Two of the most common careers that are attractive to people who are naturally altruistic are social work and psychology. However, despite being very different practices, there is a link between these two disciplines as psychology students and those studying an advanced standing MSW will likely know.
Making a career out of helping people is one of the most challenging, yet rewarding, career choices a person can have. Working with people across all walks of life to actively make their lives better and bring them close to self-actualization is many people’s passion, making the world a better place one person at a time.
Today, we’re going to explore the link between social work and psychology and check out the overlap between these two honorable industries.
Social Work
The field of social work is an industry based on helping people in social settings. This can be in a family unit, concerning a school, it can be community concerns, or even in conducting research into the priorities of a state’s population.
Social work involves working with people and sub-groups of people to make their social dynamics run smoothly and provide benefits to all involved. For example, a family may use a social worker to gain assistance with addiction or mental health issues that are prevalent in the family. Social workers may operate within poor communities to understand what those communities need to function properly and address their overarching issues, and then work with council officials to provide solutions to those issues. They can also act with governors to help draft social policies and implement them within the existing legislature.
Therapist
A psychotherapist or talk therapist is a more well-known job dedicated to helping others. It involves using an understanding of psychological processes, and the science behind how the brain functions and thereby controls the actions and reactions of the person – then using therapeutic methods to help train that brain to allow the person more control over their actions.
For example, people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder may become extremely nervous, afraid, or agitated at certain environmental triggers. They may experience intense panic attacks or dissociative episodes when faced with intense reminders of their trauma. Through therapy, these panic attacks and episodes may become less frequent or easier to manage, thus presenting less of an impact on the patient’s life.
Social Work and Psychology – The Overlap
There is, as you might guess, quite a bit of overlap between the duties of a psychotherapist and the duties of a social worker. For one thing, they both work with people to help them improve their lives, and there may even be significant crossing between the kinds of people therapists and social workers assist.
People with Substance Abuse Disorder, victims of abuse, as well as other disadvantaged people, will often meet with social workers to find assistance and support for their conditions or home life circumstances.
Some people, for example, with Substance Abuse Disorder, may be unable to afford to move out of their home which may be in close proximity to their dealer. A social worker may work with this person to try to help them find alternative housing or a therapist might work with them to help them practice mindfulness and thought techniques to help them resist their addiction craving.
There is also some overlap in practices, techniques, and knowledge. For example, while a social worker is not a psychologist, they use psychological techniques to talk to their clients to help them feel more secure in trusting the social worker, or in accepting the changes that will help them.
Similarly, while a psychologist doesn’t have the same duty of care to their patients that a social worker does to their clients, a psychologist will use social awareness and sensitivity to engage with their patients and help them work through their issues.
Although the professions are inherently different, both social work and psychology blend through a series of techniques and understandings, with their application and scope of care for the people they work with being the main differences from job to job. Nevertheless, the people within these professions dedicate their lives to helping others, often with tremendous self-sacrifice. The importance of the work they do cannot be overstated.