MSW652 Clinical Methods II with Families, Groups, and Large Systems (3 cr.)

Prerequisite(s): MSW650  
Clinical Methods II equips social work clinicians to execute the essential clinical tasks of engagement, assessment, intervention, and evaluation competently and effectively in practice with families and client groups. Clinical methods from psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, and postmodern approaches are examined through a multicultural lens to identify implicit biases or inherent theoretical assumptions that might impact their responsiveness and effectiveness across a broad cultural spectrum. Through the use of self-reflection, a strengths-based perspective, and social work professional values, clinicians learn to select and apply clinical approaches that best match the client populations’ needs and context.

Upon completion of this course, students are expected to be able to do the following:

1. Compare and contrast the strengths and limitations of various practice methods in terms of their responsiveness to cultural needs and values. (C2b)
2. Locate shared outcomes and values as points for joining in a therapeutic alliance with the client group or family. (G6c)
3. Locate corporate strengths and shared values of the client group or family. (G6e)
4. Identify individual strengths of group members and the roles each play within the family or group system.  (G6e)
5. Select assessment methodology within a framework responsive to the client group’s needs by maintaining a strengths-based, culturally-responsive, systems perspective. (G7b)
6. Analyze how diagnostic and clinical formulations of individual pathology are most effectively utilized in understanding individuals within a group or family. (C7a)
7. Select treatment interventions that position each member of the group or family as a co-owner of the client system’s strengths, values, and goals. (G8a)
8. Engage all members of the client system in the evaluation process of the interventions used, allowing individuals to assess the clinical work through a lens comprised of personal and corporate values, cultural considerations, and mutually agreed-upon outcomes. (G9b)