Elizabeth Wolf

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Personal Narrative

In 2005 my life took a drastic change for the better, at the time I was

resistant to it but in the end it turned out healthier, happier and had direction in my

life. Before this I was drifting along like a lost little puppy. I ended up at Hazelden

and the Sober Living by The Sea where I was taught how to live a happy, healthy

sober life. I saw things in a different light, and the light came on in me; I became

more accepting and wanted to continue on the path of wellbeing. The motivation

and understanding of social work came from several sources; I started going to

therapy for my own well being and self-discovery and growth a few years ago but it

was going to the Amen Clinics that really got my interest in psychology and social

work started. The Amen Clinics performs SPECT scans and does a full battery of

tests to diagnosis complex and treatment resistant people. It was my thirst for

knowledge about SPECT scans that started my journey. I found it fascinating how

the brain can affect your behavior and by selecting certain medications that target

certain parts of the brain that are overactive or underactive you can heal, combined

with therapy, you no longer had to suffer.

So I switched from being sociology major at Northeastern University to a

psychology major at Chapman University where I excelled, but psychology wasn’t

giving me the client contact that I was yearning for, it was all theory and no

counseling and case management. So when I transferred to Lynn University they

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had the perfect major for me, human services, which is like social work, it’s a helping

profession. Even though I am in school for human services I long for more

information and knowledge so I do scientific research on my own about various

subjects such as; suicidal behavior and treatment, post traumatic stress disorder

and abnormalities in the brain, and instilling hope in the hopeless; I want to find the

causes and treatments for disorders so I know how to help individuals when I come

into contact with them. I’ve also done presentations on the social work practice and

the code of ethics giving examples on how to apply the code of ethics to an case

examples, so I know how to apply the code of ethics to situations that might come

about in the work place, and the mental health care policy in America and the stigma

attached to having a mental illness, patient rights and various treatments available.

I am like a sponge according to my professors because I soak up knowledge

and want more information. I am a very dedicated, passionate, and caring person

who concerned with multiple social problems, but what I am dedicated and have a

strong interest in is to help people who suffer from mental illnesses, addiction, and

people who suffer from dual diagnosis. I want to specialize in these areas and be

able to help them to my best ability.

The view I lean towards most is neuropsychology; I believe that the brain

has a connection to our behavior. I believe the brain has a connection to everything

we do. The counseling process I lean towards most of the time is cognitive behavior

therapy, which is evidenced based, I learn towards this approach because CBT helps

change our cognitive processes, which will change our behavior, which is a difficult

task and takes a lot of practice and patience. CBT is an effective treatment for

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multiple disorders including; mood, anxiety, substance abuse, eating, and psychotic

disorders.

When treating people with mental illnesses, addiction, and dual diagnosis I

feel that a combination of treatments work best but each treatment should be

tailored to that individual. While treating severe mental illness I would first make

sure that the correct diagnosis was made by getting the client to psychiatrist and

getting all tests, questionnaires, clinical history, and brain scans (if necessary) done.

After the correct diagnosis has been made medication management and

stabilization is critical and counseling. I do not think that you can do one or the

other I feel that medication management and counseling work best together to

promote the wellbeing of the client. I do not feel that medication alone works. I also

feel that finding outside resources for that client might be beneficial for them, for

support so they know that they are not alone in this.

When treating addiction I believe that what works for one person might not

work for another so each treatment should be individualized. For some people AA,

NA, and CA will be very beneficial accompanied with counseling, but for others just

counseling will work, it depends on the person’s needs and personality. With dual

diagnosis getting the correct diagnosis is key, when these clients are on the correct

medications the urge to use or drink usually disappears or fades because they were

using to self medicate. Once the medication stabilization and management is

underway AA, NA, or CA can be an option on top of counseling. But like addiction

treatment with dual diagnosis client’s treatment is individualized to their needs,

they might not need AA, NA, or CA.

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I was treated for dual diagnosis and attended AA for a while but AA, NA, and

CA meeting were not helping me. I dreaded going and when I left I felt more

depressed then when I came. But what did help was counseling, I didn’t have to

hear depressing stories about other peoples lives with no solution in them and I got

to find solutions to my own problems. The key to my treatment was placing me on

the right medications and following up weekly with my therapist. I had no urge to

use and stayed sober and still am sober for almost four years now. That’s why I

believe that what works for some people don’t necessarily work for everyone, while

big book thumpers would criticize this opinion it works for me and that’s all that

matters.

I feel the basic function of the social work profession is to promote the

wellbeing of its clients through the helping process. But our values will guide our

actions, decisions, and how we interact with clients. Integrity, personal growth,

diversity, trust, wellbeing of others and self, individuality, and service determine

how I interact in the helping process and the people I help. But in the end these

values drive me to be who I am today. These values can either enhance my helping

process or hinder it. My values can enhance the helping process by promoting

personal growth and indivuality in that person, but hinder the process by bringing

my own values that someone else might not have and create conflict. My goal is to

keep my values close to respect and me them while respecting others values as well.

Social work as a profession has functions that guide the profession. It

embodies the Code of Ethics and laws that we must abide. I respect the code of

ethics and find them as a guideline as a way to act in a professional setting. The

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profession also involves building rapport, respecting confidentiality except in

certain circumstances under federal guidelines of the code of ethics and the law,

remaining professional, problem solving, finding resources, counseling, and

collaborating with the client to find solutions to their problems. I don’t not think

that a professional should give the solutions to the client I believe the best results

come from the relationship and cooperation of client and professional. But in the

end the root of social work is the theory and research.

Since the basic purpose of social work is promote the wellbeing of

clients through the helping process it is important to know what the helping process

entails. In my opinion the whole helping process involves instilling hope in its

clients, but how do you instill hope in the hopeless? To do this one must make the

intolerable tolerable through problem solving. Through collaboration you will find

the root of the problem, and once finding the root of the problem, that’s when the

real healing can begin.

When problem solving one must come up with solutions that are realistic,

believable, and accomplishable to the client, because if they aren’t then the problem

will still be there because the solutions wont work because the client doesn’t believe

the solution works. And the client won’t even try the solution because it will be to

overbearing for them. That’s why teamwork is so important.

To guide clients in this problem solving process the clinician must first gain

rapport and trust. The clinician must exhibit empathy which is something that is

invaluable in this process as well because if you can’t put yourself where the client is

then you cant connect fully with the client and the client cant connect fully with you,

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the client will probably think you are a phony and feel like you don’t know what you

are talking about. Active listening and validating the client is a good way to start

empathizing with the client. Another goal in the helping process I believe is

important is guiding the client in self-discovery and exploration.

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses I have one huge weakness, among

others, I lack boundaries and am a people pleaser and I get taken advantage of

which leads me to become burnt out. When I was interning at The Toby Center

doing scientific research my advisor would ask me to work overtime and I couldn’t

say no, I don’t know how to say no to an authority figure which I need to learn, and I

got burnt out. He also gave me ridiculous deadlines, which put a lot of stress on me

being a full time student and doing 20 internship hours when I was only getting

credit for 12. If I had good boundaries I would have said no I cant do this right now

and I cant work overtime I have homework but I didn’t and in the end I was burnt

out but he was happy with the results and that’s all that mattered to me. Three of my

biggest strengths are that I am empathic, knowledgeable, and intelligent about

certain areas, but I am also genuine, an active listener, hard worker, insightful,

trustworthy, accepting, creative, an effective communicator, and creative in problem

solving.

Graduate school for social work is the best way for me to realize my goals

because I want to be a competent, experienced, and knowledgeable licensed social

worker, which is very important to me. To be that I need more education, skills, and

experience; I am not equipped with enough experience and knowledge to call myself

competent now I need further schooling. My goal is to get a certificate in addiction

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while at FIU along with the masters in social work so that I have a specialty. Once I

graduate from grad school I plan on getting my licensure after supervision and

working in either a psych ward or a drug and alcohol facility. After a while I want to

build a client base and do private practice so I can fully pay attention to my clients

needs, wants, and be there for them. I am not scared to take on suicidal patients and

be on call 24/7 and help them through crisis, I just want to try to save their lives.

Suicide is one of the most understudied illnesses there is out there and is not fully

understood, but I believe that by giving them hope and letting them see hope when

they are hopeless there is a chance for them to get better and see the other side of

life.

I am open to trying all different techniques to get someone well, I will learn

about them, let the client teach me about it and practice the technique if that’s what

works for them. One special technique I am going to use while working with clients

is art, as a way for them to express their emotions and feelings if they cant articulate

them because it doesn’t matter what it looks like it just matters what it means to

them and what we can process from it. Its amazing what you can tell from a piece of

art just from the colors they choose to use, say they use red that can represent anger

or black can represent emptiness. You can tell a lot just from a picture, painting, or

drawing. I’ve seen it work and people heal from art and it is amazing the

transformation they go through. You don’t have to be art therapists to use art in

your healing process with another person you just cant call yourself an art therapist.

I want to use as many tools as I can to get my clients to a place of wellbeing and

stabilization even if it is out of my comfort zone.

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