Social Work Career Advice

Guide for Clinical Social Work Students and Recent Graduates; An MSW is Just the Beginning of Your Education

Move beyond being a generalist and learn something in real depth,

Supervision or consultation is the key to learning a therapeutic approach in depth.

Build Critical Skills

• Screen for substance abuse/alcohol problems.
• Assess and diagnose mental health problems, ideally with use of standardized assessment scales.
• Assess for domestic violence and know how to develop safety plans.
• Understand how trauma affects people, as most problem behaviors make sense when you look at what people have lived through.
• Behavioral interviewing, i.e., you don’t ask “were you abused as a child?”, you ask about specific behavioral experiences (“how were you disciplined?”)
• Intervention skills in basic cognitive behavioral treatment methods.
• Motivational interviewing.
• Record-keeping.
• Working with couples and families.

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