Resiliency Perspective In Social Work

When understanding how my own experiences have cultivated my multiple social identities the strengths or resiliency perspective tends to resonate with me as a social worker. Marsiglia & Kulis (2015) state that “the resiliency perspective recognizes that all cultural groups have unique strengths that can be used to empower their members” (p. 145). This suggest that cultural diversity benefits communities and individuals by allowing them to identify and utilize their existing cultural competent supports. The strengths perspective counteracts the “medical model” which pathologizes individuals and communities and emphasizes the service provider as the expert (Shulman, 2012). While the medical model allows inequality to be perpetuated through focusing

The authors advise that a practitioner can utilize strengths perspective by listening to the clients’ story, acknowledging their pain, looking for strengths, and asking questions about their survival and goals. Following these actions, a social worker can also point out and link strengths to the client’s goals, link the client to resources to achieve these goals, and find opportunities for the client to be the teacher in order to bring theory into practice. The strengths perspective’s weight on hearing the client’s stories mirrors aspects of narrative theory which emphasizes that the human experience is conveyed through stories (Marsiglia & Kulis, 2015). The overlap between these theories suggest that multiple perspectives can be used to understand diversity and

My identity as a poor black woman was built on identifying and taking pride in the strengths and resiliency demanded from members of this group. Strengths perspective aided my identity formation by allowing me to consider the strengths and natural resources of my multiple social groups and locations. This has allowed me to move pass the shame of my working class status that I felt as a child and appreciate how creative my family had to be to survive. Strengths perspective also has helped me to identify how the black communities I take membership in, like my childhood neighborhood, church, and Black Student Association, create social processes to fight against internalized racism. As a woman, I can rely on strengths perspective to celebrate tenacity in a patriarchal society which views women as the weaker gender. In the places I have experienced privileged such as my religion and ability status, I sought out ways to identify the oppressed groups strengths and advocate for changes which accentuate those