Understanding And Coping With Client Resistance Social Work Essay

judgement And Coping With Client Resistance Social Work Essay pro loving thespians frequently encounter a thorny situation called knob unsusceptibility. As subway system is inevitable in the intercession affect and go away very likely affect the handling outcomes, study of client shield is principal(prenominal) to social workers and learning how to manage it entrust be arctic to achieve expected goals and objectives. This paper will firstly narrate the source s personal run across so as to put the return key of client resistance on the agenda and give a apprise description of tugd clients or client resistance, then present the author s judgment of them in terms of their several distinctive features, and in conclusion propose tentative strategies of coping with client resistance.Keywords resistance involuntary clients intervention skillsIntroductionAs potential social workers, we probably will be brought into contact with more(prenominal) and more involuntary c lients in the future, like mentally illness patients, deviant demeanor adolescents, violent pargonnts, beaten-up children, etc.. Some of them be legally mandated to engage with service providers (Rooney,1992), spell others are experiencing social or non-legal pres veritables, for example, being coerced by family members to seek assistance for a particular behavior (Rooney,1992).These kinds of clients constitute a high proportion of whole clients and display more resistant behaviors than those voluntary ones. Often, they do non seek help volitionally and may demonstrate resistant behaviors such(prenominal) as negative evasions, fictional obedience or undisguised hostilities, threats and attacks from the very beginning of the worker s intervention.Therefore, how to interact with and intervene in this type of clients has become a dire challenge in the field of social work practice and it is important for social workers to get a deeper understanding of involuntary clients.Case ensampleX once was a primary school teacher with a fine income, and her husband Y has been running a factory which creates a great deal of wealth to the whole family. Every involvement seemed perfect that the couple were habituated to each other and shake up a girl C who was in her second year in a satisfactory university.Unfortunately, X was extensively burnt in an explosion accident three years ago. Since then, she befuddled self-confidence because of her disfigured face and refused to go out for the fears of being laughed at. The daughter Z try to alsok her out for an airing and ease her anxieties and inferiority somewhat the disfigurement only if failed. Since a view of people shoot downed at her on the street, X felt painful and tended to iso new-fashioned herself.To make things worse, not too long after her accident, her husband Y began to make relationship with another(prenominal) woman and was spending a large sum of time and funds on that woman. He went to his f actory early and back home late every day and seldom had meals at home which was correctly divers(prenominal) from what it was before. In addition to Y s in going away, Z was studying at a university so far from home that she was unable to accompany her draw all the time. Consequently, X of all time staied alone at home with the olfactory perception of helpless and hopeless. Although sometimes Y would come back home and secure meals for A, he had nothing to talk with X.Actually, the daughter Z here is me. I was extremely anguished, seeing my originally harmonious family rapidly disappeared. I tried to cope with such a depressing family atmosphere, alone found it rough. However, when I look back and combine the past experiences with what I find learnt in MSW, I have been realized that there were such a lot of unwise actions had been turn backn to solving my family problems. Examples are seeed as followsIn that bound of time, I tended to communicate with my stupefy more t han with my get under ones skin and owe this difference to gender similarity and the tragic suffering of my mother. I spent a great deal time on comforting her just because she was the only victim as in my own perception. I constantly teaching my mother how to tranquil herself down and wobble her mindsets, so as to survive in a miserable relishing. Unexpectedly, when I suggested her talking more with my father, she just sneered, saying he is so obstinate that nothing will change his mind . It could be inferred that she was still pessimistic and lacked motivation to make changes in spite of my logical encouragement.On the other hand, the stereotypes that men are always mentally stronger than women do me totally forgot that my father was suffering pains and he needed caution as well. Hardly had I decided to concern for and communicate with my father when I learnt that I should take him into consideration early. The most challenging thing was that he had been greatly reluctant to talk active either his power or current relationship with my mother especially the information about his extramarital love. He even did not admit any severance he had made. I have to ac hit the sackledge that I was livid when I found out that my father had been two-timing his wife and was highly activated and illiberally prejudiced against as a result. Only now did I understand the debates why I failed to assist my parents in settling their contradiction. My lacking(predicate) consideration of my father s personality and the dignity as a man almost turned an equal dialogue into a lumpish bickering. In fact, my father was defiant in the whole session because he was afraid that his authoritative status in the family would be ruined, however, I did not realize that kind of unwillingness at that time.No doubt, neither my mother nor my father is my client in the sense of professional, but if they are viewed as clients, it will be a classic case of client resistance. comment of Client ResistanceWhen doing the publications review, I found that the term involuntary is sometimes used interchangeably with resistant, however, the former refers to the status of the client , while the latter refers to behaviors or characteristics that hinder the therapeutic process (Chui Ho, 2006). Usually, involuntary clients show some resistant thoughts and behaviors.Freud (1914/1957) originally conceptualized resistance as the client s effort to repress anxiety-provoking memories and insights in the unconscious during psychoanalytic free acquaintance (Freud, 1914/1957).According to the perspective of social interaction theory, resistance is psychological bear ons kindle in the client that restrain acceptance of influence (acceptance of the counselors suggestion) and are generated by the way the suggestion is stated and by the characteristics of the counselor stating it (Strong Matross, 1973). Simply stated, resistance has been defined as a process of avoiding or diminis hing the self-disclosing parley requested by the interviewer because of its capacity to make the interviewee uncomfortable or sickening (Pope, 1979).Client resistance should not be regarded as something that happens within the client, as a response to his or her inner workings, and must be reduce by the counselor (Cowan Presbury, 2000). Rather, resistance should be understood as a phenomenon that emerges surrounded by client and therapist in the unfolding interaction between their differently organized subjective worlds (Cowan Presbury, 2000).In a word, resistance is do by as results from the communicating pattern of the counselor and the client. In other words, resistance emerges when the intervention strategies are not gear to clients willingness to accept the style in which the intervention is conducted.Typical Involuntary ClientsThis part is a personal understanding towards client resistance. Based on an examination of the case example and the literature review, I summari zed three types of involuntary clients.1. Clients Who Have Inadequate Strength or AbilitySome clients do not have the ability to take care of themselves or seek help from others, such as the disabled, the battered children and the abandoned elderly. These clients are normally forced by others to consult an force and a social worker.2. Clients Who Have Insufficient MotivationThe clients who fall into the heavy position for a long time may feel mentally exhausted and have no extra will to seek help. homecoming some battered women as an example, they tend to have a despair view of the marriage because of the learned helplessness and may find it purposeless to join in the intervention tasks.Similar to those who have inadequate violence or ability, the majority of the insufficiently motivated clients are not willingly attended the intervention tasks.3. Clients Who Lack IntrospectionAlthough some people know that they are mired in difficulties because of their misbehaviors, they hav e insufficient self-contemplation, and self-examination when confront with the problems they have, which, as a result, make the problems relapse again and again. This is also the reason why most drug or alcoholic abusers find it difficult to completely overcome their additions.Skills of Coping with Client ResistanceFor involuntary clients, it is a common phenomenon that they will be reluctant towards self-exposure and conservative to their own experience because they worry about that not doing so would threaten their self-concept. It is necessary for a social worker to learn how to alleviate clients excessive anxiety. Social workers are expected to adjust their intervention methods and the styles to the need of clients. Since most involuntary clients succumb much attention to self-protection, the workers should not only avoid requesting or anticipating their self-betrayal, but also refrain from any actions that attempting to tear down clients mask.1. To Find forbidden the Third Pa rtyIn general, social workers are required to hark carefully to clients, thus provide clients more opportunities to express their feelings and perceptions and make them feel respected and admitted. However, things are different when confronting involuntary clients. Since it is an issue of power and determine that the pouring-out people are usually vulnerable whereas the listening people always have the power to make evaluation and assessment, the involuntary clients tend to solicit a sense of empower through the process of resistance and rebuttal.In involuntary cases, the third society is needed in the course of the entire conversation. If I intake a client like my mother, I should not unilaterally focus on counseling the client changing herself, but on concerning several means to bring the third party into the intervention so that establishing a social work C client C the third party triangular communication system. In short, the third party is ones who push clients to seek he lp or forced them to ask for counseling.2. To delineate the Intervention Process ClearApart from understanding about the force that push clients into the intervention, the workers should also enquire about whether the clients have any other confusions. It aims at discovering the problems which clients postulate to improve. The worker as a listener should do something to give clients a feeling that they are under a clearly planned effective assistance.In addition, it is very important to make sure that clients know what will the worker do and will not do. For example, summarizing or reflecting clients current situation or their main resentment can peradventure promote their expectation to the counseling and enhance social workers reliability as well.3. To Alleviate Clients Anxieties about ChangesResistant clients may or may not recognize that they have a problem, and/or may not want to engage in a process of change (Rooney, 1992) so that they will take resistance as an means to p rotect themselves from the unknown (Yalom Molyn, 2005). They skill be resistant towards the therapeutic process because it involves changing their current nonadaptive behavior (Chui Ho, 2006).An available method to ease clients anxiety about change is to make them feel more sense of defy. The less the clients can control the process and results of intervention, the more they will view social workers as the representatives of those who force them to participate in the intervention. Consequently, the degree of resistance may increase dramatically. such situation requires social workers to discuss with clients about the reasons why they are recommended to have the counseling. If a client is compelled to accept counseling, the social worker may point it out to the client that he could reject the counseling and bear the consequences of such rejection, thus restore their sense of control.Furthermore, as cultivating new behaviors is much easier than changing old ones, it might be mor e reasonable and effective that social works try to train the clients to foster some new patterns of communication and behavioral habits, rather than amend their previous habits, thus establish a harmonious relationship with clients. Some more complex intervention, such as teaching clients relaxation skills, or assisting them in analyzing the irrational thoughts, may have immediate utilities to the involuntary clients.DiscussionThe relationship between the social worker and the client is always living no matter what happened in the process of intervention. One of the major responsibilities for social workers is paying enough attention to the fictitious character and the health of rapport-building process. To some extent, clients changes or improvements come from an appropriate and valid interaction within a harmonious relationship.As potential social workers, in addition to understanding of various theories or therapies which provide different approaches to resolve client resistanc e, we should also learn to determine how best to address that relative dynamic in counseling (Joshua, 2008).