Books
From Trauma to Healing: A Social Worker’s Guide for Working With Survivors is a significant publication on trauma in the field of social work. Since September 11 and Hurricane Katrina, social workers have come together increasingly to consider how traumatic events impact practice. From Trauma to Healing is designed to provide direction in this process, supporting both the field’s movement towards evidence-based practice and social workers’ growing need to be equipped to work with trauma. It does so in the practical guide format already proven to be compelling to social work students, educators, and practitioners, providing case examples, and addressing social workers’ unique ecological approach.
The analysis of dreams is often crucial in clinical work with trauma survivors and other populations who have experienced life-altering events. Dreamwork can be beneficial for survivors when done in a way that allows safe access to trauma and emotional content. The exploratory study outlined in this book was the first to use two major dream content scales on a dataset of trauma and general dreams. A significant difference was found between the dreams of trauma survivors and general dreams. Those of trauma survivors contained more powerful negative emotions. The study outcomes engender both research and practice implications. As awareness of trauma grows, practice guidelines are essential to clinicians. Nightmares and other highly charged dreams are signals that intervention is required. This study provides a direction for these clinical interventions that can be utilized in different practice settings, augmenting both their efficacy and the recovery process.
This guide helps caregivers, who provide physical or emotional care for ill or disabled loved ones at home, feel less alone by preparing for their task through assistance with finding information, recognizing when they need help, asking for and accepting help from others, and taking care of themselves. It does so by providing practical tips, facts, and advice about caregiving and ways to organize resource/medical information and recognize and attend to their own needs.
Although there is a considerable amount of writing on both group work and social work with the elderly, there is surprisingly little about applying this practice method to this specific age group. Group Work and Aging: Issues in Practice, Research, and Education fills this gap by presenting penetrating articles about a mutual aid approach to working with diverse groups of older adults with varied needs. Respected experts and gifted researchers provide case studies, practice examples, and explanation of theory to illustrate this practice method with aging adults, their families, and their caregivers.
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Page 211 "Using End of Groups as an Intervention at End-of-Life" by Ann Goelitz "discusses the purposeful use of the clear and firm time boundary of a group's ending date to engage caregivers in the taboo material of death and dying. In facilitating a ten-session caregiver support group with family members caring for the terminally ill, the author introduced the group's ending at the fifth session.
This early reminder enabled members to express their anxiety through resisting reality. Yet, by the sixth session, they related the group's ending to the terminal illness of a loved one. The case illustration demonstrates this active connection. This brief article reads like a lovely poem." - Alex Gitterman, Ed.D, Zachs Professor of Social Work, Director of Doctoral Program, UCON
The unifying theme of this broad-reaching volume is that responsible, ethical, and effective social work practice rests on the diagnostic skills of the practitioner. Francis J. Turner, a preeminent clinical scholar, brings together in one volume some of the best work published since 2000, each reflecting new insights into understanding psychosocial situations and innovative methods of applying knowledge and skills in an increasingly effective manner. Each of the 78 articles in this volume highlights some of the critical dimensions of contemporary social work practice, guiding clinicians to address four key aspects in order to craft an accurate diagnosis.
Chapter 63 "Nurturing Life with Dreams: Therapeutic Dreamwork with Cancer Patients" by Ann Goelitz describes the use of dream work as a component of individual counseling for cancer patients. Motivated by the work of experts in the field, who use dream work with their clients facing life-threatening illness and corroborated by a review
of the literature, this therapeutic modality was introduced with cancer patients at a social service agency. The clinical work seems to indicate that the use of dreams helps create a safe environment for therapy by encouraging clients to discuss the emotional aspects of their disease and introducing topics, like death and dying, which are normally difficult to discuss.