Humans naturally create a lifetime of stories—stories of childhood, educational experiences, traumas, and current relationships. In fact, you can probably point to many details about your life thus far, on each of these topics.

Social workers carry these personal stories with them in their interactions with clients. Sometimes these stories arise verbally during a session, and other times they are divulged indirectly through clothing or office artwork. For instance, a diploma on the wall reveals the social worker’s school and credentials. Because of the potentially negative effect of self-disclosure, social workers need to be aware of how they may be sharing personal details of their life with a client.

In this Discussion, you analyze a social worker-client conversation for signs of self-disclosure, as well as the effect that disclosure had on the interview.

watch the Southside Community Services video listed in this week’s Learning Resources.

• Identify and describe the moment the social worker self-disclosed to the client.
• Explain how the self-disclosure affected the interview process.
  • Did it create a tense environment or one of comfortableness?
• Describe the positive and negative aspects of the self-disclosure with this client.
  • Would you have self-disclosed with this client? Why, or why not?

Cummins, L., K., & Sevel, J., A. (2017). Social work skills for beginning direct practice: Text, workbook, and interactive web based case studies (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (2016). Southside Community Services: Mrs. Bargas, episode 2 [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.