Application: Process Recordings
A process recording is a written tool field education experience students, field instructors, and faculty use to examine the dynamics of social work
interactions in time. Process recordings can help in developing and refining interviewing and intervention skills. By conceptualizing and organizing ongoing
activities with social work clients, you are able to clarify the purpose of interviews and interventions, identify personal and professional strengths and
weaknesses, and improve self-awareness. The process recording is also a useful tool in exploring the interpersonal dynamics and values operating between
you and the client system through an analysis of filtering the process used in recording a session.
For this Assignment, you will submit a process recording of your field education experiences specific to this week.
The Assignment (2–4 pages):
Provide a transcriipt of what happened during your field education experience, including a dialogue of interaction with a client.
Explain your interpretation of what occurred in the dialogue, including social work practice or theories, and explain how it might relate to assessment covered
this week.
Describe your reactions and/or any issues related to your interaction with a client during your field education experience.
Explain how you applied social work practice skills when performing the activities during your process recording.
Sample Solution
This week during my field education experience, I had the opportunity to interact with a client who was struggling with an addiction. We had a conversation about his current struggles and how he has been feeling since he started treatment. He expressed that he felt overwhelmed by his situation, as recovery is at times difficult and requires constant effort. During our discussion, I attempted to practice Motivational Interviewing in order to actively listen, assess the individual’s capacity for change, and explore what could be done differently in order to address his issues holistically.
I asked questions in order to better understand why this particular behavior is so difficult for him to change, emphasizing understanding through inquiry rather than judgement or criticism (Miller & Rollnick 2013). By demonstrating unconditional positive regard for my client it helped create an environment where open communication was possible (Rogers 1957). Asking open-ended questions allowed me to ascertain the level of motivation present within the individual towards making progress towards change which ultimately helps guide further steps within the assessment process (Miller & Rollnick 2013). Furthermore, I used collaborative language; rather than asking if he would comply with any proposed interventions I asked him what we could do together in order move forward and make meaningful changes where necessary.
Overall, this experience taught me how important it is to take time when conducting assessments and really get inside of a person’s head in terms of understanding their motivations both present day as well as historically speaking. The dialogue that ensued between myself and the client served not only functioned as a form of assessment but also provided insight into how social work theory can be effectively applied within real world contexts such us this one involving addiction recovery.
