By Farimah Shakeri, Clinical Social Worker/Palliative Care Consultant
Soul work is a collection of fourteen human and clinical stories
written by graduate students, enrolled in a “Foundation Theories
of Social Work” course (Fall 2002-2003), in the School of Social
Work and Family Studies at the University of British Columbia.
Dr. Djuwe Blom instructed this course. The students felt their
class experience and writing their stories had transformed them
in a deep personal way. Their term papers (stories) had been outstanding
and they received encouragement from the faculty, staff and other
students to publish them as a story collection. The students were
able to obtain some financial support from the Social Workers
in Health Society of BC to have this collection published.
This collection is set in motion with reflection on the healing
principle and comes to an end with an ethnographic poem. The fourteen
contributors demonstrate the process of examining and applying
various theoretical frameworks (i.e.: narrative, system, ecological,
psychoanalytical, feminist, self-perception, cognitive- behavioural,
antioppression and life-cycle) in their practices with individuals,
community level and for selfassessment. These stories reveal whom
in particular these students and in general social workers are
at heart; they describe moments and periods of intense personal
examination and self-assessment. How these students conceptualize
human experiences determines what they see and how they define
their experiences and personal values. In these stories, it is
evident that social work is based on relationship and is mainly
working with people’s soul.
Two questions may come to particular theoretical frameworks in
her/his practice; and did the social worker choose certain frameworks
based on her/his personal values or based on the individual’s
situation? Each one of us may find different answers to these
questions which would depend on who we are, and how we perceive
the situation based on our own personal and professional experiences.
This book would be of great interest not only to social workers,
but also to everyone who is interested in learning about the capacity
of humankind to recover from tragedy and hardship. Social workers’
different perspectives on healing and their beliefs in the ongoing
capacity for human growth is well portrayed is these stories.
This book also includes a detailed glossary of key words and
concepts, a resource section and an extensive set of references
for further study and research. I found the stories inspiring
and certainly worth the attempt.
