During some down time around the office at Headquarters, I decided to ask my field instructor if she would answer some questions for me for this assignment, and she graciously accepted. I already knew a lot about her background and job as a social worker, both from a clinical and administrative standpoint (since she also does therapy in addition to her Headquarters work), but it was fun to hear her stories again and even learn a few new details along the way.
My field instructor, Kristin, is a social worker who received her MSW from KU. As I mentioned earlier, she does clinical work in a private practice she has with her mom, which means several times a week her clients will come to Headquarters for therapy sessions, and sometimes she will
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As I've mentioned before, she does clinical work currently in addition to Headquarters. She has also been a social work specialist and therapist at state psychiatric hospitals, an in-home therapist, a behavior specialist in schools, a daycare teacher, as well as worked in a group home. The biggest thing she wishes she would have known before talking an administrative job is the huge focus on money. She said, "money shouldn't make the world go round, but it sure makes non-profits run." For the next generation of administrators, she believes learning how to give feedback that is constructive and purposeful is a necessity. She thinks administrators need to be able to express compassion and empathy in their job. Her hopes and predictions for social work organizations blend together. Kristin predicts that social work organizations will have to be careful with the expectations they have for social workers and people in the organizations. She clarified this by needing to stress the difference between triggered and uncomfortable. Feeling uncomfortable is part of the work in a social work organization, as we will frequently run into things that make us uncomfortable, but we need to do them anyway. Being triggered, on the other hand, is part of a mental illness and not something we can just throw around as synonymous with uncomfortable. She hopes that social workers and organizations can operative without being afraid of the uncomfortable aspects, or else it will be impossible for the organizations to