I hope this blog will grow to help others as well as myself. The Eager Social Worker will be a blog written by a learning social worker. I am a full-time graduate student when writing this post (December 2019). I just finished my 3rd semester and I have one more to go before I graduate with my Master of Social Work. I went into graduate school with minimal experience to my name, but my biggest strength is that I want so badly to learn to be a good social worker. I want to document my journey of learning, and hopefully have others learn with me. I am a social worker, but I would hope that anyone in similar fields can contribute to this blog.
Update: (February 2022) I am now a full-time therapist working with people of all ages. I have my Pupil Personnel Services Credential (PPSC) and am registered as an Associate Clinical Social Worker (ACSW/ASW), and I am on track to get licensed late this year or early next year.
I want this blog to do several things:
Be a source of information. One I wish I had before applying to schools, picking my school, going to school, and working through my internships.
Be a platform for me to vent a bit. I am lucky that my professors have encouraged students to speak on their thoughts about schoolwork and internships. It makes us all feel less alone in our struggles. Maybe writing about my struggles will help others feel less alone.
Help me organize my social worker “tool kit.” Our tool kit is the knowledge and resources we build as social workers.
Help me and others grow our tool kits. Hopefully, I can list some resources that a new social worker hasn’t heard of. Even more valuable, hopefully, I can grow a community of social workers that share resources on this platform.
I know this blog is not without limits, and I ask my readers to be mindful of a few things:
I am not a licensed clinical social worker. I am no expert. I am simply documenting my journey of learning.
I cannot post documents that are copyrighted. Similarly, I cannot post information or resources from trainings that you need to pay to receive. I can list places where you can purchase trainings and documents, but I myself am not capable of giving out such information
I do not want to talk about my clients specifically. I can talk about broad situations (ie what my supervisors advised me to say when I am asked about my age, what are some phrases you can use when handling a family session etc), and I ask any reader to be very very careful when sharing tips. No identifying information should be posted.
No blog post can be all-encompassing. Professors, supervisors, forums, trainings, etc can provide additional help.
As I write my blog posts, I will be trying my best to consolidate what has been taught to me. Any person who stumbles upon a post of mine can pick and choose the tools, phrases, resources that they can apply to their own practice with genuineness and compassion. I myself will only use the tips that I can see myself executing with authenticity. Wish this blog luck!
This blog launched January 1st, 2020. Follow @eagersocialworker on Instagram for post updates! I'm nervous but excited to start!