What is Humanistic Social Work?

Answer 1

Essentially, it is a kind of extension of humanistic psychology and therapy in the social work areas and issues, with the mention that the issues approached are not purely psychological or individual but mostly at the social or psychosocial level. So, after psychotherapy, social work is the most important beneficiary of the humanistic psychology's theory and methodology. These have produced a deep reform of the modern social work theory and practice, leading, among others, to the occurrence of a particular theory and methodology: the humanistic social work. Most values and principles of the humanistic social work practice, described by Malcolm Payne in his book Humanistic Social Work: Core Principles in Practice, namely creativity in human life and practice, developing self and spirituality, developing security and resilience, accountability, flexibility and complexity in human life and practice, directly originate from the humanistic psychological theory and humanistic psychotherapy practice. Also, the representation and approach of the client (as human being) and social issue (as human issue) in social work is made from the humanistic psychology position. According to Petru Stefaroi, the way humanistic representation and approach of the client and his personality is represented is, in fact, the theoretical-axiological and methodological foundation of humanistic social work. In setting goals and the intervention activities, in order to solve social/ human problems, there prevail critical terms and categories of the humanistic psychology and psychotherapy, such as: self-actualization, human potential, holistic approach, human being, free will, subjectivity, human experience, self-determination/ development, spirituality, creativity, positive thinking, client-centered and context-centered approach/intervention, empathy, personal growth, empowerment. First, the humanistic and also transpersonal psychologies and therapies bring to humanistic social work the idea of seeking to promote personal growth and self-actualization through our shared human experience.

Although it is very important to identify the humanistic psychology as a source of humanistic helping, is not indicated a wholesale transfer of humanistic psychologies or psychotherapies into other forms of helping. This is because psychologies have important disadvantages as a basis for caring and helping practice. They focus only on individual personal development and have been criticized for not recognizing the limitations and barriers that many people face in the societies and communities in which they live. To develop a humanistic social work, we need to balance humanistic psychologies with social ideas about humanity. Here, the importance of the microsociology and humanistic sociology. Key issues, categories and principles of the microsociology and humanistic sociology, such as human relations, face-to-face interaction, interpretive/qualitative analysis, attachment and empathy, micro-level analysis, human behavior, micro-community, everyday human life, human context, microculture, focus on agency have influenced and still influences today the social work theory and practice, having a crucial role, in the emergence of humanistic social work (Petru Stefaroi), as response to the critical, radical, structural and systemic social work, which theoretically originates from macrosociology or mesosociology. This is why, Malcolm Payne and Petru Stefaroi considers, alongside phenomenology and humanistic psychology/ psychotherapy, the microsociology a fundamental theoretical-methodological source of this postmodern and innovative orientation from the contemporary social work, especially of the humanistic social work practice.

Bibliography:

Payne, M. (2011). Humanistic Social Work: Core Principles in Practice. Chicago: Lyceum, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan

Stefaroi, P. (2012). Humanistic Paradigm of Social Work or Brief Introduction in Humanistic Social Work. Social Work Review, 1, pp. 161-174.

Ellenhorn, R. (1988). Toward a Humanistic Social Work: Social Work for Conviviality, Humanity & Society, Vol. 12, Issue 2, p.166

Payne, M. (2005). Modern Social Work Theory (3rd ed.), Chicago: Lyceum Books.

Stefaroi, P. (2009). Humanistic Perspective on Customer in Social Work, Social Work Review, 1-2, pp. 9-34.

Humanistische Akademie. (1998). Humanistische Sozialarbeit, Berlin: Humanistische Akademie. Series: Humanismus aktuell, H. 3. Jg. 2.