Introduction

Abstract

The principles of relational practice are a perfect fit for clinical social work practice with diverse populations. Social work has a long-standing creed that relationship is key to helping clients (Reynolds 1994; Hamilton 1940; NASW 2011). Precise helping methods and their rationale have been less well articulated, and their adaptation in today's rapidly diversifying social work client base (Berzoff 2011) requires an updated look that validates their continued centrality. This book provides explanation of relational theory as the grounding in intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, and their theoretical underpinnings, that prepare today's clinical social worker to respond with confidence in new and challenging treatment situations. This book has three goals. First, it explains the psychodynamic process and practice skills of relational theory that have emerged from the developments of object relations theory and self-psychology, giving illustrations of their application in clinical social work practice. Second, it provides innovative content about the research support for relational theory in social work and its inextricability from issues like race and religion. Third, it gives a wide range of specific examples of the application of relational practice skills to the particular needs of a wide range of diverse populations. In these chapters the social work practitioner learns the rationale and methods of integration of clinical knowledge with the escalating need for appropriate treatment of clients who bring ever more complex, and perhaps unfamiliar, sociopolitical situations and internal self-organization.