EDUCATION OF FUTURE SOCIAL WORKERS IN THE BASICS OF SELF-CARE

Abstract

The article deals with practical methods that are used in the process of teaching the subject “Social and Pedagogical Therapy” in order to teach future social workers the basics of self-care. The problem is that in the war and post-war period, social workers must ensure that society and each individual citizen have the opportunity to survive the crisis, preserve their dignity and rights, and recover from traumatic events. All this leads to secondary traumatization of the social worker. The purpose of the article is to highlight the experience of social workers’ practical training for secondary traumatization during the provision of social services to the population of Ukraine in the war and post-war period (using the case of master’s training in the specialty 231 Social Work at Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State University). Scientific sources were analyzed and it was determined that it is appropriate to use life course analysis during counseling and therapy. With its help, it is possible to study the problems of age-related psychology and personality development, life crises of the personality and peculiarities of the personality’s behavior in difficult life circumstances. Violence in the context of war and temporary occupation of territories is considered, its types are highlighted. It is emphasized that manifestations of violence cause interpersonal and group consequences, which in turn causes trauma. Social workers become secondary victims of client trauma manifested through: burnout, compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, vicarious or shared trauma. The methodology of implementation of various methods of social therapy in practice is disclosed. Examples of the application the technique “Planning on a green Christmas tree” (author V. Nazarevich), the technique “Compiling fairy tales” and the projective technique “I’m in my eyes” (author I. Dubronina) are presented. The scientific novelty of the study consists in the scientifically based selection of socio-pedagogical therapy methods that can help social workers to prevent manifestations of secondary traumatization while supporting clients in today’s realities. It has been established that the described method of teaching the subject “Social and Pedagogical Therapy” to the master’s degree students in the “Social Work” specialty forms the foundations of the ethical principle of self-care in the context of the professional duties of a social worker in today’s conditions. Further research should be aimed at expanding the range of techniques that can be used for the purpose of self-care, and justifying their individual selection.