Clinical Social Work Practice

Although social workers have been using cognitive methods of intervention for decades, the use of cognitive therapy in social work settings often requires difficult, on-the-spot juggling. In these cases, it is the social worker's job to relate cognitive therapy's internally focused explanations and interventions to the client's particular social situation, which often encompasses severe environmental demands and deprivations. Clinical Social Work Practice: A Cognitive-Integrative Perspective presents a comprehensive cognitive perspective on social work clinical practice that emphasizes the role of the environment in shaping personal meaning. This perspective combines cognitive psychology's internal focus on how people think about themselves with a look outward toward the environment. It draws on a number of theoretical approaches to explain how the mind works and integrates these perspectives within a framework that suggests that people operate according to their sense of what things mean. The theoretical grounding for this cognitive-integrative approach is drawn from a range of neurological, social, psychological, and social work theories. It is laid out clearly and carefully and balanced with a generous offering of detailed clinical examples and practice guidelines. By acknowledging the influence of the larger environment on personal problems, this book offers a framework that is likely to be welcomed by social workers. It will also have strong appeal to a range of other helping professionals who see the need for this kind of conceptual bridge to guide therapeutic work along the interactive dimensions of personal meanings and environmental realities. Clinical Social Work Practice: A Cognitive-Integrative Perspective is a perfect introduction to cognitive therapy for both social work students in advanced social work practice courses and practicing social work therapists.

Sharon B. Berlin is at University of Chicago.