Feeling professional: Emotions, uncertainty, and contradictions in social work practice

Informed by affect theory, this article explores the inherent tensions embedded in the ideals of the “professional” in social work practice through an empirical study of how feelings are negotiated in two simulated social work encounters. Drawing on a simulation-based research project with 34 participants on navigating uncertainty in clinical social work practice and informed by reflexive thematic analysis, findings highlight two central contradictions in the expectations of professionalism in social work: (1) regulation and authenticity, and (2) tensions around expertise. Professionalism in social work practice typically operates as a form of cruel optimism—offering the promise of certainty, competence, and control over the encounter with clients; yet findings reveal that practitioners and educators must grapple with the fact that no version of professionalism can remove uncertainty. Implications for social work education and professional practice include the need to integrate practices of sitting with and drawing upon uncertainty as central to professional education and practice.