Table of Contents
Part 1. 3
Confidentiality explanation. 3
Building rapport 3
Empathic responses and the reflection of feeling. 4
Open ended questions exploring client situation. 5
Summarising and paraphrasing. 5
Active listening. 6
Outlining ways for improvement 6
Part 2. 7
Use of self during working with others. 7
Understanding positionality as social worker 8
Managing feelings and assumptions and its impacts. 8
Consideration of personal attributes. 9
Integration of theory. 11
References. 12
Confidentiality
is something that is one of the most important parts of an interview. I have
realized that it is essential to have the confidence of the interviewee. Being
trustworthy is a part of being a professional. The interviewee must be
confident that the information that he is sharing with me is kept confidential.
It helps in building trust. In this interview, I have interviewed Jimmy who
used to be an addict and a seller of drugs. Thus, he had been involved in
violent activities as well. It is very hard for a person like Jimmy to talk
about his past life.
However,
at the beginning of the interview, I had made it clear that if I come to know
something that I feel shall be harmful to him, I shall inform the authorities
keeping the interest of his safety in my mind, he agreed to this. As stated by Chenoweth and McAuliffe (2015, p. 23), confidentiality
is essential for an interviewer involved in social work.
Thus, confidentiality, I feel, is something that needs to be built so
that the person who is sitting opposite to me does not feel less or threatened
in any way.
Jimmy
has had a troubled childhood and a dark past from which he has been trying to
get away. It is very difficult to talk about past mistakes but Jimmy is strong
enough to discuss them as well as admit to his mistakes. As has been found in Morley et al. (2019, p. 93), it is essential
for an interviewer to build rapport with the interviewee in order to gain
his trust completely. Had Jimmy felt that I am not trustworthy enough
or had he not felt comfortable around me, he would not have shared the things
that have been troubling him with me. While I am interacting with others, as a
social worker, it is important for me to understand the feelings of them. I
have to put myself in their place and then evaluate the situation.
Being
a social worker, I try to help people to get out of the darkness they have been
waddling. I had first gained Jimmys confidence by being transparent enough so
he would trust me and share with me all the problems that he has been facing. I
have formed a certain kind of friendship with him that does not stand in the
way of my professionalism but is enough to make Jimmy confide in
me and also be comfortable while talking about his issues.
It
has always been my ardent belief that empathy is always better than sympathy.
Being empathetic can work wonders in helping a person and giving him enough
strength to get out of a situation that he feels stuck in. In this case, once
Jimmy understands that I am not judging him for whatever his past has been like
and I am putting in his shoes to understand his situation genuinely, he feels
that he can share his plight with me.
Empathy
can work wonders. As has been said by Healy
(2018, p.56), empathy enables clear communication from the side of the
interviewee. Only if Jimmy feels that I understand the situation from his
viewpoint, he would not feel conscious about his past life. As a social
worker, I have empathized with his troubles and have also encouraged him to
fulfil his goals of completely getting rid of his addiction and giving his life
a new turn. The empathy skill has been helpful in the conduction of the
interview and in gaining knowledge regarding the smallest details of Jimmys
life.
The
interview session with Jimmy went on quite normally. I asked him the questions
based on my assumptions. Jimmy, describing his situation, trusting me enough to
share his life story, and struggling gave me hope to carry on the conversation.
It was a session where I tried to become Jimmys friend with whom he can share
his feelings and problems. I kept the questions open ended. I asked Jimmy about
his situation. I asked him about his current problem. I also
enquire Jimmy about the reason he was put into jail. I confirmed whether Jimmy was
feeling uncomfortable with the questions or not. I never put Jimmy to answer
with yes or no. I focused on asking about his childhood, family, friends,
school, drug deals, life in prison and the way he wants to lead his life in the
future. As a social worker, I stood beside him spreading my helping hand to
suggest to him the right thing to do.
While
interviewing I was listening to Jimmy. My attention was towards his
description. I heard everything he was saying while continuously paraphrasing
them. While beginning the interview, I summarized the situation to him by
introducing myself and stating the environment safe to speak about his past and
present discomforts. I explained to him why we are doing this interview. After
he started unfolding his life, I kept on paraphrasing the situation
while asking the next question. While he described his childhood, I added
asking who were his childhood friends and what happened to him in the past. I will
not hesitate to consider that I could have done more paraphrasing during the
interview to make things more clear. However, I had to keep things short and
simple and I just followed the simplest pattern of asking, listening, understanding
and suggesting. I could have done a better job with the summarizing part in the
interview. It would have helped in framing the next questions in a more
appropriate way.
Listening
is a very important part of any interview. According to Chenoweth and McAuliffe
(2017, p. 45), while conducting an interview the interviewer has to listen to
the interviewee as that is the only way the perspective of the person being
interviewed could be understood. I listened to everything he said. The
description of his childhood and past life seemed really sorrowful to me. I
find out that being deprived of his childhood fantasies he chose to indulge
into unsocial works. Selling drugs and getting into violence for self-defence
is all what Jimmy had gone through. I had to listen to him to
understand his pain. Active listening enhances the capability to interpret the
situation. It is one of the best features, which increase the communication
between the interviewer and the interviewee. I tried to follow the objectives
to know his sufferings and problems to give him some advice.
In
the interview, there were several phases where I could have done better. The
very first thing can be the way I approached Jimmy and described him about the
interview. I could have served a better approach that would make
him feel at ease and comfortable. Based on the discussion of Gray et al., (2021, p. 16), the second thing
that could have been done is paraphrasing. I was listening to Jimmy attentively
and I kept on playing the words in my mind. I could have said those words aloud
to take time in understanding and framing better questions for Jimmy. It would
have enhanced my communication skills. I think I can improve these factors by
enhancing my practice of interviewing. I have to work on my introduction. I
would work on my speeches and question framing. The advising part can also be
improved by having more experience and acquiring more knowledge (based on the
discussion of Harms, 2015, p. 25).
The way I have talked with Jimmy has been helpful, but it would have been
better if I could incorporate realistic suggestions about the ways to avoid his
childhood friends.
Part 2
Working
with others requires the skills of acceptance and capability to comprehend the
situations (Hawkins & Shobet, 2012, p.
86). In this context, I had to work with Jimmy, a boy with a dark past. His
life and sad childhood, him entering the cruel world of drugs and violence, his
imprisonment and him trying to avoid the reappearance of past events, I
listened to everything. In every step towards the communication with Jimmy, I
had focused on the ways to help him, I understood him. I tried to
visualize things by placing myself in his position. I placed myself as a child
with dreams but not having enough money to afford that. I found myself getting
interested in the part where I can earn money easily.
The
only thing that I could understand differently from Jimmy is that the way he
took to earn money at such a young age was wrong. I realized that my age helped
me in understanding that but I would have done the same if I were in the same
age group. This is the way, I try to reciprocate to the person who shares his
life and struggles with me. I bring myself to the position of the person next
to me to understand him. The moment Jimmy started defending himself and
attracting himself seems justified to me, as I would have tried to free myself
from being beaten up by fighting against the cruel world. I always try to put
myself in the same position to understand what the other person is
experiencing.
Positionality
refers to the context where a person mostly researcher puts himself into to
find out the answer of his/her research questions. As said by Hawkins and Shobet (2012, p. 95). The way a
person moulds himself to get what he wants, describes it all. Through positionality
a research can be addressed towards its success and failure. In this context, I
had to perform the role of an interviewer. I had to perceive the condition of
the other person. I had to put on the responsibilities of asking relevant
questions and assuming the situation to help with the suggestive parts. I tried
my best to comprehend everything that needed to be done. However, things could
have been done better. I used the communication skills like approaching sweetly
and talking transparently. I let Jimmy know that this is a social work
interview and he needs not to be afraid or anxious of anything.
I
assured him that the words between him and me would be confidential so that he
feels at ease. Apart from that, I listened to all his words. I understood why
he entered the world of drugs and how he was the only one to get into jail. I
also empathized with him as he was trying hard not to get into the same things
again. I keep my questions very much professional. I never asked anything that
could have offended him. I kept asking whether he was feeling comfortable or
not. I ended the interview in a friendly manner earning his trust and listening
to his stories and regrets.
While
doing an interview it is very important for the interviewee to express his
feelings. On the contrary, the interviewer has to understand the facts that the
interviewee is expressing or trying to portray. According to Morley et al. (2019, p. 39), the communication
skills of the person have to be high and efficient to cover up the
entire thing of an interview and develop understanding. During the interview
with Jimmy, I had focused on his story and experiences. As I have mentioned
earlier, I placed myself in the similar place and situation of Jimmy to
understand his pain and experiences. However, I kept my personal feelings away
from the way I should behave during the interview. I managed myself to be
professional from all aspects. I asked him certain questions that he answered.
I never let my emotions out during the conversation.
During
the interview session, I listened to Jimmy carefully. He described the events
that took place in his life. I had assumed already that he must have been a
good guy in his school days and something might have triggered him to choose
this path. This came out true with Jimmys confession about the financial condition
in his childhood. Me assuming the correct thing and delivering the appropriate
question to help him let out his grievance has been significant. Jimmy could
freely share his feelings with me. He also mentioned that he was trying to have
a clear image for the future. I could suggest that he could stop contacting his
friends after that. However, there are shortcomings that were also residing
with me. I could not ask Jimmy why he never talked with his parents about his
problems. They might be poverty-stricken but his parents would try to be
supportive in not letting him choose the wrong path.
Age
Age
comes first. Age is not just a number while the matter resides about
experience. As said by Healy (2018, p. 88),
the more you age, the more experience you gather. While conducting the
interview I found Jimmy was at a very young age to experience all
of these dark sides of the world. I wished for myself that it would never have
Jimmy to face all that violence at such a young age. Things that I could
identify as wrong he could not understand being at a young age.
Gender
Gender
is not an issue in this context. People irrespective of their gender identity
indulge into taking drugs and selling them to others.
Culture
The
culture also never comes as a barrier to a wrong deed as the people who get
involved into such things are beyond the conventions and principles of the
cultures they belong.
Religion
Religion
sometimes works as a positive catalyst in the growth of a human being. The
principles and rules set by a religion stop a person from developing any wrong
ideas. However, the religious context never invades the possibility of getting
into drugs when poverty strikes.
Ethnicity
Ethnicity
is the way a person gets mould into while belonging to the citizenship of a
country. As opined by Harms (2015, p. 25), ethnicity
builds a lot of the human mind and behaviour. The home, society and childhood
Jimmy belonged to provoked him to get into such a nuisance. It made him choose
the wrong while trying to fulfil his childhood wishes.
During
the interview, I used Social learning theory in order to
understand the facts and features that are related to the life of jimmy. The
social construct, the financial background, and the childhood he described are
all analysed by me through the approaches of this theory. I also tried to bring
in the psychodynamic theory of social work. With the use of
psychodynamic theory, one can try to understand the psychology of a person (Chenoweth & McAuliffe, 2015, p. 36). I have
also followed the same approach; I found that Jimmy is a person good at heart.
He regrets his past life and the event of imprisonment. He wants to start a
happy life without any intervention from his past. He wants to avoid his
friends whom he is finding hard to avoid. I suggested him to stop contacting
them in the meantime to stop him from getting into the same scenario from his
past. I hope my suggestion and theoretical analysis of the events will be
helpful for him.
References
Chenoweth, L., & McAuliffe, D. (2015). The road to
social work & human service practice. Boston: Cengage AU.
Gray, M., Midgley, J., & Webb, S. A. (Eds.). (2012). The
Sage handbook of social work. Newcastle: Sage.
Harms, L. (2015). Working with People: Communication
Skills for Reflective Practice, Second Canadian Edition. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Hawkins, P., &Shobet, R., (2012). Supervision
in the Helping Professions 5e. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, Maidenhead
Healy, K. (2018). The skilled communicator in social work:
The art and science of communication in practice. London: Macmillan
International Higher Education.
Morley, C., Ablett, P., & Macfarlane, S. (2019). Engaging
with social work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Munro, E. (2012). Risk assessment and decision making. The
SAGE handbook of social work, 224-235.
Rooney, G. D., Rooney, R. H., Hepworth, D. H., &
Strom-Gottfried, K. (2017). Direct social work practice: Theory and skills.
Boston: Cengage Learning.
+1 213 5100402
+61 489 995404
+44 203 7692978
4.6
4.72
4.92