Promoting Resilience Through Social Work Practice with Groups: Implications for the Practice and Field Curricula

Strengths-Based and Mutual Aid Approaches in Social Work and Psychodrama

“…The strengths-based approach is also present in the social worker's emphasis and celebration of clients' resilience. This emphasis on resilience has increased within the social work field in the past few decades (Gitterman & Knight, 2016;van Breda, 2018). Norman even suggests that "resiliency enhancement is probably the most reasonable way that social worker can put the strengths perspective into practice" (2000, p. 3).…”

“…Three types of resilience are presented by Fraser and colleagues (2004): recovery after trauma, overcoming adversity, and maintaining competence while under stress. Various factors are outlined in the literature related to resilience protective factors including intelligence, interpersonal skills, temperament, life outlook, self-esteem, self-efficacy, humor, adaptability, hardiness, and spirituality (Baruth & Carroll, 2002;Gilligan, 2004;Gitterman & Knight, 2016). Canda (2012) proposes a new framing of resilience through a spiritual lens which he calls transilience.…”

“…Transilience is defined as "a whole person process of moving forward, backward, upward, downward, sideways, or back-around in a life committed to well-being and well-becoming" which validates the nonlinear spiritual experience of resilience "and transcends the moment-to-moment details of living and dying" (p. 94). Social work with group experts also proposes a nonlinear conceptualization of resilience rooted in the relational framework of group participants helping each other-mutual aid (Gitterman & Knight, 2016). Mutual aid, social group work's strengths-based core principle, will be explored in detail in the coming sections. "…”

Trauma, Social Work, and Psychodrama

“…The social work education field has responded as a growing number of MSW programs have begun integrating trauma courses into their curriculum (Abrams & Shapiro, 2014;Bussey, 2008;Strand et al, 2014). Gitterman & Knight (2016) also advocate for the inclusion of education on resilience and post-traumatic growth in social work education. Preliminary research has demonstrated that students indicate an increase in self-efficacy around trauma work after taking an MSW trauma course (Wilson & Nochajski, 2016).…”

“…Social work with groups experts has highlighted the value of group work for trauma survivors through the conceptual framework of mutual aid (Knight, 2006). The benefits of group work for trauma survivors include sharing experience, being with others with similar experiences, decreased isolation, increased self-esteem and self-efficacy, challenging distorted views, enhancing capacity for trust, reducing stigma, and practicing emotional regulation (Gitterman & Knight, 2016;Knight, 2006). Mendelsohn, Zachary, and Harney (2007) write that "group [membership] counteracts the isolating effects of [adversity] and enables survivors to connect with sources of resilience within themselves and others" (p. 227).…”