From the Director’s Desk

Clinical social work training programs, like the one I launched this past year at CFI, are meant to help student trainees bring their knowledge from the classroom to life through practice, reflection through supervision, and skill building through training. Clinical training is where students develop their competence and confidence in performing within the framework of social work skills, values, and ethics, while evolving their own practice styles that build on personal strengths and capacities.

The Social Work Framework
The social work profession aims to enhance human wellbeing and help meet people’s basic and complex needs, with emphasis on those who are vulnerable, oppressed, or living in poverty. It’s different from other professions due to this focus on both the person and their environment.
As social workers, we help clients deal not only with how they feel about a situation but also with what they can do about it. We focus on all that affects their situation and outlook and create opportunities for assessment and intervention, when necessary. This involves the ability to provide clinical counseling and intervene on behalf of a client—within the client’s environment.

Micro to Macro
The hallmark of the foundational Social Work Framework is the “3 M’s”: micro, mezzo and macro social work—what I like to call the “meat and potatoes” of our training program. Here’s an example of micro-to-macro work in how a social worker might help a middle school student.

Micro social work involves direct individual counseling with the student. If the school environment is a contributing factor, the social worker will assess what’s going on in the classroom. Is there bullying? This is mezzo social work. If the school culture does not support student wellbeing, perhaps an anti-bullying campaign would be proposed—the macro end of social work practice.

Core Competencies 
Clinical social work training may differ from other training models as it’s meant to challenge student interns to assess and treat a client through these different lenses. This leads to the other part of the Social Work Framework, which are the nine core competencies. They boost social workers’ thinking about the client, about the client within their environment, AND about how policies may have an impact on communities as a whole. If the 3 Ms are the meat and potatoes of the work, the core competencies are the platter.

The Many Hats of Supervisors
As supervisors, we give students—at the last stage of achieving their MSWs—constructive, honest and direct feedback, focusing on their personal growth, strengths and challenges. We help them develop collaborative, student learning plans that reflect use of the core competencies and abide by its professional standards.

At CFI, supervision is the cornerstone of growth and learning through training. In fact, we offer not only individual, but also group supervision. Along with frequent specialized trainings from our diverse staff, this model allows our interns the opportunity to connect with one another and view their cases through a range of perspectives and styles, leading to better client outcomes in treatment.

When interviewing potential trainee candidates, I assure them our goal at CFI is to prepare them to feel confident in delivering evidence-based treatments to a wide range of clients in a variety of settings. This includes the ability to develop their level of reflection and awareness in the room, all while keeping to the core system of values and ethics that drives the work. Between individual and group supervision that assures the appropriate use of reflection, assessment and treatment, our trainees are given the necessary tools to deliver quality, evidence-based treatment to their clients.

Realizing the Weissman Children’s Foundation mission
Through CFI’s social work training program, we can bring to life the mission of its sister organization, the Weissman Children’s Foundation (WCF). It is through the commitment, unique views and inquisitive, creative minds of our social work interns that CFI-WCF can deliver evidence-based treatment to all children, families and young adults in need. Our social work training program is what turns the vision of equity for quality, evidence-based mental health treatment into a reality.