Clinical Social Work and Therapy in Primary Care Communication

Clinical social work and therapeutic approaches in primary care rest on systems thinking—the recognition that individual health exists within nested contexts of family, community, institutional access, and social position. This note examines how primary care providers can integrate core therapeutic and social-ecological principles into routine practice: the therapeutic use of self, attunement to power dynamics, and problem-solving that addresses not just the patient's symptoms but the material and relational conditions that sustain them. These skills are learnable and do not require practitioners to become therapists, but they do require intentional training and reflection.