Lived experience and the 'use of self' in social work practice has been a central focus of the written work I've produced over the years. I've always thought it important to connect with others in a way that was authentic, reflecting the complexities of and dilemmas in practice. It is necessary that academics in the SW profession connect up with the realities of practice. Our doctorate involves developing practice near research. I'm thinking of editing a special issue of a journal on the subject. I'd like to know if this would be of interest to you? Is there anyone who might want to co-edit such a thing? Perhaps it's already been done and I need to do some more research. All views are welcome. Some of us practitioners have lived experience of abuse and neglect as children, addiction and mental health problems in our parents, disadvantage due to our class, geographical location, ethnicity. We hide our vulnerability and feel ashamed. We become the social workers we never had. Kolb's reflective learning cycle and Bion's psychoanalytic theory of thinking, both highlight the need to begin with experience. Experience if then reflected upon. Hopefully, if you have space and time, and an actively listening supervisor, you can move on to analysing the content and meaning of the experience, drawing on theories about structural inequalities, focussing on the internal world through psychoanalysis, the psychosocial context by looking at the system and context around the experience. We also draw on our understanding of relational dynamics, who am I to this person? What does my whiteness mean to a black family? What power do I hold. What role do I need to take up? What authority do I have? What am I not understanding about the other's perspective? What is being done to this family by society? How does my accent affect the way they relate to me? Can they trust me? Can we work together? What are their previous experiences of social work and the sytem? Has the system failed them? What am I seeing in the family that may be a projection from my own history of abuse or neglect? What is true about this family despite my experiences? Can I see meaning in behaviour that other's can't because of the experiences that I have had? Am I coming across as kind, interested and non judgemental, or am I fatigued, overwhelmed and under supported? Is this family only under scrutiny because they are experiencing racism in the community? Or am I overlooking the signs of abuse because I am afraid of being seen as racist? Social work practice is a surely a complex phenomenon. Linear care plans can obscure what works with a family such as a trusting relationship with a person they can relate to, rather than create change. However, plans are also essential, based on our good enough attempt at understanding a problem, using our skills, experience, judgement, and the theory we were taught. What would you say about lived experience? Am I just seeing one side of it?
Yes, lived experience does certainly matter and as you rightly pointed out, affects the perspective with which a social worker might view a particular scenario. There are both benefits and de-merits to this. As far as merits go, if it weren't for lived experience, many social workers and activists today would never have entered the field. Real-life experiences and incidents can motivate people to Act and protect the innocent, and find their passion, which in the case of social workers is to empower people.
On the other hand, the de-merit of acting solely based on lived experience instead of focusing on the details of the case at hand can lead a social worker to generalise and form negative and more importantly arbitrary assumptions about groups of people. This world view of viewing one group as a perpetual victim and another as a perpetual perpetrator is particularly problematic when a member from the assumed perpetrator group is the actual victim/survivor in a case. In such a scenario, would a social worker filled with assumptions stemming from their past lived experience, be truly motivated in help seek justice for this individual? Would they be invested 100 per cent in empowering them? Possibly not, because their worldview, perhaps shaped by their lived experience, does not recognise such a situation. This is why lived experience is both a boon and a bane for social workers. I hope this was helpful Anna Harvey
This is exactly the dilemma. Well articulated for me - huge thanks!!! As a social worker who had a very ill mother, I had great powers of detecting alcoholism and addiction in a parent in a family. I knew all the tell tale signs, as I was hypervigilant as a child. It made my assessments impressive and I was very successful in court. But could I distinguish between the addiction of a woman I was working with, her capacity to change, and my mother's fatalism, ending in her self destruction? Not without psychoanalysis myself, and a clinical supervisor. But even then, who was really on the stand? Her or my mother? And if I over identified with the children, what about the parent's treatment and needs???? It's complex and requires much reflective supervision.
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