What We Bring to Practice

This article describes “What We Bring to Practice,” an innovative seven-week course designed to help students confront difficult questions about professional use of self. The course content concerns emotional reactions evoked by the client in the therapist, a phenomenon traditionally known as countertransference, and requires students to explore the basis of these reactions. In many public agencies supervision has become mainly administrative, allowing little time for reflection or guidance in dealing with difficult client situations. This course gives fourth semester MSW students tools for examining their reactions to clients and provides a model of peer supervision that they can carry with them into their careers. The article describes the background on teaching professional use of self in social work, describes the teaching methods used in the course, and presents findings from an evaluation done nine months after graduation.