “all underscored by transformative power—liberation tactics, proactive contracting,
and procedural justice” (Everett, 2001, p. 17). Ontario is one of the few provinces that has
implemented community treatment orders (Gray & O’Reilly, 2005) and with this treatment
offers 365 day support to the SMI population. CTOs are designated to treat involuntary patients,
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for whom ethical dilemmas surrounding the use of power to mandate psychiatric treatment have
been issues since 1999 (Mfoafo-M’Carthy & William, 2010, p.69).
The social determinants of the mental health approach led to the creation of the ACTT, which is
a multidisciplinary team, consisting of a psychiatrist, nurses, social workers, and rehabilitation
specialists etc.. It has a small client to staff ratio, because the primary philosophy of the team
targets offering help with the most services and requiring the minimum referrals compared with
other mental health programs or providers. The ACT team members share offices and their roles
are interchangeable when providing services, thereby ensuring that services are not disrupted due
to staff absences or turnover. ACT teams rotate staff to cover 12-hour shifts; they provide their
own on-call backup and will go out to see clients face-to-face as necessary, but the staff only
work Monday through Friday nine-to-nine, with telephone crisis or emergency room coverage
for the rest of the hours. Referrals may be made by the individuals themselves, or by their family
members, friends, caregivers, health care providers, physicians, or community agencies, but
there is two year waiting list to enrol in the program in the Huron Perth area due to limited
available places. Only one psychiatrist is assigned to all 185 registered patients in the Huron
Perth area, with practices and services for the outpatient unit located in the Special Services Unit
in Stratford General Hospital. This ACTT was funded by hospital management of HPHA, and
was only able to hire one team of 11 employees, including a social worker, nurses, a vocational
specialist, occupational therapist, psychiatrist, peer support worker, and an addictions specialist
who covers both the south and north Huron Perth areas. While witnessing the rounds, I saw the
team shared their opinions about patients very openly and decided together which clients need
help urgently or within a short period of time. The manager creates a schedule on the computer
system, and each member writes up their notes after each client meetings, and can easily follow
up all team members’ activities based on their writings. There are two main offices available:
one of them is in Stratford General Hospital HPHA in the Special Services Unit, and other at
Seaforth Community Hospital HPHA in the Seaforth Health and Wellness Centre. The team
members meet with each other every morning through a digital camera system and talk through
every single detail within their two-hour-long rounds. This daily organizational staff meeting is
regularly scheduled by the team coordinator. There are regular meetings with individual staff
members to review their work with clients, assess clinical performance, and give feedback,
regular reviews, critiques, and feedback on staff documentation. My first impression was that is
less constrictive and formal than normal hospital rounds; the team members were making jokes
and had a warm and friendly relationship with each other. Discovering that ACT programs are
freestanding outreach programs that are complex to operate, and because the staff work as a team
and services are integrated, agency standards alone are not sufficient. The manager has an
important role to fill the gaps and complete missing elements.
In fact, the Manager of the Assertive Community Treatment Team (ACTT) sees all new referrals
and follows the procedures of the standards of the ACT and obeys the OCSWSSW (2000).
Ontario’s first edition of the ACT Program Standards was published in 1998. This updated
edition builds upon the work of Deborah Allness, M.S.S.W. and William Knoedler, M.D., who
wrote The National Program Standards for ACT Teams, published in 2003 ( ACT, 2005). They
provide psychiatric treatment, administer and monitor medications, help individuals to access
community services, and assist individuals in their activities of daily living. Support is provided
as frequently as required, and a 24-hour on-call system is available. Based on their client’s
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request, the manager can arrange a meeting with the psychiatrist within three days. I found this
an extraordinary privilege and a very effective way of resolving any current problem before it
becomes complicated. Interestingly, services are provided within community settings, such as a
person's own home and neighborhood, local restaurants, parks and nearby stores. There is no
magic wand; it is not easy to promote treatment plans since “clients may reject treatment plans,
even when they are offered repeatedly and take preferences into account” (Everett, 2001, p.11).
The manager mentioned that “Many clients are having bad experiences in hospital settings; they
are less connected to the community resources and suspicious about everything and about
everyone’s words and behaviours. Meeting with them in community makes them more
comfortable, transparent and confident.” Intervention may involve coercive power, but the
model can be liberated to use transformative power and keep the ACTT in the system, if team
members are better trained. Mfoafo-M’Carthy and William (2010) say that suggesting “CTOs
are exceptionally coercive is not the same as suggesting they should not be part of the
community mental health care system” (Mfoafo-M’Carthy &William, 2010, p. 75).
I wondered who the lucky 185 patients were, how individuals were selected to register
and how and why certain mental illness patients, both voluntary and involuntary, receive follow-
up. Mfoafo-M’Carthy and Shera (2012) claimed that CTOs should be a voluntary contractually-
based community treatment option of last resort (Mfoafo-M’Carthy & Shera, 2012, p. 76). ACT
was once considered the service of last resort, and admission criteria ensure that the ACT
program serves the intended client group. The manager indicated that “there are more than 185
patients who need our treatment. Involuntary contracts and orders are necessary in the family
structure, voluntary options are not realistic for some cases.” Patients must be 16 years of age
and older, and for those 50 years of age and older, a different team, the Senior Health Team,
follows the patients if it is necessary. The selection process focuses on individuals with a primary
diagnosis of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression, and those who have had recent
psychiatric hospital admissions and who have high service needs. The first interview to begin
this assessment should take place within 72 hours of admission. The ACCT serves clients only if
they are already diagnosed with serious and persistent mental illness or personality disorders, and
with severe functional impairments, who have avoided or not responded well to traditional
outpatient mental health care and psychiatric rehabilitation services. Persons served by ACT
often have co-existing problems such as homelessness, substance abuse problems, or
involvement with the judicial system. All ACT teams are encouraged to admit clients who meet
ACT admission criteria and have had involvement with the criminal justice system at all levels,
for instance, clients who have been diverted, clients on probation or parole, or clients of the
Ontario Review Board, following the DSM Fifth Edition (2013). Each part of the client
assessment is completed by the ACT team member most skilled and knowledgeable in the area
being assessed. A team member with training and interest in the area does each part and becomes
the specialist in that particular area with the client. The assessment is based upon all available
information, including that from the client interview/self-report, family members and other
significant parties, and written summaries from other agencies, including police, courts, and out-
patient/in-patient facilities, where applicable. Consent to the collection, use and disclosure of this
information must be obtained if consent is required. The manager defended the fact that “This is
an evidence-based practice, but ACT has been using an empowerment model which enforces us
to make a more healthy connection as a model of social inclusion, and encourages client to have
more self-esteem. Of course there are still some problems in that some ACT members sometimes
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don’t know what to do because of their less intrusive roles and the lack of skills.” However, the
manager doesn’t want to accept that the ACT model still follows old medical model rules and
uses coercive power in that it offers limited roles for clients. The manager also didn’t accept
that clients have fewer options for decision-making and take an inactive role during their
treatment and intervention. Rather he claimed that they are given more of a voice because of the
ACT principles employed.
As a matter of fact, ACT principles, treatment plans, developed with the client, are based on
individual strengths and needs, hopes and desires. It looks like it is embracing an empowerment
recovery model. The purpose is to effectively plan with the client and family the best treatment
approach to eliminate or reduce the symptomatology and to ensure accuracy of the diagnosis.
The psychiatrist, in carrying out the psychiatric history, mental status, and diagnosis assessment,
writes a psychiatric history narrative of the client’s medical record. The plans are modified as
needed through an ongoing assessment and goal-setting process. An assertive approach is the
main tool that ACT team members use in being pro-active with clients, assisting them to
participate in and continue treatment, live independently, and recover from the disability of
mental illnesses. ACT services are intended to be long-term, due to the severe impairments often
associated with serious and persistent mental illness. The process of recovery often takes many
years. For example, the manager provided the following case study: “One of my clients has been
in this service over 10 years. She attempted suicide many times, and is now back to her
education after taking her medication and accepting her treatment plan. We do have some
conflict with her family relationships, her mother is never satisfied with her recovery level and
always forces her to have more. The client decides what she wants. I gained her trust after a long
time, collaborated in her treatment together with her family members and established a hope
about her dream after cooperating with her.”
The ACCT captures every aspect of the client’s life, by making the activities of daily living
assessment which evaluates the individual’s current ability to meet basic needs (e.g., personal
hygiene, adequate nutrition, medical care); the quality and safety of the client’s financial
resources; the effect that symptoms and impairments of mental illness have had on self-care; the
client’s ability to maintain an independent living situation; and the client’s desires and individual
preferences. This allows the ACT team to determine the level of assistance, support, and
resources the client needs to re-establish and maintain activities of daily living. Good activities
of daily living (ADL) functioning is basic to successful community adjustment for persons with
serious mental illness. Consistent assistance to meet ADL needs help clients to feel better and
less vulnerable living in the community. The team encourages all clients to participate in
community employment and provides many vocational rehabilitation services directly. Most
patients have problems with illegal or legal drugs, and so the team coordinates reaching
substance abuse services and providing such services after making an agreement with the client,
and their medications are managed by their psychiatrist. The purpose of the use of drugs or
alcohol assessment is to collect information to assess and diagnose if the client has a substance
abuse disorder and to develop appropriate treatment interventions to be integrated into the
comprehensive treatment plan. However, all these assessments use coercive power intentionally
or unintentionally, and ACTT members have to struggle to maintain a power balance.
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On the other hand, family support and education are two key components for successful
treatment as a result of social inclusion. The psychiatric history, mental status, and diagnosis
assessment involves careful and systematic collection of information from the client, the family,
and past treatment records regarding the onset, precipitating events, course and effect of illness,
including past treatment and treatment responses, risk behaviours, recent life events and current
mental status. The team works with clients and their family members very openly to become
collaborative partners in the treatment process. Clients are taught about mental illness and the
skills needed to better manage their illnesses and their lives. With the active involvement of the
client, ACT staff work to include the client's natural support systems, such as their safety family
network, which includes significant others in treatment, educating them and including them as
part of the ACT services. The manager states that, “It is often necessary to help improve family
relationships in order to reduce conflicts and increase client autonomy.” ACT staff help clients
become less socially isolated and more integrated into the community by encouraging
participation in community activities and membership in organizations of their choice. One small
step makes a big difference. The manager gave one example: “It took three months to get one
client to accept going outside his home to use the community swimming program. He was stuck,
bored and living in a virtual space.”
In addition, the ACT team provides health education, access, and coordination of health care
services. Employment is very important to people with mental illness and is a normalizing
structure that is helpful in symptom management. The ACT excludes no one because of a poor
work history or because of ongoing symptoms or impairments related to mental illness. The
purpose of the education and employment assessment is to determine the following with the
client: how he or she is currently structuring time; current school or employment status; interests
and preferences regarding school and employment; and how symptomatology has affected
previous and current school and employment performance. This assessment begins the working
relationship between the client and the vocational specialist to establish educational and
vocational goals. The object of the social development and functional assessment is to obtain
information from the client about his or her childhood, early attachments, role in family of
origin, adolescent and young adult development, culture, religious beliefs, leisure activities,
interests, and social skills. The manager said that “self-determination is our code of ethic” in
terms of respecting freedom of individual choice and that’s why each discharge is carefully and
well-evaluated, otherwise clients will suffer in the community if they have been inappropriately
discharged. Monitoring discharges is a critical program evaluation activity. The ACT is a
service model that has demonstrated that when services for persons with longer-term episodic
disorders are delivered in a continuous rather than time-limited framework, relapse can be
addressed and treatment gains maintained and improved upon. The manager explained that
“clients should not be forced out of the program prematurely.” In appropriate circumstances,
clients may transition to less intensive services, but arrangements must be made to maintain
contact with the client until the transfer is complete. Discharges may occur when clients and
program staff mutually agree to the termination of services. All too often clients are not
discharged for reasons of recovery or goal achievement, but are dropped due to conflicts with
staff or because the complexity of the problems and issues require too much staff time. In
circumstances when a client wants to “fire” the ACT team, it is important that the ACT team be
willing to listen and to accommodate the client’s wishes/preferences regarding services. If the
client still requests discharge, their request must be honoured. The client should be given all
412
necessary help to arrange alternative services and should be given priority for readmission to
ACT if they so choose. This appears to be a matter for their own self-determination.
In conclusion, ACT team members have no power to change the system, but share and obey
generic case management roles, including medication management, symptom management, crisis
intervention, housing support, financial management, and substance abuse counselling. Many
scholars agree that social workers’ roles and responsibilities need to be more explicitly identified
in mental health law and coercive power and ethical dilemma relationships must be confronted in
practice (Campbell al other, 2006, p. 1101). The ACTT needs one or more mental health
professionals with training and experience in social work. Social workers lead the team in the
engagement and partnership with family members of clients and/or their natural supports in the
treatment/service planning process and in individual and/or multiple family support and therapy.
Social workers may also provide leadership to the team with respect to entitlements, advocacy
and working with the governmental system. Social work administrators can help create a
positive climate that supports client involvement in decision making (Linhorst al other, 2005,
p.28). The ACT client-centred approach to individualized services may be easy for mental health
professionals to accept philosophically, but it is often harder for them to grasp conceptually and
put into practice. There is probably a better process for building a working relationship with
clients and their families and for strategizing more effective interventions with transformative,
egalitarian, sharing, liberating power rather than coercive intervention, in order to get better ACT
comprehensive assessment and individualized treatment/service planning.
References
Campbell, J., Brophy, L., Healy, B., O’Brien, A-M. (2006). International perspectives on the use
of community treatment orders: implications for mental health social workers. British Journal of
Social Work, 36: 1101-1118.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) Fifth Edition (Revised) (2013).
American Psychiatric Association
Everett, B (2001). Community Treatment Orders: Ethical Practice in an Era of Magical

Thinking. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health pp. 5-20.
Heather Stuart, Julio Arboleda-Florez, Norman Sartorius (2012). Paradigms Lost: Fighting
Stigma and the Lessons Learned. Oxford University Press
Grey, J. and O’Reilly, R. (2005) ‘Canadian compulsory community treatment laws: Recent
reforms’, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 28, pp. 13–22.
Lindhorst, D. M., Eckert, A., & Hamilton, G. (2005). Promoting participation in organizational
decision making by clients with severe mental illness. Social Work, 50(1), 21-30.
413
Mfoafo-M’Carthy, M. & Williams, C. C. (2010). Coercion and Community Treatment Orders:
One Step forward, two steps back? Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, Vol. 29, No.
1
Mfoafo-M’Carthy, M., & Shera, W. (2013). Beyond Community Treatment Orders: Empowering
clients to achieve community integration. International Journal of Mental Health, 41(4), 62-81.
Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers (2000) Code of Ethics Standards
of Practice Handbook, Ontario, OCSWSSW.
Outpatient Mental Health Services (2005). Ontario Program Standards
for ACT Teams Second Edition, October 2004 Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
Updated January 2005. Retrieved Feebruary 11, 2014 from the World Wide
Web: http://www.hpha.ca/Default.aspx?cid=114&lang=1
Rachlis, M. (2004). Prescription for Excellence: How Innovation is Saving Canada’s Health Care
System, Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. Retrieved February 11, 2014 from the World
Wide Web: www.michaelrachlis.com
SK632 C
Winter 2014
Time: Tuesdays: 1:30-4:20 p.m
E-mail: mmfoafomcarthy@wlu.ca
Office: FSW -407
Phone Number: (519) 884-0710 x 5238

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Office Hours: Tuesdays: 12:00 -1:00 or by appointment
Administrative Assistant: Zaida Leon
Rationale for the Course:
Social workers play significant roles in assisting individuals and their families adapt to and
overcome challenges associated with physical and mental illness. As members of inter-
professional health teams, they provide assistance to individuals in understanding the social and
community context in which physical and mental illness occur and the way in which these
systems contribute to the development of illness and aggravate or ameliorate the challenges in
adapting to illness. The role of the social worker is to help change the social environment in
order to enhance the potential to support individuals with varying needs and abilities. As experts
in family processes, social workers assist families to deal with issues of grief and loss associated
with illness and to develop creative ways to manage change and support ill family members. In
addition, social workers assist individuals who are experiencing physical and mental health
problems to evaluate the challenges they face and the opportunities available to them and to
facilitate the processes of making choices and dealing with adversity. Within this context of
practice, social work research in mental health and health covers a wide range of areas from the
implications of social policy on health and well-being, to factors that are protective or that
increase vulnerability to illness, to the impact of specific intervention strategies on individual and
family adaptation.
Course Description
The focus of this course will be to provide a critical perspective on issues and best practices in
the fields of health and mental health. Current issues and best practices include dominant and
critical perspectives on issues such as deinstitutionalization, social work and the DSM, and
evidence-based practices in mental health, as well as alternative discourses such as consumer-
based movements, the recovery model of mental health and peer mentorship initiatives.
Course Objectives
The course will prepare students for critical mental health practice and students will develop
knowledge and competencies in the following areas:
• The critical role of social work in mental health services

• The historical and current trends and contexts of mental health practice.
• The use and misuse of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
• Social work assessment in mental health.
• Evidence-based practice in mental health.
• Alternative discourses and consumer movements in mental health practice.
415
• To critically examine and dissect the current mental health policy and proposals for
reform and gain an appreciation for some of the knowledge that can be used to develop
more effective systems of care for persons with mental illness.
• To acquire an appreciation of the professional context of practice in health and mental
health, including institutional and community based services; interdisciplinary
collaboration and principles for ethical practice.
• To understand various approaches to, and interpretations of mental health that are
influenced by race, culture, class, gender and abilities.
• To develop skills in assessing the nature and consequences of various health and mental
health problems and strategies for intervention.
• To acquire an understanding and appreciation for the history of professional practice and
policy in mental health and health in Canada.
Student Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of the specialization in mental health and health students would have gained
knowledge and developed skills in the following major areas:
a) Knowledge of key legislation, current and emerging policies, and structure and
organization of major social welfare programs in the fields of health mental health.
b) Knowledge and skills for the development of relevant and effective programs and
mental health and health service systems.
c) To understand and develop appropriate policies and services for special population
groups, women, and various ethno-cultural populations encountered in their practice.
d) An understanding of the ethical and value issues which are frequently encountered
in the field of mental health and health.
e) Knowledge and skills for effective interdisciplinary collaboration.
f) Knowledge and skills to assess the impact of health and mental health problems on
individuals and their families
g) Knowledge and skills to implement effective interventions at the individual,

familial, group, community and policy levels to assist those suffering from mental health and
health problems
h) The ability to seek out and understand contemporary research findings of relevance
to social work practice in the fields of mental health and health.
i) Have knowledge and skills for the evaluation of their practice and the evaluation of
programs in mental health and health.
Educational Philosophy
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The school of social work believes in an educational approach that fosters a positive working
partnership between the instructor and students. Based on principles of adult learning, the class
will be taught using a wide variety of instructional methods including lectures, case studies,
videos, class discussions, student presentations and guest speakers. The students will be
encouraged to share resources, identify ideas for learning experiences and discuss their
experiences in the fields of mental health and health.
Learning Environment:
It is our responsibility, as professional social workers, to treat one another with respect and to
conduct ourselves professionally within and outside the classroom. As professionals, we must
respect others’ views even if we are not in agreement with their viewpoint. It must be noted that
having core values challenged, even respectfully, can be an unsettling experience, but this is an
inevitable aspect of learning. Hence, we must challenge the ideas people present, rather than
attack the person who presents them. Mutual respect and consideration for others and our ideas
form the basis for fostering a positive classroom environment. However, we must ensure, not
assume, that respect for one another exists within the Faculty of Social Work.
Course Content
The following schedule provides a week by week description of the topics to be covered and the
assigned readings for each week. Some weeks include optional readings and are designated as
Additional Resources. The readings identified provide an orientation to the context of social
work practice in mental health and health. Discussion of the overall outline will take place in the
first class. Students will also have the opportunity to tailor the assignments to their own area of
interest.
Required text
Heather Stuart, Julio Arboleda-Florez, Norman Sartorius (2012). Paradigms Lost: Fighting
Stigma and the Lessons Learned. Oxford University Press
Recommended text
Rachlis, M. (2004). Prescription for Excellence: How Innovation is Saving Canada’s Health Care
System, Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. The book is available free as a downloadable
PDF file at www.michaelrachlis.com
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) Fifth Edition (Revised).
American Psychiatric Association
Online Readings:
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Some of the readings for this course are accessible electronically by logging into ARES reserves
at http://library2.wlu.ca/ares/. Please search under course title SK 632 C and instructor’s name:
Mfoafo-M’Carthy, M.
Required Course Readings:
Week 1: January 7th
Overview of Course
History and Current Status of the Canadian Health Care System
• CASW -The Role of Social Work in Mental Health.

• OASW - The Role of Social Work in Primary Health Care, Mental Health Care.
• Rachlis, M. (2004). Prescription for Excellence: How Innovation is Saving Canada’s
Health Care System, Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Course Text, Chapters 1, 2, & 3

• Regehr and Glancy (2010) Mental Health Social Work Practice in
Canada. Don Mills, ON: Oxford Press.
Week 2: January
14th Chapters 1 & 2
Historical and current • Heather Stuart, Julio Arboleda-Florez, Norman Sartorius (2012).
trends in mental Paradigms Lost: Fighting Stigma and the Lessons Learned.
health services Oxford University Press
Chapters 1 & 2
Additional Resource Material:
• Determinants of Health, http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ph-

sp/determinants/index-eng.php#determinants
Week 3: January
21st
• Regehr, C. & Glancy, G. (2010) Mental Health Social Work
Mental health law and Practice in Canada. Don Mills, ON: Oxford Press.
health care reform
Chapter 3
• Rachlis, Course Text, Chapter 14.

• Heather Stuart, Julio Arboleda-Florez, Norman Sartorius (2012).
Paradigms Lost: Fighting Stigma and the Lessons Learned.
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Oxford University Press
Chapters 4 & 5
Week 4 : January • Regehr, C. & Glancy, G. (2010) Mental health social work
28th practice in Canada. Don Mills, ON: Oxford Press.
Trauma and Mental Chapter 4

Health
• Mueser, K. , Rosenberg, S., Goodman, L. & Trumbetta, S. (2002)
Group presentation Trauma, PTSD, and the Course of severe mental illness: an
interactive model, Schizophrenia Research, 53 (1-2) pg. 123-143
• Renouf, N., & Bland R., (2005) Navigating Stormy waters:

Challenges and Opportunities for Social Work in Mental Health.
Australian Social Work. Vol. 58(4) 419-430.
• Padgett, D., Smith B., Henwood, B., & Tiderington, E. (2012).

Life Course Adversity in the Lives of formerly Homeless Persons
with Serious Mental Illness: Context and Meaning, American
Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 82(3), 421 -430
• Goodkind, J., Hess, J., Gorman, B. & Parker, D. (2012). “We’re

Still in a Struggle”: Dine Resilience, Survival, Historical Trauma,
and Healing. Qualitative Health Research, 22(8) 1019-1036
Speaker: Prof. Carol Stalker

Week 5 : February
4th
• Carpenter, J. (2002). Mental health recovery paradigm:
Client Rights, Implications for social work. Health and Social Work, 27, 86-94.
Empowerment and
User Involvement in
Services
• Lindhorst, D. M., Eckert, A., & Hamilton, G. (2005). Promoting
participation in organizational decision making by clients with
severe mental illness. Social Work, 50(1), 21-30.
419
Group presentation • Srebuik, D., et. al. (2005). The content and clinical utility of
psychiatric advanced directives. Psychiatric Services, 56(5), 592-
98.
Additional Resources:
• Ryan, M., Merighi, J. R., Healy, W., & Renouf, N. (2004). Belief,
optimism and caring: Findings from a cross-national study of
expertise in mental health social work. Qualitative Social Work,
3(4), 411-429.
• Hardiman, E.R., Theriot, M., Hodges, J., (2005) Evidence based
practice in mental health: Implications and challenges for
consumer based programs. Best Practices in Mental Health: An
International Journal, 105-122.
Guest Speaker: David Armes

Week 6: February • Assertive community treatment for elderly people with severe
11th mental illness Stobbe, J , Mulder, N, Roosenschoon, B, Depla, M,
& Kroon, H. (2010). BMC Psychiatry, 10:84
Community Mental • Campbell, J., Brophy, L., Healy, B., O’Brien, A-M. (2006).
Health: Assertive International perspectives on the use of community treatment
Community orders: implications for mental health social workers. British
Treatment Teams Journal of Social Work, 36: 1101-1118.
(ACTT) &
Community • Everett, B (2001). Community Treatment Orders: Ethical Practice
Treatment Orders in an Era of Magical Thinking . Canadian Journal of Community
(CTOs) Mental Health pp. 5-20.
Group presentation • Mfoafo-M’Carthy, M. & Williams, C. C. (2010). Coercion and

Community Treatment Orders: One Step forward, two steps back?
Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, Vol. 29, No. 1
• Mfoafo-M’Carthy, M., & Shera, W. (2013). Beyond Community

Treatment Orders: Empowering clients to achieve community
integration. International Journal of Mental Health, 41(4), 62-81.
• Speaker: TBD
Week 7: February Reading Week

420
18th
Week 8: February • Easley, C. A. (2001). Developing, valuing and managing diversity

25th in the new millennium. Organizational Development Journal,
19(4), pp 38-50.
• Bhui, K. & Sashidharan, S. (2003). Should there be separate
psychiatric services for ethnic minority groups? British Journal of
Creating Systems of Psychiatry, 182, 10-12.
Care that Embrace • James, S., & Prillentensky, I. (2002). Cultural diversity and mental
Diversity health practice: Towards integrative practice. Clinical Psychology
Review, 22, 1133- 1154.
• Bughra, D., & Bhui, K. (1999). Racism in psychiatry: Paradigm
lost – paradigm regained. International Review of Psychiatry, 11,
Group presentation 236-243.
• Brotman, S., Ryan, B., & Cormier, R. “The Health and Social
Service Needs of Gay and Lesbian Elders and Their Families in
Canada”. The Gerontologist, Volume 43, Issue 2 p. 192-202
• Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology,

(2006, May). Final Report Chapter14: Aboriginal Peoples of
Canada. http://www.parl.gc.ca/39/1/parlbus/commbus/senate/com-
e/soci-e/rep-e/rep02may06-e.htm
Additional Resources:
• Larson, G. (2008) Anti-Oppressive Practice in Mental Health.

Journal of Progressive Human Services. Vol. 19 (1)
Week 9: March 4th • Bryant, T. (2009). Housing and Health. Chapter 16 in D. Raphael
(Ed.), Social determinants of health: Canadianperspectives, (pp.
Homelessness: 217-232). Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Critical Components • Rapp, C., Goscha, R., 2004.The Principles of Effective Case
of Care: Income, Management, Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, Volume 27, #4 ,
Housing & 319-331
Community Support • Ralph, R.O. (2000). Recovery. American Journal of Psychiatric
Rehabilitation, 4(3), 480-517.
• Nelson, G., Sylvestre, J., Aubry, T., George, L., & Trainor, J.
(2007), Housing choice and control, housing quality, and control
over professional support as contributors to the subjective quality
421
Group presentation of life and community adaptation of people with severe mental
illness. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental
Health Services Research. 34(2), 89-100.
• Padgett, D. K., Gulcur, L., & Tsemberis, S. Housing first services
for people who are homeless with co-occurring serious mental
illness and substance abuse. Research on Social Work Practice.
16(1), 74-89.
Speaker: Geoff Nelson
Week 10: March 11th • Regehr, C., & Glancy, G. (2010). Mental health social work
practice in Canada. Don Mills, ON: Oxford Press.
Suicide and Self
harm Chapter 5
Group presentation • Sommers-Flanagan, J. (1995). Intake interviewing with suicidal

patients. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 26, 1,
41-47.
• Hiroeh, U., Appelby, L., Mortensen, P.B., Dunn, G. (2001) Death

by homicide, suicide, and other unnatural causes in people with
mental illness: A population-based study. The Lancet, 358(9299),
2110-2112.
Week 11: March • Regehr, C., & Glancy, G. (2010). Mental health social work
18th practice in Canada. Don Mills, ON: Oxford Press. Chapter 7
• Dulmus, C., & Smyth, N. (2000). Early-onset schizophrenia: A
Schizophrenia literature review of empirically based interventions. Child and
Adolescent Social Work Journal, 17, 55-69.
• Cooke, M.A., Peters, E.R., Kuipers, E., Kumari, V. ((2005).
Disease, deficit or denial? Models of poor insight in psychosis.
Group presentation Acta Psychiatrica Scandanavica, 112, 4-17.
• Buccheri, R., Trygstad, L., Dowling, G. (2007). Command

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hallucinations to harm in Schizophrenia. Journal of Psychosocial
Nursing, 45(9), 47-54.
Speaker: TBD
Week 12: March • Regehr, C., & Glancy, G. (2010). Mental health social work
25th practice in Canada. Don Mills, ON: Oxford Press.
Mental illness and Chapter 8

Stress
Group presentation
• Heather Stuart, Julio Arboleda-Florez, Norman Sartorius (2012).
Paradigms Lost: Fighting Stigma and the Lessons Learned.
Oxford University Press
Chapters 11 & 12
• Arthur, A. (2005). When stress is mental illness: A study of

anxiety and depression in employees who use occupational stress
counselling schemes. Stress and Health, 21 (4), pg. 273-280
Guest speaker : TBD
Week 13: April 1st • Regehr, C., & Glancy, G. (2010). Mental health social work
practice in Canada. Don Mills, ON: Oxford Press.
Chapters 10 - 12
Delirium, Dementia
and Personality
disturbance,
substance abuse
Final Presentation
Course wrap up and

evaluations
Community feast
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Final paper due!
Course Evaluation and Assignments:
1. Class Participation: /20
Learning will be experiential and participatory. Within such a framework, students have a
responsibility to be physically and intellectually present at all classes, complete assigned
readings and contribute to the learning environment within the classroom through small group
exercises.
2. Critical Mental Health Dialogue /20
Each week, students will be asked to stimulate a conversation or debate on mental health / illness
in class. What would be expected of you is a creative presentation of the main messages of the
readings either through case studies, storytelling, the use of powerpoint, video (youtube, etc…)
and any other creative means which will stimulate conversation in the classroom. Being unsure
of what one has derived of the scholarship is normal; as a collective, we will all be contributors
to knowledge generation by deconstructing the messages of the readings in a way which is
respectful and safe. To this end, we must commit as a collective to nurture and support our
colleagues who dedicate time and effort to this task.
3. Site visit (30)
Students are encouraged to visit a community based agency / program providing services to
individuals with serious mental illness. The program could residential, hostel, shelter, an
Assertive Community Treatment Team. Arrange to meet with staff at the program, preferably a
manager or team leader who will be able to provide much information. The focus of the visit is
to learn as much as possible about the agency / program. For instance, finding how they fit in
the mental health system, source of funding, difficulties encountered by the program. Find out
about the program’s philosophy, how the program is evaluated and the perspective of service
users / clients about the program.
A critical analysis of the program is encouraged, making reference to relevant literature. The
paper should not exceed 10 double-spaced pages. Due on February 11th, 2014
4. Final Paper – (30)
The assignment should be no more than 15 -20 pages.
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Select an issue related to mental health to explore in depth, for example the interface between
mental health and addictions, post modernism and mental health, the pros and cons of Assertive
Community Treatment teams, etc.
Some questions related to the topic you might want to address are- What is the legislation that
guides the intervention; what is the theoretical perspective that guide’s intervention in this area?
What are the ethical dilemmas? Do theories address the real problems that the client group faces?
Do interventions address the real problems that the clients face? Does legislative and policy
structure meet the clients’ needs? What changes, if any, need to be made, in your opinion?
What is the impact of power relations on the service structure? What is exemplary in policy,
legislative or service structure?
Or
Choose a creative way of bringing awareness to issues of mental illness in the community. It
could be in the form of poster presentations, letter to the editor of a local newspaper, organize a
forum on mental illness and stigma etc. You may want to discuss your project with the instructor
(This is a collective endeavour but with no more than four students).
Students are expected to build upon the knowledge they have gained in this and other courses as
well as their experiences from their personal/practice/volunteer backgrounds. As such, this paper
is one which should explore in some way a selected topic in health and mental health. Due on
April 1st, 2014
Special Needs
available on campus (http://www.mylaurier.ca/accessible/info/home.htm). Students with
disabilities or special needs are advised to contact Laurier’s Accessible Learning Office for
information regarding its services and resources. In order to create a supportive learning
environment for students, should any have issues with regards to special needs, they should
advise the instructor relative to consideration they may require.
Academic Integrity and Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the unacknowledged presentation of the work of others as one’s own. Plagiarism is
unethical, and is a serious offence under the universities policy on Academic and Research
Misconduct which can be found in the 2006.2007 graduate calendar:
(http://www.wlu.ca/calendars/section/php?cal=3&s=153&ss=547&y=20 or search for
“university policies” at www.wlu.ca). To represent such work as self-created is dishonest and
academically worthless. Cheating involves the using, giving, receiving or the attempt to use, give
or receive unauthorized information. If a student is uncertain whether a course of action might
constitute plagiarism or cheating, they should consult the instructor in advance. WLU subscribes
to an on-line service turnitin.com, which is used to detect plagiarism. Students suspected of any
amount of plagiarism will be required to submit their work for review.
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The Writing Centre
Students who are concerned about their ability to meet graduate level writing standards are
encouraged to seek assistance from the WLU Writing Centre at 519- 884-2970 ext. 3339 or
http://www.wlu.ca/wwwwc. The Centre is located on the Waterloo Campus in the Arts &
Sciences Building 2C5-ABC.
Accessing Reading List:
This course has an online course reserve where all articles that are available online can be
downloaded. Items not available online will have a paper copy put on reserve in the FSW library.
Students may access the online reserve list by doing a course reserve search in TRELLIS —
search by Course: : WLUSW and Mfoafo-M’Carthy, M.:
SK 632 C Grading Rubric
Note: Grading Rubric belongs to the MSW Program, University of Windsor (We think it is
terrific, hence why we have decided to use it! It has been adapted to fit the objectives of SK
632 C. Thank you to our colleagues at U Windsor’s School of Social Work)
Grading Criteria For Intervention Paper
Instructor:
Student:
CATEGORY Grade: 8 – 6 Grade: 6 – 4 Grade: 4 – 2 Grade: 1 - 0

The intervention The paper states a The paper has a The paper does not
paper has a clear & clear thesis, with generally organized have an organized
concise only three thesis, with only thesis, with a
introduction & components two of the general lack of
Introduction & thesis position completed components effort & no
Thesis including the properly. completed components of the
vulnerable properly. thesis/introduction
population, goal(s), is completed
objectives, & properly.
rationale of the
intervention
method.
The intervention The paper provides The paper does not The paper is not
paper demonstrates a general overview articulate a theory complete with a
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Theoretical the integration of of a theory & & provides limited theoretical context,
Context & Social theory & a clear promotes the role examples of & displays a
Justice articulation of the of social work & activities that lead general lack of
role of social work community to the role of social effort in all areas.
and community practice with work and
practice. This is limited details. community
filtered throughout practice.
the paper.
Community The intervention The paper The paper shows The paper
Mobilization: paper shows illustrates only a only limited illustrates only a
Assets & Agency examples of agency few resources resources few resources
Resources: and community mobilized when mobilized when mobilized when
resources developing the developing the developing the
mobilized when intervention. intervention. intervention.
developing the
intervention.
The intervention The paper meets The paper is The paper is not
paper shows a high minimal somewhat complete, with a
Indirect level of strategy requirements, with complete, with general lack of
Intervention: capacity building a generally good limited analysis & effort and analysis
Strategies & techniques; analysis of the limited articulation & articulation in
Capacity Building research, strategy & of strategy through most areas.
Techniques assessment of research. Limited research with little
barriers & articulation of the attention to the
obstacles; & well goals & resources goals & resources
defined goals, to support towards a
indicators & community community
resource examples development development
that support a intiative. initiative.
community
development
initiative.
The intervention The paper follows The paper follows The paper fails to
paper follows APA APA reference APA reference follow APA
APA & reference system & system & is system & is reference system &
Grammar/Spelling is complete with no complete with 1 to complete with 4 to has 5 or more
grammar or 3 grammar and/or 5 grammar and/or grammar and/or
spelling errors. spelling errors. spelling errors. spelling errors.
Comments:
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CONSULTATION
One of my CAS cases has been most challenging and has caused me some trauma. This case
ended up with a child being taken into care, but that was not the end of the story. A young lady
(25) who was a heavy drug user was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had been suffering
from anxiety and depression. It was a complicated case, because she was sexually assaulted by
her babysitter in her childhood by someone who was a close relative. He ended up in jail after
the secret was revealed.
She lived around a marijuana-user circle, stuck there because of her lifestyle. The Society
received a referral from the ex-girlfriend of her boyfriend, with concerns regarding the smoking
of weed in front of her son, (7 months), and daughter (7 years old) at her boyfriend’s house. He
is (40) years old. Her boyfriend was allegedly using abusive drugs and had a tendency to display
dangerous items such as scissors thereby causing harm to her children. Her boyfriend also had a
mentally sick son, (22 years old). This case ended up being seen as a malicious call, and as
harassing behaviour on the part of the woman’s boyfriend’s ex and the case was closed. This was
my first case, but I disagreed with this decision.
.
Upon observing the mother in her home with my supervisor, the daughter was confirmed as
being from a previous boyfriend. However, the mother was in a good relationship with her
current boyfriend; he got along with her and her sibling as well. Smoking weed in front of
children at either home was not verified after all. The two adults smoke outside together after the
children have gone to sleep.
I wondered who the daughter’s father was. The mother gave us several possible names and later
on admitted that her daughter had been going to visit her biological father once in a week since
last year. She requested a DNA report to confirm that he is her daughter’s father. We helped her
with her application.
One week later, my supervisor sent me on an unannounced visit to her possible biological father,
while I was shadowing a family service worker. This 7 year old young child had reported that
her father was smoking marijuana in front of her and her other step-sister during her last
weekend visit. The father is in a relationship with an 18 year old high school girl and has a one
year old daughter. He is a 40 year old male who has several mental disorders and has a marijuana
card allowing him to grow a certain amount of marijuana in his backyard. He is on ODSP and
OW, never works and is always on the internet chatting with someone.
There is a court order and one year supervision order by CAS, because his teenage girl friend got
pregnant when she was 17, while she was going to high school, and she is a drinker and
marijuana user. She has no connection with her family. It seems she is a perfect victim for him.
She dropped out of high school and took care of baby. They used very strong odors and bleach to
mask the marijuana smell. I suspected that he has been hunting only teenagers and using free
marijuana as bait and as a tool. I didn’t buy their made up stories. The Family Service Worker
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asked for my opinion and observations. I said that he was clearly a trouble maker in the town
and should be in jail for providing marijuana to teenagers and abusing them sexually. Also we
have to check his marijuana card issue. He never showed us this.
Two months later, we received another referral that a teenager had attempted suicide, and beat up
her mother and siblings. She was arrested and placed in a safe house. During the investigation
her mother mentioned the name of someone who she had been chatting with through facebook
and said that her daughter had joined his free marihuana circle. I was very upset and frustrated
and told this mother a little bit about the man’s previous activities and warned her that her
daughter is in great danger.
After the investigation, my supervisor warned me that I was not supposed to provide information
about another case which is confidential. I understood my mistake however my heart says to me
that I did the right thing. I saw that the mother was suffering very badly and we were doing
nothing.
The next day, first thing, I checked my supervisor’s safety and intervention reports. I did not see
the trouble maker’s name on her report, perhaps because she thought it was not related to this
case. My supervisor went on some training that day and I was unable to consult with her. I
couldn’t reach her cell. I didn’t want to wait, because my duty was to report this information
urgently.
I talked to the family service worker who has been dealing with this person for over a year. The
family service worker was 8 months pregnant and about to take maternity leave. I found her very
depressive. I explained what had happened the day before very briefly, and I made a very strong
comment that this guy doesn’t deserve a child. She started smiling and thanked me. She was
confused about this person and decided to apprehend his 7 month old daughter. It was a hard
decision for her to make, to take somebody else’s child into care, while having a baby of her
own, but she made up her mind and she did so.
My supervisor has been working at CAS over five years and has never apprehended any
children, because she doesn’t like doing it, and always solves cases with family safety network
and uses family strengths and a problem solving approach. She did not complain about why I
reported this case and why I gave the trouble-maker’s name to the Family Service Worker.
Next day, this trouble-maker was in front of CAS and holding the baby. He looked into my eyes
very deeply and it was like an arrow hitting my heart. I shall never forget that look and saw him
in my dreams several times.
My questions are:
Did I break a code of ethics regarding this case containing confidential information and should I
never give a name to another person?
Did I betray my supervisor for giving this person’s name to the family service worker?
Should I have waited till the next day and consulted with her first?
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How can I forget this person’s eyes in my mind? Should I blame myself?
SK 621- Section 4 Use of Self Instructor: Garrett Lafosse
Faruk Arslan# 115805450 Journal Review- Midterm assignment
Central issues and aspects familiar with
There are several central issues and aspects that arise in this course which I am familiar with. For
me, it was a kind of orientation to come out from my stereotypical understanding of ‘self’ and to
engage myself with the various pragmatic notions such as second order perspective,
transference/countertransference, reactivity, existence of multiple selves, co-construction of
reality, the subject , the modern self/subject and discourse. Self-disclosure is a relevant and a
very true use of the self in the context of treatment sometimes, but it may cause uncertainty and
error. Undeniably, these concepts helped me to broaden my horizon of thinking and provided me
the space where I would be able to see my clients in different light. It was not easy to create
empathy, keeping a not-knowing stance as an ethical ideal, and at the same time see life through
the client’s eyes. As my changing professional goal, I have discovered that I need to improve my
weaknesses and find my strengths relating to counter-transference in connection with several
ethical dilemmas and considerations I’ve faced in the past. As a candidate Social Worker intern,
I have faced many other traumatic experiences, such as suicidal thoughts and ending life
situations in a hospital setting at Stratford General Hospital and investigating neglect, abuse and
assault at CAS of Brant. That’s why my deep roots of personal troubles generated such
contradictory feelings in me and caused anxiety, burnout and inappropriate counter-transference
behaviors. These include keeping client confidentiality, avoiding using sexual language,
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watching power imbalances, and avoiding being harmful to the patient when my multiple
identities play a role in cross-cultural treatment.
Unfamiliar territory and themes
There are unfamiliar territory and themes such as cultural competency versus cultural humility,
the gender binary, transgender thinking and the concept of the power of vulnerability. I didn’t
know that cultural humility offers love, essence, compassion, equity, welcome, acceptance and
value that’s why I am now working towards cultural humility. I was not aware that vulnerability
necessary and it is birthplace for everything who you are depend how you define it. It was
opened up unfamiliar aspect which was a new for me to realize how to measure my vulnerability.
I agree that I must be willing to be “vulnerable and open to experiencing previously unknown or
unconscious aspects of self in order to reach the inner selves of clients” (Edward, Bess, 1998). I
delved deep into Deena Mandell’s article ‘Use of Self: Contexts and Dimensions’, I had a feeling
that I was going into the right direction to explore the concept of use of self. I also thought about
the impact of my religio-cultural orientation on my counseling practice. As influenced by the
Sufi way of thinking, the world for me is the place where sorrow is inevitable. This orientation
has given me the unique point of reference to understand my client’s problems. Consequently, I
feel quite easy to share empathy, genuineness and unconditional positive regards to my clients.
However, my work is not only to give validation to people’s problem, but also to support them
that the world will be a better and happier place for them if they follow certain therapeutic
regimen. I suspected that I misrelated my practice to personal, situational, client and contextual
factors. Through my self-reflection, I engaged in a process of self-analysis by examining my
personal attributes such as suppressed feelings, personality, background and experience in
431
response to external factors in relation to my social and cultural environments, clients, and
agency.
Missing positive/negative feelings
My self-reflection was missing about my incapacity to listen others and understanding
connections. I always struggle with this second aspect of counseling as a result of my religio-
cultural background and my accent. I agreed with that I should control my anxiety and stop
screaming but start listening. I struggled hard to understand the basic differences between
wounded healer and healer concepts of perennial ‘self’ and the ‘self’ that has been used in the
text. I also found the title “Use of Self” as something that did not have any connection with the
‘self’ I was thinking at that time. I will be working on my emotional reactions and revoking my
spiritual awakening to heal from my vulnerability not only emotionally, but also physically and
mentally. During my placements, I realized I need to strengthen my teamwork skills by working
closely and effectively with other social worker and community worker professionals. Several
times I’d get frustrated with my colleagues, and I tried to talk with my on and off placement
supervisor but I wasn’t really able to talk about my concerns and move on. This is a huge issue
and I need to work on it. I confused about my emotions what was really going on as part of my
dilemma. It can only change negative to positive thinking patterns by reflection, self-awareness
and self-critism.
Critical reflection, my strengths/weaknesses and use of self
I defended about the ‘view on human nature’ when I was giving advice to one of my classmate
regarding we are not only social worker also human. I was reflecting the use of heart-based
helping perspective which is intrinsic and essential to the use of self as a core component in
relationships, and in a client-centred range of activities. Because of the deep roots of personal
432
troubles and the existence of different personalities, social workers cannot separate the individual
from their social work practice as part of their anti-opressive cross-cultural treatment (Garret,
2013). If I understand my crisis, I can show better empathy and will create the space to better
connect with our clients. After reading related article, I got the positive impression that people
would be successful in counseling when they have some sort of mental issues. It was an issue for
me because I was a depression trauma survivor at the age of 18, and my counter-transference
posed a serious ethical dilemma. Later on I found renewed strength in acknowledging the need
for recognition of my “individual personhood such as emotional history, values, commitment to
social justice, biases, attitudes, anxieties, self-concept, protective instincts, cultural background
and social identity” in order to be aware of the use of self, and avoid having ethical dilemmas
(Mandell, 2008, p 244). My multiple identities and my different personality caused ethical
dilemma for some patients in cross-cultural treatment in CAS and at Stratford Hospital. I faced a
similar ethical dilemma, although a dissimilar situation to Paul, when he was dealing with Alex.
My critical reflections were helpful to make me realize that things will change whenever there is
the change in the perspective and gained new perspectives. I was also freed from my self-created
burden of reading the article ‘the shadows within: Internalized racism and reflective writing’
when I got the answer. I was very influenced by the use of self as process, developing
effectiveness in the therapeutic use of self and reflexive practice. The definition given by Prof.
Garret in the class for use of self as process- a process and professional obligation dedicated to
questioning our being and being in the interest of working with another in ways that drift toward
justice, recognition and change/possibilities- helped me to realize the innumerable possibilities
that will be gained after the successful completion of this course (Garret, 2013). During all useful
class consultations and video clips, I was trying to put myself in my peers and Paul’s positions. I
433
was also trying to see the case based on my own way of being and was posing different and
difficult questions to me such as how different would be the scenario if I were working with that
client. After my peer consultations, I realized that I am over personalizing issues; I have
difficulty with it in my personal life therefore I struggle with it as a therapist in the Stratford
Hospital. For example, my client wanted to interviewed by other social worker and I assumed
it’s because I did something wrong especially without exploring the issue more. I usually take
everything personally when client complained about my accent. I felt pretty beat up as a
therapist. I was unaware of the concept of the countertransference and my emotional reactions
until this incident. I was not taught to manage counter-transference reactions or given the ability
to deal with those reactions outside the client relationship. There is little help, for example, in
dealing specifically with a dislike or aversion to a client, whereas disliking a client has the
potential to create dissonance with the perception of ourselves as caring professionals (William
& Day, 2007).
My change goal
The class and small group discussions often resulted in the discussion of personal topics and in
the expression of differences of opinions helped me to understand myself in better way as use of
self is an important social work skill. Working with people from different religious I found that
the most challenging skill is to support my client’s worldview. As a social worker student I
experience less power than professional social workers who work with greater social status, and
felt that many of us including me still struggling with countertransference, power imbalance and
the power of vulnerability. As my changing goal, I would like to explore counter-transference
relating to my past ethical dilemmas in my professional use of self, and try to develop coping
strategies against my counter-transferential reactions, the deep roots of my personal troubles, and
434
the existence of my particular and different personality.
References
Edwards, Jana K., Bess, Jennifer M. (1998). Developing Effectiveness in the Therapeutic Use of
Self. Clinical Social Work Journal (March 1998), 26 (1), pp. 89-105.
Garret, L. (2013, September, October). Multiple Identities, Self-Awareness, and Reflexive
Practice. Lecture conducted at Wilfrid Laurier University, Kitchener.
Kaufka, B. (2009). The shadows within: Internalized racism and reflective writing. Reflexive
Practice, 10 (2), 137-148.
Mandell, D. (2007). Use of self: Contexts and dimensions. In D. Mandell, (Ed.). Revisiting the
use of self: Questioning professional identities. Toronto: Canadian Scholars,
———. (2008). Power, acre and vulnerability. Considering use of self in child welfare practice.
Journal of Social Work, 5 (1), 21-43.
Williams, L., & Day, A. ( 2007). Strategies for dealing with clients we dislike. The American
Journal of Family Therapy, 35, 83-92.
How to use of Self when dealing with counter-transference and the effects of vicarious
traumatization
By Faruk Arslan
Introduction
During the use of self course and training in Social work practice, I have intentionally
focused on counter-transference, inter-subjectivity and congruence-ability, in order to see others
as they relate to diversity, culture and ethnicity, and in order to avoid reproducing
marginalization. Counter-transference is defined as situations where the therapist experiences
inappropriate emotions or irrational thinking in response to a client, or loses his or her objectivity
with the client. This occurs when the therapist’s own unconscious conflicts are triggered in
therapy. (William & Day, 2007, p. 84.) All talk of counter-transference is a way for workers to
manage the anxiety aroused in them by differences between themselves and their service users.
(Miehls and Moffatt, 2000, p. 238.) As my changing professional goal, I have discovered that I
need to improve my weaknesses and find my strengths relating to counter-transference in
connection with several ethical dilemmas and considerations I’ve faced in the past. These include
keeping client confidentiality, avoiding using sexual language, watching power imbalances, and
avoiding being harmful to the patient when my multiple identities play a role in cross-cultural
435
treatment. I would like to explore counter-transference relating to my past ethical dilemmas in
my professional use of self, and try to develop coping strategies against my counter-transferential
reactions, the deep roots of my personal troubles, and the existence of my particular and different
personality.
Explanation of my change
During my first field placement at CAS of Brant, I was a victim of secondary trauma in a sexual
assault case in which a father sexually assaulted his own 8-year-old son. The father pulled the
boy’s pants down while he was on the couch and “licked his butt hole.” The father also put his
child’s penis in his mouth and went ‘back and forth” with his mouth. The boy disclosed that
when he and his father were in the bath tub, his father helped him to touch his father’s penis until
“semen” came out and went onto the child’s hand. From the beginning, it was the worst and most
stressful case that I had ever faced. In the child protection field, the CAS workers are sometimes
blamed for using excessive power with clients, and that is what I felt in this case, as I blamed the
father and also feared myself a lot. I didn’t know how to act, became speechless, lost my
objectivity, and my counter-transference thus caused an ethical dilemma. In this difficult case, I
was shocked, deeply, to think a father could be sexually abusing his own son. The boy and his
half sibling were interviewed at school, and the boy disclosed being sexually touched by his
father in graphic detail. It occurred to me that I was not being taught in the classroom about the
very serious and inevitable effects of working with trauma survivors and of experiencing a
secondary trauma. Furthermore, in this case, the child’s experience was very distressing and
emotionally overwhelming for the mother and for me. For this reason, I tried to read the
narratives with minimum emotion, and in a very neutral, flat manner, so as not to create
confusion, but get across the information conveyed by the exploration of the child’s perspective
of the abuse, concentrating on what the child thought. It was not easy to create empathy, keeping
a not-knowing stance as an ethical ideal, and at the same time see life through the client’s eyes.
To establish client-centered collaboration or a therapeutic relationship I need “extreme
respectfulness in which only the view of the client is important, and in which the therapist or the
social worker as a person disappears” (Rober, 2002, p.668)
In addition, I have personally been using problem-solving skills along with reinforcing a new
paradigm at the practice level, while consciously getting rid of the dominant deficit-thinking
paradigm for helping people, in order to avoid having ethical dilemmas. In fact, “pursuing a
practice based on the ideas of resilience, rebound, possibility, and transformation is difficult,
because oddly enough, it is not natural to the world of helping and service” (Saleebey, 1996, p.
297). The self-as-me was very constructive during the family meeting, but I lost my self again
because I was the only male among female workers responding to the imbalance of power and
vulnerability experienced by this poor boy, while at the same time facing my internalized
secondary trauma. My supervisor mentioned that the father could well be released from jail
within a short period of time, as he may be found not guilty because of insufficient evidence. I
was distressed, overwhelmed and re-traumatized at that. I felt incompetent, in that as a result of
vicarious traumatization, I had feelings of guilt and envy that may have led me to accept the
client’s negative transference as truth (Hesse, 2002, p 301). It was an issue for me because I was
a depression trauma survivor at the age of 18, and my counter-transference posed a serious
ethical dilemma. Later on I found renewed strength in acknowledging the need for recognition
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of my “individual personhood such as emotional history, values, commitment to social justice,
biases, attitudes, anxieties, self-concept, protective instincts, cultural background and social
identity” in order to be aware of the use of self, and avoid having ethical dilemmas (Mandell,
2008, p 244). I completely agree with the importance of our neutral position in the context of
ethical practice. We need to make a distinction between the anger of our oppressed subjectivities
unleashed to right a wrong and the anger of our oppressor subjectivities unleashed to maintain
privilege (Rycroft, 2005). I was not prepared to assess such traumas, including child sexual
assaults and adult survivors of abuse and sex offender crimes. Working specifically with neglect,
abuse and assault survivors, there were several ethical dilemmas and ethical concerns that were
not clear to me, and further “the management of countertransferential reactions [was] more
difficult” because I needed to be constantly empathic, always stay positive and control my
anxiety (Neumann & Gamble, 1995). In other words, I should have been able to separate the
individual from the behavior and use of self, which is difficult in sexual abuse and assault cases.
Various reasons for my change goal
As a candidate Social Worker intern, I have faced many other traumatic experiences, such as
suicidal thoughts and ending life situations in a hospital setting at Stratford General Hospital.
That’s why my deep roots of personal troubles generated such contradictory feelings in me and
caused anxiety, burnout and inappropriate counter-transference behaviors (Van der Kolk,
McFarlane & Weisbath, 1997) I was “traumatized by repeatedly hearing clients’ trauma stories”
(Dane, 2002, p. 3); however, I was not taught to manage counter-transference reactions or given
the ability to deal with those reactions outside the client relationship. There is little help, for
example, in dealing specifically with a dislike or aversion to a client, whereas disliking a client
has the potential to create dissonance with the perception of ourselves as caring professionals
(William & Day, 2007). I was unable to manage my frustrated feelings in one of the cases in
hospital. Unfortunately, I disliked one patient when I was doing my Stratford Hospital internship
because he refused therapy and swore at me. Although this client said hurtful words to me over a
period of several weeks, I was still expected, and expected myself, to carry out my work
professionally in terms of the Code of Ethics in dealing with this ethical dilemma. It was a
complicated case, but I should have done more self-reflection. The ethical dilemma for me lay in
not knowing how to deal with a 94-year-old patient who was stubborn and selfish. I accessed his
family-of-origin and previous stories through our hospital Meditech, and received negative
messages about him from the Rounds, as a result of which I had a bad image of the patient before
I met with him. While this alerted me to the need for a more differentiated use of self in the
clinical setting, I was unaware how to deal with my biases. It was an ethical dilemma because as
an individual, I enacted “one subject position from a multiplicity of potential divergent subject
positions” (Mandell, 2007, p 216). It was not ethical of me, but I refused to serve this client and
asked for help from my supervisor. We went to the client together and convinced him to accept
therapy and long-term facility placement options because he could not stay in hospital forever.
To cope with situations such as these, I should be doing more reflection on action, and reflexivity
as practical consciousness. I missed the self-in-self and being reflexive towards myself. As an
internalized coherent view of the self, my only way to proceed was to hang on to my identity as
an ethical social worker, and as such, my responses to a patient or “client’s behavior and
situations are prescribed by the Social Work Code of Ethics, College of Social Workers and
Social Workers, the institution’s policies and standard of practice, and my own values” (Mandell,
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2007, p 83). I now understand how patience is an essential method and technique for reflection
about my emotional reactions, and is a most important dimension of my personality in the face of
misfortune; that is, being steadfast when confronted with events, crises and enduring difficulties.
Why my change goal is an important?
I feel weak about several areas such as confidentiality, inter-subjectivity concerning use of
sexual language and how to deal sexual attraction issues in relation to my emotional reactions.
The class and small group discussions often resulted in the discussion of personal topics and in
the expression of differences of opinions helped me to understand myself in better way as use of
self is an important social work skill. Working with people from different religious I found that
the most challenging skill is to support my client’s worldview. Keeping client confidentiality is a
further important aspect of therapeutic relationships, and is the number one priority in social
work practice. I was not aware that my own reactions in treatment were problematic until I
shared my story with the class in my consultation. I was uneasy and confused about a stand I
took while dealing with one of my CAS cases in Brantford. I suspected and judged one potential
abuser in a different case and shared his name with my client. I used my heart as the self, but the
power of vulnerability hit me hard, in that the potential teenage victim had attempted suicide,
and had beat up her mother and siblings. During the investigation, her mother mentioned the
name of someone the daughter had been chatting with through Facebook, and said that her
daughter had joined his free marihuana circle. I was very upset and frustrated and told this
mother a little bit about the man’s previous activities and warned her that her daughter was in
great danger. After the investigation, my supervisor warned me that I was not supposed to
provide information about another case, which is confidential. I understood my mistake;
however, my heart said to me that I did the right thing. I saw that the mother was suffering very
badly and we were doing nothing. I admitted that inter-subjectivity played a role in this ethical
dilemma, because, for instance, I was not neutral and non-judgmental. The girl was 18 and free
to have a relationship with a 40 year old male even though he was marijuana user. Power and
knowledge relations and social control over others were not easy for me to deal with when I was
crossing over client confidentiality. I broke a code of ethics in this case concerning confidential
information, and I should never have given a name to another person. I should also have
consulted my supervisor during the investigation before giving this person’s name to the family
service worker the next day. I emphasized this reflection and have identified my strengths and
weaknesses in dealing with this dilemma. After this case, I had several mood problems,
including disturbed sleep, nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety, alienation and loss of control in the
situation. I was not aware that trauma therapists face major ethical dilemmas if their reactions to
being traumatized enter into the therapeutic relationship, exposing clients to psychological harm
or possibly re-traumatization (Hesse, 2002, p. 293). My own primary and secondary traumas
played a role in that I was relating to past events in order to understand the present client’s
history based on my previous case experiences. This interference of my counter-transference in
the relationship was my ethical dilemma, and the Code of Ethics of keeping confidentiality was
problematic on this occasion. Fine & Teram mention that “we are neither strong supporters of
codes, as we see the many pitfalls therein, nor are we strong opponents of the intent of codes,
though our bias” when making decisions (Fine & Teram, 2009, p. 74). I am a believer, not a
skeptic about codes.
438
I am also afraid of having problems concerning use of sexual language, and always ignore
“sexual attraction,” but am nevertheless having difficulty with power imbalances in treatment
because of my emotional personality. I learned a lot while watching Paul’s treatment videos in
the class. Paul made a clear move to avoid placing his client in a more vulnerable position, and
avoided breaking the Code of Ethics when Laure declared she had fall in love with him, and
wanted to have a relationship. This case became contradictory and uncertain and his vulnerable
position disturbed Paul, who faced counter-transference in relation to an ethical dilemma
according to our group consultation. Paul didn't violate the Code of Ethics and avoided inflicting
potential harm on her.
Discovering my use of self in relation to my change goal
I learned how to use of self from mostly from treatment videos. For example, Paul employed
‘use of self’ when he was talking with a teenager, including actions such as sitting on the floor
and table with her, maintaining eye contact with her, and balancing and minimizing his powerful
position. The ethical dilemma that Paul faced was when Sophia showed her breasts. I admired
him for avoiding an ethical breakdown as he closed his eyes, controlled overwhelming feelings,
and comforted her moods. I was aware that I could be harmful to a client if I were in the same
situation as Paul, and was not sure how I would balance sexual language and our power
differences while obeying ethics as well. This sample inspired anxiety in my heart, and a heavy
awareness of great duty as a self within the frame of oppressor/oppressed identities in dealing
with ethical dilemmas and how to approach use of self. I would be hostile and uncomfortable in
this situation. Now, I had new perspective and much more comfortable to deal with this problem.
I gained a new perspective during my MSW education, discovering self-disclosure is a relevant
and a very true use of the self in the context of treatment sometimes, but I am scared it may
cause uncertainty and error. I recognize that the Code of Ethics clearly mentions “multiple role
relationships by agencies and the provision of safe and supportive environments that encourage
open discussion and attention to this issue in supervision may help to minimize inappropriate
behaviors” (Copeland et al., 2011, p. 61). I would like to learn more about watching my
professional boundaries and using non-sexual language and thus avoiding ethical dilemmas
arising. This was the case when I was dealing a young woman in Stratford General Hospital who
is a heavy drug user and who has several mental disorders. I felt uncomfortable about her sexual
behavior, and talked to my supervisor right away and wished to be taken away from the case,
because as a student I was not ready to deal with the great power imbalance between us, nor was
I sure how to minimize her inappropriate behaviors that were occurring as part of a counter-
transference issue. It was difficult to talk with the patient about avoiding showing sexual
attraction to me, and that’s why the discomfort accompanying the attraction can be a serious
ethical dilemma. My part of the difficulty may be that her sexual feelings were causing a
suffering of "guilt by association" with sexual exploitation (Bernsen et al., 1994, p 386). I had
several discoveries during this course, was identified them in terms of use of self effectively.
Further explore and work through on my discoveries
439
Moreover, I would like work through on these new discoveries in social work practice and
wished to explore more my multiple identities and my different personality issues because these
issues caused ethical dilemma for some patients in cross-cultural treatment in CAS and at
Stratford Hospital. I faced a similar ethical dilemma, although a dissimilar situation to Paul,
when he was dealing with Alex. He was from a different race and culture, and knowing Alex’s
condition was one of Paul’s ethical dilemmas as a counselor. After all his huge effort, Paul felt
trapped and in a difficult position to provide grief counseling to Alex’s father, because he blamed
him for his son’s suspicious death. However, although he had faced bad words, he was able to
deal with this ethical dilemma by taking an ethical stand. After watching Paul’s intervention, I
am now more likely, when it seems appropriate, to have conversations with clients about death
and what it may represent to them. This does not make me an ally of suicide; rather it brings the
relationship with death “out of the closet” and open to examination and review (William & Day,
2007).
I do have multiple identities and roles from my past life, such as reporter, SSW, editor etc. and
have also occupied mixed positions. As a Muslim male, Turkish origin, Canadian therapist
candidate, I do understand how my social, historical, personal, and family issues interact within
the self. However, I was not aware of my own perspective and the personal issues such as
counter-transference that I bring to my therapeutic work, and how that can cause re-trauma for
particular patients in cross-cultural treatment. Paul did not show that he disliked Alex’s
behavior, rather he did his job in a professional manner, even though he learned of other
people’s acts of cruelty, deception, betrayal, or violation of trust towards Alex. It is not easy to
find your own strength and provide support in a non-judgmental manner. During all the useful
class consultations and video clips, I was trying to put myself in my peers’ and Paul’s positions. I
was also trying to see the case based on my own way of being, and was posing different and
difficult questions to myself, such as how different would the scenario be if I were working
with that client? After my peer consultations, I realized that I am over-personalizing issues; I
have difficulty with it in my personal life, therefore I struggled with it as a therapist in the
Stratford Hospital. One client wanted to be interviewed by another social worker, and I assumed
it was because I did something wrong, perhaps not exploring the issue more deeply. I usually
take it personally when a client complains about my accent. I felt pretty beat up as a therapist. I
was unaware of the concept of counter-transference and my own emotional reactions.
Counter-transference related ethical issues are a barrier for me in developing a better social work
identity, especially when I am adapting to strict organizational rules. I will be featuring the use of
self in offering power-balanced healing strategies and congruence-ability, such as acceptance of
others, being non-judgmental, and having empathy. I always think about the impact of my
religio-cultural orientation on my counseling practice. As influenced by the Sufi way of thinking,
the world for me is the place where sorrow is inevitable. This orientation has given me a unique
point of reference in understanding my clients’ problems. Consequently, I find it quite easy to
share empathy, genuineness and unconditional positive regard with my clients. I always struggle
with this second aspect of counseling as a result of my religio-cultural background. My change
goal focusses on control my religious thoughts in social work practice.
Conclusion
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In conclusion, I do consider social work’s dual commitment to direct practice and organizational
and social change important, along with the commitment to work with poor, diverse, and
oppressed populations, and will be willing to pay more attention to my changing goal as one of
focusing on the content of the Code of Ethics and ethical dilemmas in practice. This is a very
important goal for me to achieve in the long term, as part of being a good social worker in the
field. For accomplishing my changing goal, I will be asking for more supervision,
interdisciplinary collaboration, professional accountability, and will work on my burnout, use of
empathy, and dealing with counter-transference and the effects of vicarious traumatization. The
definition given by Professor Garret in the class for use of self as process is that it is a process
and professional obligation dedicated to questioning our being in the interests of working with
others in ways that drift toward justice, recognition and change/possibilities (Garret, 2013). I
believe that in my personal being, my spiritual energy will help fill my inner being with warmth
and zest for using well the gift of each day. As Mandell claimed: “a process of combining insight
into one’s own personhood— with a critical analysis of one’s role as a social worker in the
relations of power that constitute our practice” (Mandell, 2007, 2008, p 237). I will make
improvements in seeking private supervision in the workplace regarding the Code of Ethics in
regulating self-esteem and developing mutually empathic, collaborative relationships with clients
and co-workers. I will keep a sense of positive connection to self and others, balance out
collegial and family relationships, keep professional boundaries, care for myself within work and
home activities, all of which will reduce my stress levels and may provide opportunities to face
or have less counter-transference related ethical dilemmas. As personally less toxic and also
more rewarding for the client and myself, I will be maintaining optimism and hopefulness in the
face of trauma and loss as an essential component of the work. (Dane, 2002, p. 14-15.)
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The Sufi Therapy: A heart-based therapy incorporating perspectives from Fethullah

Gülen’s “Emerald Hills of the Heart” and a self-journeying transpersonal narrative
442
Abstract:
In the last three decades, the role of religion and spirituality has become more and more visible
in psychological treatment both due to societal changes and to scientific advances. Islamic
thought and mysticism have however not been present in this development despite the
similarities in philosophy and a growing need for mental health support among Muslim
populations throughout the world. It is in this context that Sufism, and especially Fethullah
Gülen’s way of mindfulness whose philosophy and 40 concepts will be introduced in this article
with my 40 days of poetic writing and self-observation experience in Canada. Sufi therapy has
been gaining in popularity and acceptance within the mental health services, offering alternative
healing methods and extending the range of therapeutic interventions in social work practice.
Sufism and Gülen’s teachings seem to be promising both in terms of research on consciousness
and in terms of positive thinking pattern as offering alternative healing strategies for depression,
anxiety and stress. The aim of the present article is to highlight the commonality of mindfulness-
based therapies and Gülen’s Sufi philosophy as promising as a different source of inspiration in
terms of research on consciousness as well as culturally sensitive methods of healing.
Introducing concepts, images and metaphors based on Gülen’s universe can constitute a
meaningful alternative to Buddhist-inspired practices in the transcultural clinic, especially in
encounters with clients with Muslim background. Gülen believes in the integrity of individuals,
groups and families in a new country and says the perfect human being must remove the ego
from the self in order to reach true freedom. In Gülen’s definition, the heart plays an essential
role in self-purification and understanding others. Gülen’s Sufism writings, poems and his
positive thinking pathways may address solutions for human beings in social work practice who
are in need of the alternative heart-based mindfulness psychotherapy.
Key words: Sufism, Fethullah Gülen, mindfulness, self-observation, the self, thankfulness,
purity, sincerity, truthfulness
Introduction:
In Islam, “Sufism is the path followed by individuals who, having been able to free themselves
from human vices and weaknesses in order to acquire angelic qualities and conduct pleasing to
God, live in accordance with the requirements of God's knowledge and love, and experience the
resulting spiritual delight that ensues” (Gülen, 2004, p. xii). Sufi therapy is a prominent spiritual
tradition, enhancing the socio-psychological well-being of a large number of people not only in
Islam, but also Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and many other belief systems. Sufi
orientations and practices provide freedom from the self and the ego. Sufi therapy has been
gaining in popularity and acceptance within the mental health services, offering alternative
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healing methods and extending the range of therapeutic interventions in social work practice.
Humanitarian Sufism is a manifestation of ‘collective consciousness’ which acts as the bridge
between ‘personal spirituality’ and ‘collective personal spirituality. It comes into existence by
internalizing within the Sufism culture of tolerant and humanitarian love (Kim, 2008, p. 364).
Sufi therapy is different from westernized therapies because it is “being in tune with the client’s
spiritual dimension and encouraging healing of the body, mind and spirit concomitantly” (Shatii,
1989, p. 157). It is comporable to different heart-based methods and therapeutic treatments. In
this proposed research, I focus on the importance and meaning of spirituality for individuals
seeking a form of help that is transpersonal, trans-human, and centered in the universe, that is, a
therapy for people who want to discover love and acceptance rather relief from fear and
oppression. A modern day Sufi master, Fethullah Gülen, accepted afresh the thinking of
Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi (the greatest Sufi master in the 13th century), and started a social
movement called “Hizmet” in the 1960s. The purpose of this research is to study the roots of
Fethullah Gülen’s Sufi path as found in his Sufi masterpiece “Kalbin Zumrut Tepeleri” (hereafter
referred to as The Emerald Hills of the Heart) in which preference is given to the well-being and
happiness of the other. Gülen doesn’t accept that he is a Sufi master, but Gülen’s way of living
can be described as a Sufi life-style. As an individual he provides a transpersonal approach
which is an inclusive, holistic model of practice, enabling the social work practitioner to provide
clients a bio-psycho-social-spiritual framework for personal empowerment, development, and
growth (Cowley, 1996). The research also includes an account of self-journeying experiences
with a transpersonal narrative because Gülen’s Sufism texts are complex and complicated,
difficult to understand, and need to be simplified to extract useful techniques for psychotherapy.
My interpretation of Gülen’s Sufi writings includes the use poetry as a social innovation method
and mindfulness. My contribution will be in the form of auto-ethnographic research, making use
of my poetical writings as a reflexive analysis. My contribution provides a context for Sufi
therapy, and extracts 40 key concepts of Sufism from more than 250 concepts, which can be
related to this Sufi therapy and personal healing method. Examining Gülen’s action-oriented Sufi
therapy provides a heart-based intervention through true self-purification and mindfulness-
related transpersonal methods, which in turn generate a form of treatment based on culturally
sensitive methods of healing. Spiritual teaching as an Eastern therapy model has already found
its place in the curriculum of many medical schools in the Western world (Sims 1994, Puchaski,
2001). Sufi therapy provides a significant approach to social work, because Sufism offers
collected wisdom transmitted down through the centuries, by which a person can proceed
towards a transformed mentality, deeper love, more positive character traits and courage in order
to work for the improvement of society (Michel, 2005, p. 347). As an Islamic science and social
work, Sufism concentrates on the heart, but also respects the body and mind. For Sufis, the heart
is the source of human truth as it is the centre for all emotions, intellectual and spiritual faculties.
Spiritual health of the heart is vital for the health of the whole body and that is the basis of the
heart-based Sufi therapy. The transpersonal method pushes the boundaries of structural social
work in ways that that can be seen as postmodern, possibly even as post-structural
constructivism (Linehan, 1993). Expanded use of transpersonalism in social work practice may
grow out of an understanding of the context, content, and process of transpersonal psychotherapy
(Vaughan, 1979).
Gülen is considered one of the most influential Turkish Islamic scholars of his generation with
his Sufi-oriented message of love and compassion. The author of more than sixty-five books,
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Gülen has dedicated a lifetime to promoting peaceful interrelationships within and between
different communities, societies, cultures and religious traditions (Ahmed, 2009). Gülen’s
mindfulness is centred on human rights-centred godly works of love, compassion, justice, respect
and an enhanced quality of life for all humanity. It inspires people across Canada, provides the
values of the Divine, and is transmitted across the globe, with many objective individuals finding
the work of Fethullah Gülen captures their hearts, much like the work of the Dali Lama or
Mother Teresa (Jolly, 2010). Gülen’s most significant contribution to Sufi literature is his
emphasis on action. For Gülen, action is as vital as belief, and belief can be sustainable only if it
is supported with action. Action is an inseparable aspect of Sufism and contemporary Muslims
who are willing to live according to the principles of Sufism should be actively involved in the
community, sharing their experiences with others, and striving to help others and bringing peace
to the community (Gokcek, 2005).
As a matter of fact, Gülen’s form of Sufism itself offers a new paradigm (Yavuz, 2004, p. 370).
Gülen refreshes Islamic spirituality in the lives of many individuals to aid their interaction with
modernity. It reveals neither exclusive personal mysticism nor the communal experience found
in tariqas (sect or order) (Yavuz, 2004, p. 374). Gülen’s conceptualization of his embedded Sufi
life is highlighted by four characteristics: “Islamic spirituality, Sufism without Sufi orders,
socially engaged Sufism and dialogic Sufism” (Kim, 2008, p. 357). Gülen reformulates and
represents Said Nursi’s idea of ‘Sufism without Sufi orders whereas, he sees Sufis as are
the seekers of spiritual progress in the happiness of others (Kim, 2008, p. 367).
How does Gülen define Sufism? How does this differ from an Orientalist definition?
Sufism refers to an Islamic science with its own methods, principles, and rules, and as
pure esotericism and/or exotericism in that it satisfies those who are content with merely exoteric
practices, but nevertheless also contains the deepest and most profound esoteric meaning for
those who desire a closer, more mystical relationship with God (Koc, 2006). Gülen sees Sufism
as the humanitarian love that is the solution for providing inner peace to many individuals.
Sufism requires strict spiritual self-discipline and the obligation that the individual's heart be
purified and his or her senses and faculties employed in the way of God, which means that the
traveler can then begin to live on a spiritual level (Gülen, 2004). This is an ancient spiritual
tradition of learning how to know your heart and to act, a discipline that adjusts to the needs of
the individual, the time and the place. Sufi practices are applicable to daily modern life
regardless of one’s spiritual direction and fit in with modernity, according to Gülen’s wisdom
(Ladinsky & Ansari 2012). Sufis look at in their heart and share qualities like humility,
asceticism, pietism and dedication to good deeds and Gülen utilizes this religious language well
in shaping the hearts and minds of his students along these lines. The intention is not to turn
them into religious zealots, but into social workers who strive for the betterment of humanity in
general. He describes his students as dervishes, angels, philosophers, ascetics, holy mentors
healers and similar and the altruistic Companions of the Islamic Golden Age (Gülen, 2009, p.
12).
First of all, my study focused on the way Gülen, as my Sufi master, facilitated my healing with
his civil, moral, and holistic engagement model through his Sufi writings. The new Sufi therapy
model that I propose may offer a new pathway to social altruism with the potential to alter the
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culturally sensitive alternative personal therapeutic approach for some individuals, thereby filling
the gaps in social work practice for healing others.
Personally, I have belonged to the Hizmet Movement for thirty years as a student, teacher,
journalist, writer and volunteer. I have read Gülen’s books and listened to Gülen’s teachings. An
advantage of the insider role is that it enables access to Gülen’s perspective through “The
Emerald Hills of the Heart” in both English and Turkish versions, and, as a result of my insider
privilege and purity of intention, I am comfortably able to interpret concepts of Sufism and
answer questions using a personal narrative and am also ready to experience the Sufi stages. I
managed my biases and guard against inaccurate distortions when analyzing any strong
dissenting views, especially when considering the likelihood and impact of a potential risk.
Sarioprak (2001) calls Gülen “a Sufi in his own way”, and says his approach helps social
restoration and peace building starting from individuals, groups, families and whole societies.
This is a style of “bottom-up” social change which is similar to that of the famous Muslim
sociologist Ibn Khaldun, who has an understanding of building peace in which philosophy,
individual efforts and sacrifices remain essential for Sufis belief system. Khaldun says, “Peace in
society is possible through willingness of an individual to subordinate to the group. Without this,
peace and social development are not possible” (Saritoprak, 2001, 2007). Gülen’s modernist Sufi
theology is predicated on the rehabilitation and vernacular adaptation of modern science in new
ways, appropriating its methods and potentialities to enable the Muslim subject to achieve
mastery of the world (Gülay, 2007). Gülen holds that the tendency toward factionalism exists
within human nature and also within the Sufi culture through self-purification. A pointed goal
should be to make this tendency non-threatening and even beneficial for all humanity. Without a
positive channel for its outlet within humans, this tendency develops in negative directions. This
is especially the case when ignorance, uncivilized behavior and extremism contribute in
fomenting social diseases such that societies come to fight each other, severely and incessantly
(Saritoprak & Griffith 2005, p. 425). By contrast, as knowledge, gnosis and tolerance spread,
society will approach the “line of peace” towards understanding and social reconciliation (Gülen
, 1998, p. 72-74).
In fact, Gülen’s Sufism directs the organic interconnectedness between one’s
inner spirituality and outer acts of piety, that are to be reflected, enriched and perfected by
interaction with society. This is highlighted in his idea of a socially engaged Sufism, which is
portrayed as a synthesis of sobriety, activity and sociality. Gülen is convinced, and tries to
convince others, that genuine Sufis are the seekers of spiritual progress in the increased
happiness of others (Kim, 2008, p. 366-367). Gülen stresses the inter-connectedness of
‘internalization and externalization’ in faith. This idea of socially engaged Sufism is a
reactivation of the Turkish Sufi tradition, distinguishing itself in a contemporary context in
which, as Michel describes, “many Sufis divorce themselves from real life and engage in useless
metaphysical speculation” (Michel, 2005, p. 348).
The historical development of Sufism in Islam can be periodized in many ways. The most
common periodization is thus: following the Age of Happiness (the time of the Prophet and His
companions), the period of asceticism, period of tasawwuf, period of “unity of Being”, period of
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tariqa (orders), and finally, the present (Kara, 1985, p. 77). Gülen refers many examples
connected with the Age of Happiness, follows in his Emerald Hills of the Heart many other Sufi
scholars who “mostly belong to the period of tasawwuf” and offers a positive psychotherapy,
Sufi therapy model (Gökçek, 2005). Mohamad Shatii (1989) states that Sufism and
psychotherapy both distinguish between primary process and secondary process thinking, and
even talk about these phenomena in remarkably similar terms. Similar to psychotherapy, Sufi
therapy places an emphasis on the relationship between the seeker and the guide. Both methods
have the ability for the therapist to experience momentary oneness with the patient, the
experience of serenity, security, competence and confidence (Shatii, 1989, p. 157). Gülen’s
writings are the best source for discovering the Sufi therapy and are worth studying, exploring
and extracting data, for purposes of new knowledge production. A crucial difference between
Western psychology and Sufism is that, whereas the former places a comparatively greater value
on developing the analytic intellect, the latter gives ultimate importance to cultivating the
intuitive capacity of the heart. In Gulen’s rationale, doing service for others’ happiness is an
imperative way of reflecting and strengthening ‘Godconsciousness’ in daily life, as the vertical
relation of one’s consciousness with God leads him/her to be humble in his/her horizontal
relationship and enables him/her to love others. This humanitarian love motivates one to actively
engage in ‘service for humanity’ (Kim, 2008, p. 367).
Islamic psychology, or Ilm-al Nafsiat (psychological sciences), refer to the study of Nafs and are
related to psychology, psychiatry, and neurosciences (Deuraseh and Abu Talib, 2005). Al-ilaj al-
nafsy (psychological therapy) in Islamic medicine is simply defined as the study of mental illness
and is equivalent to psychotherapy, as it deals with curing/ treatment of ideas, soul and
vegetative mind. The psychiatric physician was referred to as altabib al-ruhani or tabib al-
qalb (spiritual physician) (Deuraseh and Abu Talib, 2005). The modern discipline of psychology
began in the 19th century. In the pre-modern Islamic context, the term "psychology" referred to
the study of the human mind and behaviour, while the term "mind" referred to human intellect
and consciousness.
Gülen encourages mindfulness, dealing with the self and reaching the self-purification based on
the heart-based attitude of helping others. His thinking has certain key attitudes similar to Rumi’s
teaching; the so-called “attitudinal foundations: being non-judgmental and accepting or
observing without evaluation; being patient; having ‘‘a beginner’s mind’’, i.e., meeting every
situation as if for the first time; trusting one’s intuition; non-striving and experiencing the present
moment without focusing on future goals; and letting-go, in the sense of neither grasping nor
pushing away” (Mirdal, 2012, p. 1205). These principles are comparable to the five key concepts
of Gülen’s mindfulness morality: “observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging of
inner experience and non-reactivity to inner experience” (Baer et al., 2006). Buddhism-based
Sufi therapy models use heart-based positive mind system such as wisdom, mindfulness and
compassion similar to Islam-based Sufi model; however, it is not exactly same. Several
therapeutic approaches based on mindfulness have developed, e.g., ‘‘Mindfulness-Based Stress
Reduction’’ (Kabat-Zinn, 1990), ‘‘Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy’’ (Segal et al., 2002),
‘‘Dialectical Behavior Therapy’’ (Linehan, 1993, 1994) and ‘‘Acceptance and Commitment
Therapy’’ (Hayes et al., 1999). Gülen resembles the teaching techniques of Rumi, since his
writings and poems cover very similar theories and techniques of healing from an Islamic and
Sufi perspective. According to Gülen, mindfulness empowers an element of acceptance that
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differentiates it from other forms of treatment that also use meditation. It is different from the
Buddhist techniques, for example (Gülen, 2006). Acceptance involves acknowledging thoughts
and feelings without attempting to change them (Mirdal, 2012, p. 1206). Gülen’s advocates are
deeply embedded in local Muslim and non-Muslim communities and convey a sense of
continuity while intertwining with modern discourses of commerce, science and progress. I will
explore the notion that Gulen’s Sufism, teaching and poetry, could be a tool for the useful of
meaning in the alliance between client and therapist, especially when they belong to different
cultures. This new transpersonalism enhances and promotes respect for self-determination, while
empowering the individual and facilitating bio-psycho-social-spiritual growth (Cowley, 1993).
My main objective is to clarify and unfold the truths inhering in the final point of Fethullah
Gülen’s Sufi way, that is, expound upon the fruits of self-journeying. My main question is how
do I immerse myself in Gullen’s Sufi teachings to experience healing and extract healing
principles? Then my sub-questions are:
1) What healing principles do I glean from my immersion in Gullen’s Sufi model?
2) How does the Sufi path benefit therapeutic practice in social work?
Epistemology & Ontological Orientation
Knowledge, as understood in the Sufi tradition within Islam, is generally described in
terms of gnosis acquired through unveiling. And indeed, the writings of Fethullah Gülen are
grounded in his multiple experiences of unveiling. Gülen points to these experiences in different
parts of his works through the use of a number of concepts and phrases such as ilham
(inspiration), sünuhat (accesses), hads (spiritual analogy), tuluat (offshoots) and tahattur
(remembering). Besides these references to unveiling in the writings of Gülen, four sources of
gnosis, namely Muhammad (pbuh), the Universe, the Quran and Conscience appear as other
important aspects of Gülen’s Sufi epistemology (Eris, 2006, p. 100). Gülen's ontological
position, and the one that will be followed in this thesis, is thus action-based, and practical, but
defies identification with this community and his Sufi followers.
In Sufism, knowledge is a type of information which can be obtained through the human senses
or through the revelations and inspirations of God. A key understanding of Sufi life or a Sufi
order means remove unnecessary needs from your life and solve the ego problem with your
heart. Sufism emphasizes a spiritually meaningful life in contrast to a materialized
and monotonous life style. Sufi therapy offers simple lifestyle with Sufi order or can be without
following any sect, cult or order. Sometimes it is understood as information that is relevant to an
unseen reality or to gaining true understanding of a subject. Knowledge in Islam can be
categorized in different ways according to different bases. When categorized according to its
methods, Gülen divides it into two groups: knowledge that is obtained through the intellect and
knowledge that is obtained through transmission. Knowledge that is obtained by transmission is
also of two kinds and that knowledge which is called discovered through Islamic spirituality and
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inspiration can be either abstract or direct (Eris, 2006, p. 103). Gülen states that at the beginning
of unveiled knowledge, the inner faculties of the Sufi’s heart begin to face toward God (Gülen,
2001). He explains that the Sufi begins his journey with abstract knowledge, and this knowledge
leads the Sufi to belief. Then, belief generates detailed knowledge; and detailed knowledge leads
to an intense spiritual life. Finally, this practice generates direct knowledge (Gülen, 2006). I will
draw on the deep wells of this teaching and show how they affect my self-journeying while
feeling the Sufi stages and writing poetry as a part of my auto ethnography. I will conceptualize
this process in simple poetry that provides applicable poetic quotations and thereby creates an
effective Sufi therapy conversation model for social work practice. This journey experience can
be varied from person to person.
Paradigm/ Theoretical and Conceptual Framework
My conceptual framework is transpersonal spirituality based on a developmental perspective that

acknowledges access to "higher" levels of being, that is, to the "unitive self or Real Self' beyond
the personal” that is metaphysical and transcendent person (Cowley, 1993, p. 527).
Transpersonal psychoanalytic approaches incorporate diverse worldviews. Existential theory, for
example, focuses on meaning-making, and it operates from a perspective that emphasizes that
authentic meaning comes from personal experiences of a transpersonal or sacred nature (Canda,
2006). Transpersonal Psychodynamic Theories look at psychotherapy as healing for the soul
(Cowley, 1993). Carl Jung’s version explains the categories of preconscious, personal
unconscious, and collective unconscious as universal potentials for meaning which he terms
“archetypes” and synchronicity (Canda & Furman, 1999a, Canda & Smith 2001). Roberto
Assagioli invokes misidentification with the sub-personalities of the lower unconscious and
making contact with the higher conscious - that so-called “Transpersonal Self” (Assagioli, 1973,
1993, Robbins et al, 2006). Then there is Abraham Maslow, who developed the theory of Self-
Actualization and Self-Transcendence based on the notion of living with dignity and worth,
rather than living based on principles of acquisitiveness/materialism (Cowley, 1993). There is no
unified theory as yet, since ‘transpersonal’ is an umbrella term, covering a multitude of theories,
and debates about them continue. Transpersonal social work literature is a newly developing area
(Canda & Furman, 1999b). Spirituality/Transpersonal practices are not often taught as part of
social work education. "Transpersonal content refers to any experience in which an individual
transcends the limitations of identifying exclusively with the ego or personality" and captures the
heart of truth (Vaughan, 1979, p. 104). Transpersonal content encompasses the discussion of
"paranormal" and/or spiritual phenomena (Boorstein, 1986, p. 123). Such experiences are not
valued as the goal of therapy, but rather as potential resources for growth and empowerment.
Transpersonalism provides an opportunity to enhance the worker's ability to respect and honour
client self-determination, facilitates bio-psycho-social-spiritual growth and development, and
empowers even the most vulnerable in our society (Cowley, 1996). It is a method inclusive of
all spiritual traditions and holistic, and one which seeks to effect structural change by focusing
on expanding individual, group, and societal consciousness to transcend the paradigm of
modernity in order to attain non-dualism, oneness, and interconnectedness. Challenges to
dualistic thinking mean that the personal and the political are one similar to feminist formulation,
and are inextricably interconnected, rather than being seen as juxtaposed. Personal experience is
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validated and behaviour is legitimized rather than being pathologized. Social worker and client,
as seekers, are empowered through a process of growth and development through mutual self-
knowledge, self-care, and self-validation (Cowley, 1993, 1996). A transpersonal approach to
client care encompasses realms of expanding consciousness, unitive social and spiritual
connectedness, and human purpose and potentiality. A holistic model of practice is more
comprehensive with the incorporation of the "phenomenological, the intuitive and the
transpersonal" (Cowley, 1996, p. 668). A transpersonal approach affords the worker added
context, content, and processes for addressing environmental, societal, and cultural stressors,
non-pathologic transnational phenomena, and the grief associated with human existential
suffering. Spiritual seeking is a valid and healthy human urge (Rowan ,1993, Cowley, 1993,
Canda & Furman, 1999).
Methodological frameworks
Gülen’s writings, as noted earlier, are the most comprehensive source of information about Sufi
therapy, and can be profitably mined in order to extract data and insight for the purposes of
gaining new knowledge. The central difference between Western psychology and Sufism is that
the former emphasises the intellect, while the latter accords the highest importance to nurturing
the intuitive capacities of the heart. Sufism promotes a heart-based helping system as an
important characteristic of Gülen’s approach to Sufism, however, is his tolerance about issues
most often criticized by orthodox Muslims. Thus Gülen does not envisage a Sufi life as an
ascetic one, living on the mountains. Today’s ideal Sufi should live among the people and
manage to be with God, that is, he or she should strive in the way of God, while at the same time
representing Islam in the best way (Gökçek, 2005). According to Gülen, self-possession,
steadfastness, seriousness, profundity and resolution are the main aspects of the gnostic.
Therefore, in his Sufi teaching, there is no room for any laxity, impertinence, or conceit. For him,
the more the Sufi knows and obtains gnosis, the more he follows self-possession and
steadfastness (Gülen, 2009, p. 147). The methods of attaining gnosis consist of mind, conscience,
heart, and reflection (Gülen, 2009, p. 148). Methods of attaining gnosis are generally considered
to be comparable to faculties of consciousness in psychology. The heart also is a fortress in
which one can maintain sound reasoning and thinking, as well as a healthy spirit and body. As all
human feelings and emotions take shelter and seek protection in this fortress, the heart must be
protected and kept safe from infection. If the heart is infected, it will be very difficult to restore
it; if it dies, it is almost impossible to revive it. If the heart is alive, all of these elements and
faculties are alive; if the heart is diseased, it is difficult for the elements and faculties mentioned
to remain sound. This saying shows the importance of the heart for one's [spiritual] health
(Gülen, 2004, p. 23 )
• Research Methodology
Sufi poetry, music and dance have long been used for mental health intervention in order to heal
and cure people who are experiencing anxiety, depression and stress (Mirdal, 2012, p. 1008). I
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used autoethnography and its technique of poetry as a Sufi poet. Poems talking about the
pleasures of drinking bitter red wine and intoxication, or spending a long dark night of passion
with a beautiful one are quite common in Sufi literature. Autoethnography is a genre of writing
and research that connects the personal to the cultural, placing the self within a social context
(Reed-Danahay, 1997). Gülen is the greatest Sufi of this century, and his positive and curative
sermons, speeches, books and poems contain a great deal of healing insight suitable for diverse
populations. As a bicultural person, I studied Gülen’s Sufi texts and poems and construct a
poetical healing narrative both in English and Turkish versions. My spiritual guide is Gülen's
techniques and methods between May 21-June 30 in Kitchener, Canada as my “Erbain”, I
generated and extract data from its context, analyse Gülen’s Sufi discourse, and incorporate my
autoethnographic reflections in the poetic form. My target was to extract a new alternative
intervention and psychotherapy model through thematic thick descriptions and personal reflexive
analysis. I did not, however, study the political, historical and social implications of the activities
of the Gülen community in Canada and abroad, because these have been dealt with in various
scholarly works. I focused instead on the holistic Sufi therapy healing model, because it is
important for newcomers to a country to adapt to the structures and order of that country‘s social,
economic, political and cultural landscape. This new model may have significant impact on the
struggles of multicultural communities, thereby also having an effect on mental health
intervention, and on reshaping current healing techniques. Introducing concepts, images and
metaphors based on Gülen’s universal concepts and key principles could constitute a meaningful
alternative to mindfulness-based therapy, his-inspired practice in trans-cultural psychotherapy.
My method was consist of operationalized readings of Gülen’s existing Sufi poems and texts,
and the creation of a content/discourse analysis of Gülen’s poetic healing methods and finally the
creation of a journal based on a period of intense Sufi inspired reflection, that provided useful,
transferable and applicable universal techniques for a therapeutic model. My qualitative research
was thus use autoethnography as the main research tool: i.e. self-reflection, and ethnography of
human culture. I personalized and drew on my own experiences to extend understanding of a
Sufi discipline and culture. Such evocative writing practices have been labelled
‘autoethnography’ (Reed-Danahay, 1997). They consist of an intensely rich, full, and detailed
narrative from the perspective of the person who lives and experiences the research phenomena,
seeking to understand the meaning of Gülen’s socio-psychological standing and the life-feeling
that comes from being a Sufi Dervish. I used special “zikr” (reciting several God names in
special numbers of time) and a special midnight prayers during erbain based on Gülen’s
instructions on his texts. I have tried to explain in detail the stages of this journeying of the soul,
which the Sufis experience in my spiritual journeying, under the titles of the Carnal, Evil-
Commanding Soul, the Self-Condemning or Self-Accusing Soul, the Soul Receiving Inspiration,
the Soul at Rest, the Soul Well-Pleased (with God, with however God treats it), the Soul Pleasing
(to God), and the Perfected Soul, or the Purified or Innocent Soul (Gülen, 2004, p.219-220 )
Findings: 4 Main Categories for 40 Concepts for 6 weeks therapy
Findings consisted with 4 categories as thankfulness, purity of intention reflection and patience
covered up 40 concepts in my 40 poetic writings and established 6 weeks therapy as a Sufi
therapy model. Sufis use shukr to mean using one's body, abilities, feelings, and thoughts
bestowed upon one to fulfill the purpose of his or her creation: being thankful to the Creator for
what He has bestowed. Such thankfulness is to be reflected in the person's actions or daily life, in
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speech and in the heart, by admitting that all things are directly from Him, and by feeling
gratitude for them (Gulen, 2004, p. 94). Faithfulness, patience, truthfulness and sincerity are as
intrinsic and essential to the perfect human being as loyalty is regarded as a source, and sincerity
as a sweet water originating from. These are as air and water that one who drinks uninterruptedly
from this water for forty days will find channels of wisdom opened from his or her heart to his or
her tongue, and that such a person will always speak wisdom (Gulen, 2004, p. 60-61 ). This is
my summarized result in one poem:
Sufi Therapy
O Sufi! You’re freed from a life of restriction
Turning to God within the horizon of the heart
Journeying toward God, journeying in God
Whatever you do, it is journeying from God
Patience is half of your spiritual life
O Sufi! The other half thankfulness be
God loves the patient, God loves the truthful
Surely God is with the sincere and the loyal
Self-journeying in the valley of my heart
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Seeking gifts from the Owner of the heart
I seek refuge in You from carnal thoughts
I seek with You a soul content in You
The duty of thankfulness holds great emotion
Using my helplessness and destitution
Very few people live in true full awareness
Feeling deep need to be grateful and thankful
The duty of thankfulness holds great emotion
Using my helplessness and destitution
Very few people live in true full awareness
Feeling deep need to be grateful and thankful
Free-will is a pillar of conscience
The most valuable gift for humanity
True freedom is fleeing from the ego
This is the single goal of my journeying
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Truthfulness sought is the solidest path
In all my thoughts words and deed
On levels both social and individual
Truthfulness profits the truthfulness path
The stages of repentance engage in self-renewal
Eradicating injustice, supporting justice and right
Being frightened remembering past sins and regrets
Reforming the self by removing spiritual defects
Purity is the state of a heart that’s at peace
You, the most purified, chosen, and godly ones
Pure essence, extract or the cream of what’s fine
Your goal is becoming a sign of transcendence
Self-criticism opens doors to great peace and tranquillity
Creating peacefulness, fear and the horizon of hope
Inspires anxiety in the heart, heavy awareness of great duty
Planning life to reach the horizon of perfect, universal humanity
Patience is an essential and most important dimension of Sufi therapy as is crowned with
resignation, the highest spiritual rank in the sight of God in Sufism and Islam. ”. It is the source
of power for those advancing toward this final point. Moreover, patience has an important
characteristic of those believers who are “the most advanced in belief, spirituality, nearness to
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God, and who guide others to the truth (Gülen, 1994). There are other definitions of patience as
well. For example, preserving one's manners in the face of misfortune; being steadfast when
confronted with events, and showing no sign of being deterred; never giving in to one's carnal
desires and the impulses of one's temperament; accepting the commandments of the Qur'an and
the Sunna as a sort of invitation to Paradise; and sacrificing all possessions, including one's soul
and beloved ones, for the sake of the True, Beloved One. The characteristics of patience can be
grouped into five categories: enduring difficulties associated with being a true servant of God or
steadfastness in performing regular acts of worship; resisting temptations of the carnal self and
Satan to commit sins; enduring heavenly or earthly calamities, which includes resignation to
Divine decrees; being steadfast in following the right path and not allowing worldly attractions to
cause deviation; and showing no haste in realizing hopes or plans that require a certain length of
time to achieve. With respect to its degrees, patience can be divided into six categories: showing
patience for the sake of God; showing patience and attributing it to God (being convinced that
God enables one to show patience); enduring patiently whatever comes from God, knowing that
He acts from His Wisdom; being resigned to whatever happens in the way of God; showing
patience by not disclosing the mysteries of one's achieved spiritual station and to preserve one's
nearness to God; and resolving to fulfill one's mission of communicating God's Message to
people despite one's deepest desire to die and meet with God.
My self-reflection on this concept was remarkable. First, I observed that how remarkable is a
believer's affair? Always it is to his or her credit. Such a condition is only there for believers.
Divine aid always given in turn for your patience if something good is happening to you: Saying
thanks to God will be your advantage. If something is bad, then simply endure it. This too is
advantage – the role of the servant. If you are a lover, do not complain of love’s afflictions.
Others should not be informed of your woe. Embody instead the perfection of patience. This
highest spiritual rank or position is not reached through actions. God causes suffering, but
equips you with patience. Subjected to sorrow, one should remain silent. Rising through patience
is the rank given by God. Being steadfast is in holy duty, enduring displeasure. God's servant
must suffer, and of aloe wood to burn. God’s travelers should burn and boil with His love.
Consumed by affliction, is uncomplaining of love’s relation. Crushed by difficulty or duty, is
heavy as mountains. The Dervish or Sufi should never complain says Rumi and told a story. In
my poetic way of explaining this tale as following: “Is strength for the knees, light for the eyes.
A substance is given for maintaining life: A wheat grain is buried. In the bosom of the earth,
germinating beneath, then rising above. It must come into the air after a fierce struggle below. Be
sown and threshed, and fresh ground in a mill. After that, it must be kneaded, baked in an oven,
and chewed then by the teeth, by stomach and by bowel. To attain true humanity, all must be
"sieved" or "distilled." Many times over in search of true essence. Else; Potential is stunted, full
humanity unreachable.”
Forgiveness
As a Sufi, when I am hurt, insulted or faced injustice, I have three options to deal with these
feelings: either to forgive ignore and forget. Some individuals may choose to hate, harbour,
grudge and rancour and live to seek revenge. Both choices are hard. But their results are
opposite. Hatred, bitterness and hostility intoxicate your body (Hallowel, 2004). Negative
feelings can throw you into frustration, stress, anxiety, depression, weaken your system and
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make your nerves tense. Anger, rancour and revenge are debilitating sentiments that poison the
soul and add nothing but pain. Harbouring animosity and bitterness consumes a tremendous
amount of valuable energy. Sufi therapy uses forgiveness as a tool that transcends the soul and
frees you from your destructive negative energy. Forgiveness heals you not only emotionally but
also physically and mentally (Ayad, 2008, p. 331). It is worth it to get rid of the burden of anger,
hatred and receiving support. Forgiveness has been a prevailing feature of Sufi therapy that
comforting to promote person’s positive emotions, reduce anxiety and stress and readjust your
hormonal balance, blood pressure and heart rate.
As a matter of fact, lots of people refuse to forgive, thinking it a sign of weakness; they think that
by forgiving they are surrendering to their offenders. On the contrary, by forgiving you cease to
be the victim of hatred and anger and you triumph over your own evil. Sufi believes that
whosoever is patient and forgives, indeed that is of the steadfast heart of things. Whoever
worries too much sicken own body. A Sufi keeps imploring until reach to the highest rank that
the self is really purified.
As my poetry I was saying that:
“Qualify yourself with the qualities of God
You are the microcosm of the macrocosm
Where God’s attributes, manifests are reflected
Your angelic character is innate but hidden in you”
I sought forgiveness through the most beautiful words during my erbain period. I recited several
prayers such as: “My God, Surely I have been one of the wrongdoers, have mercy on me,”
“Forgive all believers; you are the Most Merciful of the merciful,” “O my Lord! I try my best to
keep my covenant with You,” “I seek refuge in You from the evil of what I have done,” “ I
acknowledge Your favors upon me, acknowledge my sins,” “So, forgive me, for truly no one
forgives sins except You, ” “I beg for help. Rectify for all my states and leave me not to myself.
Even for a moment shorter than the blinking of an eye! I am helpless. Increase my knowledge let
not my heart stray after You have guided me.”
Discussion
Depression is a major public health problem, in part because like other chronic conditions it
tends to run a relapsing course (Judd, 1997; Keller et al., 1984). Without treatment, people
suffering recurrent depression experience relapse at rates as high as 80% (Frank et al., 1990;
Kupfer et al., 1992; Prien & Kupfer, 1986). In response to this challenge, mindfulness-based
cognitive therapy (MBCT) with Sufi therapy was developed with a specific focus on preventing
depression, anxiety and stress as well as relapse/recurrence of depression (Segal, Williams, &
Teasdale, 2002). Sufi therapy related to MBCT which was derived from a model of cognitive
vulnerability to depressive relapse (Segal, Williams, Teasdale, & Gemar, 1996; Teasdale, 1988;
Teasdale, Segal, & Williams, 1995) that assumes that individuals who have previously
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experienced episodes of major depression differ from those who have not in the patterns of
negative thinking that become activated in mildly depressed mood. Specifically, it is assumed
that in recovered depressed patients, compared with never-depressed controls, dysphoria is more
likely to activate patterns of self-devaluative depress genic thinking, similar to those that
prevailed in preceding episodes. Considerable evidence supports this assumption (Ingram,
Miranda, & Segal, 1998; Segal, Gemar, & Williams, 1999). Repeated associations between
depressed mood and negative thinking patterns during successive episodes of major depression
increase the tendency for depressogenic thinking to be reactivated subsequently by depressed
mood. This provides an explanation for the findings that risk of further episodes increases with
every consecutive episode and that successive episodes of major depression require less and less
external provocation by stressful life events (Kendler, Thornton, & Gardner, 2000; Lewinsohn,
Allen, Seeley, & Gotlib, 1999; Post, 1992). My experience appears that the processes mediating
relapse/recurrence become more autonomous with repeated experiences of depression. If a
transcendent person can learn to be aware of negative thinking patterns reactivated during
dysphoria and disengage from those ruminative depressive cycles (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991) that
Sufi therapy can change negative to positive thinking patterns. Sufi therapy is designed to
achieve these aims.
Implication
Sufi therapy similar but not as same as to Yoga therapy, however, Gülen’s mindfulness method
is more connected to MBCT. It is a manualized group skills-training program (Segal et al.,
2002) based on an integration of aspects of CBT for depression (Beck et al., 1979) with
components of the MBSR program developed by Kabat-Zinn (1990) applicable to Sufi therapy.
It is designed to teach patients in remission from recurrent major depression to become more
aware of, and to relate differently to, their thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations—for
example, relating to thoughts and feelings as passing events in the mind, rather than identifying
with them or treating them as necessarily accurate readouts on reality. The program teaches skills
that allow individuals to disengage from habitual (“automatic”) dysfunctional cognitive routines,
in particular depression related ruminative thought patterns, as a way to reduce future risk of
relapse and recurrence of depression. After an initial individual orientation session, the Sufi
therapy program must be delivered by an instructor, a guide in 6 weekly- 40 days- 2-hr group-
training sessions involving up to 12 depressed patients. During that period, the program includes
daily homework exercises. Homework invariably includes some form of guided (taped) or
unguided awareness exercises directed at increasing moment-by-moment nonjudgmental
awareness of bodily sensations, thoughts, and feelings together with exercises designed to
integrate application of awareness skills into daily life for self-control, self-purification and self-
realization (Teasdale, & Ma 2004).
In conclusion, Sufi therapy with conjunction of MBCT is a cost-efficient and efficacious

intervention to reduce stress, depression, anxiety and relapse/recurrence in patients with
recurrent major depressive disorder. Both Sufi therapy and MBCT is most effective in preventing
relapse/recurrence that is unrelated to environmental provocation. This finding is consistent with
Sufi therapy and MBCT having its effects, as intended, through the disruption of autonomous,
depression relapse-related cognitive-affective ruminative processes reactivated by dysphoria at
times of potential relapse on me personally. Increased mindfulness is relevant to the prevention
457
of relapse/recurrence of depression, as it allows early detection of relapse-related patterns of
negative thinking, feelings, and body sensations and so allows them to be “nipped in the bud” at
a stage when that could be much easier than it would be if such warning signs are not noticed or
are ignored. Formulation of specific depression prevention strategies (such as involving family
members in an early warning system, keeping written suggestions to engage in activities that are
helpful in interrupting relapse-engendering processes, or looking out for habitual negative
thoughts) are also included in the later stages of the initial next 6-week phase in Sufi therapy.
This paradigm conceptualizes the healthy person as an individual who can pilot his or her own
existential fate in the here-and-now environment, and who can have far greater self-regulatory
control over his or her own body than heretofore imagined. Concomitant with this new paradigm
is an attempt to develop and improve techniques by which people can self-observe their
behavior, change it (if desired), and then continually modify and monitor it according to their
needs. Thus, what we call "spiritual journeying" is one of the significant ways of advancing
toward and reaching the certain events which touch the spirit and rouse distress may cause
physical ailments that we call psychosomatic illnesses (Gülen, 2004, p. 216). Despite its satanic
characteristics such as haughtiness, arrogance, egotism, jealousy, injustice, and enmity, all of
which break the wings of the spirit. (Gülen, 2004, p. 218). the purified soul is the double of the
spirit, continuously trying to keep away from evil, and always advancing toward good until it
finally comes to a point: The human perfection as a universal personhood.
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Appendix I
These are my interview Questions guideline to myself during 40 days of data collection period
related to 40 Sufi concepts. Sufism helps a person to be increasingly aware of his/her purpose of
life -- namely, unfailing service to his Lord and Creator. The question a modern person faces is
how to develop humane qualities, good behavior, love for others, enthusiasm for self-
improvement, and an active desire to serve others, make a difference in the world, and to
persevere in this desire in the face of setbacks and failures. Gülen provides a guideline with the
tools of discernment who wants to study of Sufism. A person must acknowledge his/her own
limitations, recognize the need for controlling his/her impulses, and find motivation to strive for
virtue and knowledge. This, according to Gülen, is what Sufism is all about. The spiritual life
should be based on asceticism, regular worship, abstention from all major and minor sins,
sincerity and purity of intention, love and yearning, and the individual's admission of his/her
essential impotence and destitution became the subject-matter of Sufism. Sufism is for those who
seek a deeper understanding of Life and Love, for those I will ask such regular questions that any
Sufi must answer. In 80 days of my erbain periods, I will be writing thematic and reflexive
analysis to selected forty concepts of Sufism:
Who am I?
Why am I here?
What is life and death?
Why is there suffering?
Where am I coming from?
Where am I going?
How Sufism spiritual path helps you to extract a psychotherapy method regarding:
• Integrate everything that happens in your life

• Learn the lesson that is in front of you and move on
• Get out of the way for the Divine within you
• Find your place in the Universe
• Discover who you are
• Follow the path of Fethullah Gülen as mystical poet.
468
• ‘Connect the dots’ and meaning of life
Further questions would be:
• How can that simple sentences, poetries or actions evoke overwhelming emotions, and
provide cure for stress, depression and anxiety?
• How does the mystical path become primarily a psychological treatment model?
• Do you improve your knowledge and how can you achieve inner peace?
• Do you feel extraordinary mystical experience, expressed in states of ecstasy, inspired
utterances, visions, and dreams?
Appendix II Table 1 40 Spiritual Concepts
Main categories
Purity of Intention Reflection Thankfulness Patience
1Love Self-supervision The soul Hope
2Truthfulness Freedom The heart Sobriety
3Rightness Self-Journeying Altruism Sadness and sorrow
4Sincere friendship Fleeing Perfect goodness Repentance
5Conscious Self-criticism Human poverty Asceticism
6Forgiveness Self-supervision Rejoicing, confidence Piety
7Attention and regards Self-purification Revelation-Inspiration Abstinence
8Straightforwardness Sainthood Modesty Helplessness
9Universal personhood Wisdom Passion Powerlessness
10Unity Self-possession Knowledge Wakefulness
469
470
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471
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472
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473
474

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Master of Social Work

Writings by Faruk Arslan

Patterns of psychosocial relationships between

Specialized: Anxiety, Stress, Depression, Relationship Concerns, Pain Management, Grief,

BOOK CHAPTER IN ACADAMIA

THE LIST OF RECENT ACADEMIC WRITINGS

July, 2014. Transcendence Sincerity: A heart-based sufi mindfulness Spiritual practice

SOME OF NON-ACADEMIC BOOK JOURNALISM PUBLICATIONS

I am an internationally published researcher and was a well-known journalist-reporter in Turkey,

Novo Medical Services April 2016 to present

May 2017 to Present Gladshteyn & Baskakova Psychology Professional Corporation

2012-2017 Volunteer Organizer, KW Area Intercultural Dialog Institute (IDI)

2015 to present PhD candidate, Human Relationships at Lutheran Seminary

BURSARIES AND AWARDS

Profession is founded on humanitarian and egalitarian ideals:

• Intrinsic worth and dignity of every human being

• Respect for individuality

Purpose: Effect change at individual and

Focus: Patterns of psychosocial

enhance – developmental capacities

Canadian Association of Social Workers, 2005

Generalist-Eclectic Approach to Direct Social Work Practice:

1. A person-in-environment perspective that is informed by ecological systems theory

Coady & Lehman, Theoretical Perspectives for Direct Social Work

What Are Strengths:

Therapist Intervention (Treatment): 60% therapeutic alliance

Community, Institutional and Recreational Resources

6 Virtues and 24 Character Strengths

1. Wisdom and Knowledge 2. Courage

[Peterson & Seligman, 2004]

1. Give preeminence to the client's understanding of the facts

Framework for Assessment [Cowger, 1997]

Adaptation of the ROPES Model

Resources - focus on resources:

Options - focus on present, with an emphasis on a person's choice

Possibilities - focus on future, with an emphasis on imagination, creativity, a vision of

Exceptions - focus is on when the problem was better, or less of a problem

Solutions - focus is on constructive solution, not solving problems

The Strengths Perspective:

▪ Fit theories in classroom to work in the field

▪ Use a broad range of theoretical frameworks, eclectically and tentatively, as adjuncts to an

▪ Natural, intuitive, interpersonal and creative problem-solving abilities

Coady, N. A reflective/inductive model of

[W. Deming in Fischer, Toward Evidence-

• Focus on the science of evidence-based and evaluation-informed practice is not intended

The Scientific Practitioner:

Phase III Intervention

Phase IV Systematic Evaluation

• Increasing pace of change and technological advances

1. Dialetical thought [M. Basseches, 1989]

2. Problem finding/postformal thinking [P. Arlin, 1990]

3. Triarchic Theory of Intelligence [R. Sternberg, 1988]

** According to Sternberg, this is the most important component of intelligence

Instructor: Jon Boyd

Oct 17, 2012

Values Clarification & Self-Awareness Essay

The Idealism of Social Work and Our Realities

The Social Work Profession focus on patterns of psychosocial relationships between

interests that several multiple, multicultural and multidimensional perspectives of practice

Marxist, critical, postmodernist, Indigenous-centered, post-structural, critical constructionist,

relational-cultural, ecological, conflict and change, concepts, and psychological, cross-cultural,

enhance my and clients self-determination and self-realization capacities, advocate for

distribution of resources, and collaboratively facilitate supportive counselling between people