Cognitive-behavioral Methods for Social Workers

Book excerpt: Authored by Jacqueline Corcoran of Virginia Commonwealth University, this new workbook provides students and practioners of Social Work with a working knowledge of cognitive behavioral therapy from a strengths-based perspective. This text increases students awareness that cognitive-behavioral interventions are helpful in a wide range of practice settings, not just private practice. Using numerous case examples and applications, students learn skills for assessing, planning, and implementing cognitive-behavioral interventions in practice. Increasingly, Social Workers are held to standards of accountability in which they are called upon to practice with methods that have been supported by the best available evidence. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is an evidence-based practice approach validated for many types of problem areas in social work and counseling. This text will help Social Workers practitioners fulfill their responsibility to their clients to intervene with the most effective theoretical methods possible, methods tested and proven to have clinical utility. Clear explanations, numerous of examples, and exercises provides students with immediate practice in applying the concepts and techniques. Case examples cover a wide-range of practice settings and client problems and populations demonstrating how the techniques can be adapted to the different situations Social Workers may encounter. Information on how to construct scales and single-system designs to evaluate work with individual client systems, helps students and practitioners address a key component of evidence-based practice which involves social workers' facility and competence in evaluating their own practice with individual clients (Ch. 2). Managing barriers to intervention, such as lack of motivation and compliance is also covered, as are the principles and basic interventions from motivational interviewing (Chs. 10 & 11).