My placement at Centre Self Collective (CSC) was fantastic. Throughout the time I was there I was exposed to knowledge and practice which has helped me to further develop an understanding of my own goals within the profession of social work and my future practice. In my time at the placement I felt that my suggestions and contributions were taken seriously and accepted as coming from part of the team. Being supported by a team that are interested in having the best social work practice possible created a great space to develop my own skills.
Knowledge
During my placement I was able to speak regularly with practitioners who shared their diverse practice knowledge with me. I had great discussions about the modalities that practitioners used, how they chose which elements to introduce with which clients, and about current cases and how they were formulating an approach. I was introduced to Schema Therapy, Emotion Focused Therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and how these modalities structure their work with clients to make productive change. Sitting in on peer supervision sessions gave me insight into the ways the team shared supportive suggestions to help their colleagues progress with difficult cases and identify the successes that they may have been missing.
In my time at CSC, I spoke with the Directors about how they had approached creating their own business. This gave me an understanding of some of the steps that would be necessary if I were to approach doing so in the future. I spoke with social workers that were at differing levels along their journey in various areas of accreditation, such as receiving AASW acknowledgement as a Mental Health Social worker, but also areas such as formal training to administer Schema Therapy and EMDR. This showed me that to progress where I would like to in my career, and become an accredited mental health social worker required many more steps, but I am happy that I gained a lot more knowledge about the path ahead.
While at CSC I engaged in regular supervision that helped me to reflect on the learning that I was undertaking. I received individual supervision from a qualified social worker that helped me to delve into my own personal and professional ethics, practice skills and areas of further development, and planning for the next steps in my career. Alongside this individual supervision I participated in group supervision where I was able to learn from my fellow students based on their previous knowledge and current developments from their placements. Both types of supervision helped me to gather my thoughts and examples to write about in my learning plan and meet the requirements of the university and AASW for me to complete the placement effectively.
From the time I spent at CSC I grew more knowledgeable about the policies of various institutions such as the AASW, Medicare, VOCAT, and the NDIS. This was in the context of affecting private practice and the running of a business, such as being a member of the AASW and the requirements to maintain that membership. For the others, such as Medicare, I learnt how they provide funding for clients to be able to access the services of a private practice social worker, and what limitations are placed by the funding bodies.
Practice
In my time at CSC I was able to engage in direct practice with clients, and observe and discuss how practitioners practiced with their own clients. An example was a session that I sat in on, and afterwards debriefed with the practitioner about what had occurred in the session and their professional judgements based on it.
During my placement CSC partnered with another private practitioner to hold an ADHD therapy group. I completed the intake conversations with the potential participants to assess their potential fit within the group therapy dynamics; this process allowed me to use skills such as motivational interviewing, rapport building, and empathetic engagement. The group then ran for 10 weeks and I was established as co-facilitator. I was supported to practice drawing on group members to engage in discussions and later helped in adjusting the reading materials and presenting for multiple sessions.
When group members missed a group session, I provided a catch-up session. These were a great space to practice some of the modalities which I had been learning about throughout my time at CSC. I presented the content which had been assigned to the group for the missed week, but also drew upon psychoeducation and skills from modalities such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help the clients to draw on their won values and create a plan to move forward.
Conclusion
I am very thankful for all of the opportunities that my placement at CSC has provided me. I have gained knowledge about modalities that I was not aware of before my placement. I learned a great deal about establishing my own private practice and the next steps that I will need to take to pursue this goal. I will draw on the expertise that I gained through my placement at CSC for the rest of my career and this built so well on the foundation provided by my studies at RMIT.