Social Worker Shame in Child and Family Social Work: Inadequacy, Failure, and the Struggle to Practise Humanely

Social workers operate within a complex environment where the failure to live up to expectations can lead to negative self-judgements or negative judgements from others, a sense of inadequacy and not feeling ‘good enough’. This paper conceptualises such issues through the lens of ‘social worker shame’ defined through a psychosociocultural understanding of the emotion. The effect of social worker shame on social workers’ wellbeing and practise is considered and begins to conceptualise how an organisation can become shame-sensitive and practitioners shame-resilient with the aim of reducing the potential impact of social worker shame on practise.