How do I know if I am emotionally stable to be a Child Social Worker?

Hi Erika,

The term 'resilience' refers to a person's capacity to handle difficulties, demands and pressure without experiencing negative effects. Traditionally, social work has focused on the nature and impact of resilience in children and adults who have experienced traumatic events, but it is increasingly recognised that social workers need to develop personal resilience to manage the emotional demands of the job effectively and sustainably.

Developing Resilience for Social Work Practice provides social workers with a tool-box of strategies to help them enhance their resilience and protect their wellbeing. Written by experienced practitioners in the field, the book draws on key research to present a series of evidence-based interventions. These strategies are designed to help social work students and practitioners develop important qualities that underpin resilience, such as self-awareness, time management, relaxation skills and empathy as well enable them to gain support from their personal and professional networks.

Grounded in both theory and practice, each chapter explores how the various resilience techniques can be applied to help social workers manage the complexities and challenges they face in everyday practice. The use of relevant and engaging case studies throughout is particularly useful in bringing the book to life for the reader.

This literature can help you to acquire resilience, emotional intelligence and more confiance in your social work career:

https://he.palgrave.com/page/detail/?sf1=barcode&st1=9781137302496

In addition, tips on how to enhance your emotional literacy and resilience:

1. 
   

   Understand emotional states and their consequences – Learn to recognise your emotions and their psychological and behavioural consequences. For instance, clenching your fist, shouting, crying or withdrawal are behavioural consequences of different emotions.

   
   


2. 
   

   Self-regulation and change – Developing emotional resilience are experiential processes which require overcoming entrenched habits that are embedded deep into parts of the brain. Since emotional learning involves deeper parts of the brain, cognitive knowledge often does not suffice to modify our habits. For instance, knowing cigarettes damage one’s health is usually not enough to stop the person from smoking. Therefore, when you recognise a disruptive impulse, you need to exert self-restraint to control its behavioural consequences and to respond through more appropriate and constructive alternatives (e.g. when you feel angry, instead of pounding your fist on the table, go for a walk).

   
   


3. 
   

   Express your emotions and recognise emotional toil – Self-regulation helps you enhance your emotional resilience, however, continually suppressing your emotions and disregarding the emotional toil inherent in caring relationships, can lead to long-term problems ranging from emotional bias, irritability and lack of sensitivity, to psychological disorders. Therefore, find the appropriate time, venue and avenue to express your emotions and let go of any negative feelings.

   
   


4. 
   

   Allocate time and place for healing – You are not immune from emotional toil. Allocate some time (perhaps 30 minutes) each week to your “self” and healing. Do this at the same time and place each week. You will begin to associate that time and specific setting with unwinding. This positive association will help facilitate the process of unpacking your emotions and healing the “self” during your weekly “self” time.

   
   


5. 
   

   Positive regard and self-affirmation – Positive self-affirmations enhance positive thinking and self-respect. Spend five minutes a day writing positive self-affirmations. This will not only affect your psyche positively, but also, through repetition it will raise your awareness and make you identify with that trait which will eventually enhance that trait.

   
   


6. 
   

   Motivation and positive thinking – Aspire for excellence in all that you do. Make sure you understand and can align your goals. Maintain a positive and optimistic attitude and disposition.

   
   

Tips suggested by:

Claudia Megele is a qualified social worker and service director of A Sense Of Self. She is also an associate lecturer in social work at the Open University and is completing her Doctorate in Psychotherapy.

Source: http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2011/02/02/how-to-sustain-emotional-resilience/

Have great achievements in your career!!

To add to the previous answers, one thing that has really helped me is meeting people who have overcome huge challenges. I attended many speaking events and heard from many different types of people. (Including human trafficking, LGBT isssues, homelessness & child abuse.) This has helped me build a well of hope inside. I am able to remain perfectly calm when someone is talking about their tragedy, because I have met all these amazing people who have over come huge challenges. This allows me to be 100% confident that the person in front of me will also be able to overcome whatever problem they're facing.

This is an area you will be trained in, so don't try to imagine dealing with this stressful job with only the tools you have now. The best social workers are the ones following their passion. If you feel like you care too much, it is probably exactly the right amount.