Six Great Continuing Education Opportunities for Social Workers

Social workers change people’s futures. To do this requires the utmost in dedication, including continuous professional development.

If you are a social worker, you already know that almost everyone who chooses to work in the field of social work enter it with considerable compassion and then add to it considerable expertise in a wide range of areas in order to serve the whole client.

On top of that, social workers continue to add to that expertise throughout their career in order to continue to offer the best services possible. Such continuing education is also a requisite for maintaining licenses, as those already in the social work profession know. Each year social workers can choose from a wide variety of learning opportunities to broaden their perspectives and enhance their skills.

Continuing Education Courses for Social Work

At times, it makes sense to choose to deepen your expertise in a particular area, and at other times you might want to take a look at a new issue to provide a fresh outlook. Here are just a few of the topics that you might want to consider as you plan your own continuing education agenda for the coming year. Check with your licensing board to make sure that any given program fulfills their requirements before registering.

1. Crisis intervention. For strategies and tools for working in crisis situations.

2. Stress management. Understanding the causes of stress and coping mechanisms.

3. Hypnotherapy. Using hypnosis to work with therapy clients.

4. Hospice and palliative care. Providing care for terminal illnesses.

5. Grief counseling. Understanding grief and providing support to adults and children.

6. Meditation. Learning the value of meditation and techniques for self and client.

The Convenience of Distance Learning

Given the demanding nature of the social worker’s day, on line courses have become a mainstay for providing some of the necessary continuing education credits that licensed social workers need in order to maintain their status.

The National Social Workers Association even offers some free web-based courses to its members. There is a caveat, naturally—not all state licensing boards will accept the CEU credits from non-moderated distance learning programs. Many other institutions do offer moderated options that will fulfill the requirement—check with your own board.

One of the things I hear most from social workers who continue to update their expertise is that they gain both personally as well as professionally from the learning experience. Those who learn to navigate through crises with clients, teach stress coping and meditative techniques, etc., find themselves benefitting from such practices as well.

Grief Counseling for Children: When Is It Needed?

Many helping professionals work closely with families that experience grief. While adults who have lost a partner or child may express their grief more directly and have resources to help, children can present a totally different situation. Not all professionals are fully aware of the the grieving process, its differences across ages, and need to learn more about grief counseling.

How can social workers, teachers, pastors, guidance counselors, psychologists, and others help the child who has lost a parent or a sibling or other relative or a friend? Even the loss of a pet may provoke significant grief in some children.

First it is important to distinguish between normal grief symptoms and those which should be taken as warning signs that more intervention is required.

These are the normal, temporary symptoms that gradually improve over time:

· Bedwetting by a child who was already potty-trained

· Thumbsucking

· Crying and whining

· Clinging to familiar adults

· Decrease in ability to concentrate

· Mood swings

· Noticeable changes in sleeping and eating habits

· Hyperactivity, tantrums, unusual aggressive behavior

· Misbehavior in class

· Drop in grades at school

When further interventions are needed, it is important that the parents (if living) attend at least some of the sessions with the child. The counselor or therapist can help the parent communicate to the child that, despite his or her own grief, that the child is still loved and is not alone. It is also important to resolve any thoughts the child may harbor that she or he is in some way responsible for the death.

The helper may also provide other opportunities for a child to process their grief. Support groups and even books have had some beneficial effects. (One highly recommended book, by the way, is Tear Soup, a very readable fable about grief for both children and adults.)

With appropriate interventions, children are able to express their emotions and develop the resilience that they need to move forward in their lives despite loss.

Social workers, counselors, pastors, psychologists, and others, who want to improve their ability to be more than just a listening ear (which is of course important as well) can avail themselves of bereavement counseling or grief therapy training. Training may be provide either through traditional classrooms or virtually from distance learning providers. Some also provide certificates that demonstrate a professional commitment to grief counseling.