This edited collection offers an original critical clinical approach to social work practice, written by social work educators from the School of Social Work at Dalhousie University and their collaborators. It provides a Canadian perspective on the diverse issues social workers encounter in the field, highlighting the practical application of feminist, narrative, anti-racist, and postcolonial frameworks. With the aim of producing counterstories that participate in social resistance, this volume focuses on integrating critical theory with direct clinical practice. Through the use of case studies, the contributors tackle a range of substantive issues including ethics, working with complex trauma, men’s use of violence, substance use among women and girls, Indigenous social work praxis, critical child welfare approaches, counterstorying experiences of (dis)Ability, and animal-informed social work practice.

This thoroughly updated resource is the only comprehensive anthology addressing frameworks for treatment, therapeutic modalities, and specialized clinical issues, themes, and dilemmas encountered in clinical social work practice. Editor Jerrold R. Brandell and other leading figures in the field present carefully devised methods, models, and techniques for responding to the needs of an increasingly diverse clientele. Key Features Coverage of the most commonly used theoretical frameworks and systems in social work practice Entirely new chapters devoted to clinical responses to terrorism and natural disasters, clinical case management, neurobiological theory, cross-cultural clinical practice, and research on clinical practice Completely revised chapters on psychopharmacology, dynamic approaches to brief and time-limited clinical social work, and clinical practice with gay men Content on the evidentiary base for clinical practice New, detailed clinical illustrations in many chapters offering valuable information about therapeutic process dimensions and the use of specialized methods and clinical techniques Accompanied by Robust Ancillaries. The password-protected Instructor Teaching Site of the companion site includes a test bank, recommended readings, and relevant Internet websites. The open-access Student Study Site offers chapter summaries, keywords, recommended Web sites, and recommended readings. The extensive breadth of coverage makes this book an essential source of information for students in advanced practice courses and practicing social workers alike.

What we think must inform what we do, argue the editors and authors of this cutting-edge social work textbook. In this innovative, expansive and wide-ranging collection, leading social work thinkers engage with social work traditions to bridge social work theory and practice and arrive at social work praxis: a uniting of critical thought and ethical action. Critical Social Work Praxis is organized into sixteen sections, each reflecting a critical social work tradition or approach. Each section has a theory chapter, which succinctly outlines the tradition’s main concepts or tenets, a praxis chapter, which shows how the theory informs social work practice, and a commentary chapter, which provides a critical analysis of the tensions and difficulties of the approach. The text helps students understand how to extend theory into praxis and gives instructors critical new tools and discussion ideas. This book is the result of decades of experience teaching social work theory and praxis and is a comprehensive teaching and learning tool for the critical social work classroom.

This book provides an in-depth and very modern approach to clinical social work with clients in mental health settings. This is a revision of a book originally titled Clinical Social Work Practice in Community Mental Health. The "community mental health" approach is now dated, and this revision features "behavioral" mental health, which is a newer and "postmodern" approach. The postmodern perspective is client-oriented, and helps the practitioner to be aware of underlying biases. This perspective is explained in Chapter 1 and is included in every chapter by featuring clients' "voices," particularly at the beginning and end of the chapters. Important new topics include managed care and measurement of outcomes, both of which are woven throughout and featured in Chapters 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, and 13. For social work practitioners specializing in mental health.

Doing Anti-Oppressive Social Work brings together critical social work authors to passionately engage with pressing social issues, and to pose new solutions, practices and analysis in the context of growing inequities and the need for reconciliation, decolonization and far-reaching change. The book presents strong intersectional perspectives and practice, engaging closely with decolonization, re-Indigenization, resistance and social justice. Like the first three editions, the 4th edition foregrounds the voices of those less heard in social work academia and to provide cutting-edge critical reflection and skills, including social work’s relationship to the state, and social work’s responsibility to individuals, communities and its own ethics and standards of practice. Indigenous, Black, racialized, transgender, (dis)Ability and allied scholars offer identity-engaged and intersectional analyses on a wide-range of issues facing those working with intersectional cultural humility, racism and child welfare, poverty and single mothers, critical gerontology and older people, and immigrant and racialized families. This 4th edition of Doing Anti-Oppressive Social Work goes well beyond its predecessors, updating and revising popular chapters, but also problematizing AOP and engaging closely with new and emerging issues.

"This much-needed volume brings to the clinician or student some of the best critical-minded analysis by some of the most insightful thinkers about psychiatric diagnosis today. The thought-provoking questions these essays raise, and the multifaceted and provocative answers they provide, cultivate sensitivity to the nuances of diagnostic assessment that often makes the difference between clinical success and failure." - Jerome C. Wakefield, PhD, DSW, New York University Silver School of Social Work, New York This transformative resource challenges social workers and mental health professionals to rethink their approaches to assessment and diagnosis from the ground up. Among the book’s unique features are its use of diverse lenses to examine a common case and its illustration of how multiple perspectives can be integrated for a richly textured portrait of the individual in context. Equally crucial is the book’s commitment to professional development, from exercises to improve case conceptualization to strategies for teaching and learning. Topics include: The DSM-5 definition of mental disorder: critique and alternatives. Making assessment decisions: macro, mezzo, and micro perspectives. Neuroscience, resilience, and the embodiment of “mental” disorder. Narrative, psychodynamic, and cultural conceptualizations of disorder. Person-centered and contextualized diagnosis in mental health. Meeting the challenge of teaching integrated assessment. Critical Thinking in Clinical Assessment and Diagnosis has much to offer professionals, researchers, and educators in the fields of social work and mental health. .

Just Practice: A Social Justice Approach to Social Work provides a foundation for critical and creative social work that integrates theory, history, ethics, skills, and rights to respond to the complex terrain of 21st century social work. Just Practice puts the field of social work's expressed commitment to social justice at center stage with a framework that builds upon five key concepts: meaning, context, power, history, and possibility. How do we give meaning to the experiences and conditions that shape our lives? What are the contexts in which those experiences and conditions occur? How do structures and relations of power shape people's lives and the practice of social work? How might a historical perspective help us to grasp the ways in which struggles over meaning and power have played out and to better appreciate the human consequences of those struggles? Taken together, these concepts provide a guide for integrative social work that bridges direct practice and community building. The text prepares readers with the theoretical knowledge and practice skills to address the complex challenges of contemporary social work from direct practice with individuals and families, to group work, organizational and community change, and policy analysis and advocacy. Each chapter includes learning activities, reflection moments, practice examples, and the stories and voices of practitioners and service users to engage students as critical thinkers and practitioners. The author encourages teachers and students alike to take risks, move from safe, familiar, pedagogical spaces and practices, challenge assumptions, and embrace uncertainty.

Social workers have been using cognitive methods of intervention for decades. They have borrowed elements of cognitive therapy to augment work undertaken with particular clients and have followed cognitive therapy protocols more completely when client problems seem to call for it. However many uses of cognitive therapy in social work settings require difficult, on-the-spot juggling. In these cases, it is the social worker's job to relate cognitive therapy's internally focused explanations and interventions to the client's particular problems and situations-problems and situations that are inescapably linked to environmental demands and deprivations. Clinical Social Work Practice presents a comprehensive cognitive perspective on social work clinical practice. It is a perspective that bridges an internal focus on how people think about themselves--traditionally, cognitive psychology's realm--with a look outward to consider the kinds of meaning-making options their environments afford. In going beyond the usual cursory acknowledgement of larger environmental influences on personal problems, this book not only offers a framework that is likely to be welcomed by social workers, it will also have strong appeal to a full range of other helping professions who recognize this gap in theories of therapy. The theoretical grounding for this cognitive-integrative approach is drawn from a range of neurological, social, psychological, and social work theories. It is laid out carefully and clearly and balanced with a generous offering of detailed clinical examples and practice guidelines. It is a perfect introduction to cognitive therapy for both social work students in advanced social work practice courses and practicing social work therapists.

This practice-focused resource integrates broad therapeutic knowledge with current neuroscience to present vast possibilities for mindfulness in clinical social work. Seasoned practitioners posit mindfulness practice and process as a significant bridge between taking care of self and taking care of others, demonstrating its implications for physical and mental health in personal and professional contexts. Case studies show timeless concepts (e.g., acceptance) and new mindfulness-based ideas (e.g., learned helpfulness) in use in individual treatment as well as couples counseling and group interventions. Also attesting to the utility of mindfulness across problems, settings, and practitioner orientations, diverse applications are organized along ten robust lenses, among them: • Beginning with the context: the mind-body conundrum.• Beginning with the body: the neurobiology of mindfulness.• Beginning with the training: training clinicians in essential methods for integrating mindfulness in clinical practice.• Beginning with the clients: mindfully reconciling opposites with survivors of trauma/complex traumatic stress disorders.• Beginning with the symptom: incorporating mindfulness in the treatment of substance misuse. • Beginning with the larger social system: mindfulness and restorative justice. Clinicians and research professionals particularly interested in psychotherapy treatment and mindfulness practice will find Cultivating Mindfulness in Clinical Social Work not only stimulating and intriguing, but also a fresh source of real-world wisdom.

"This is a vital and necessary guide to the social work professionÖ.This book clarifies the social work mission, goals, and objectives, and strengthens and promotes them as well." --Carmen Ortiz Hendricks, MSW, DSW, ACSW, LCSW Associate Dean, Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University "The authors do an excellent job of illustrating the uniqueness, diversity, and richness of the profession. I strongly recommend this book for use in social work orientation, advising and education." --Saundra Starks, EdD, LCSW Western Kentucky University 101 Careers in Social Work serves as both a catalog of social work job descriptions as well as a guide to career planning. The authors highlight the interdisciplinary nature of social work, and include unconventional, cutting-edge career options such as forensic social work, entrepreneurship, working in political systems, international careers, community planning, and more. Written in a user-friendly style, each chapter focuses on a specific social work career, and outlines the challenges, core competencies and skills, and educational requirements needed to succeed. This book also includes questionnaires and checklists to help readers choose a career tailored to their unique talents, interests, and passions. Key Features: A catalog of 101 social work careers, including careers in emerging fields Helpful career development tools, including self-assessment checklists, interviews with practicing social workers, and questionnaires Guidance on educational requirements, licensure, and continuing education An entire chapter dedicated to job-hunting tips and career planning advice