Client Social Case worker Relationship in social case work

Introduction

in the previous article, we discussed approaches of social casework now let's learn the importance of relationships in social case work.Humans, as social animals, live and prosper from social interactions with other people. The formation of a person's personality is heavily influenced by his or her connections with significant persons. Human partnerships are famous for their warmth, comfort, security, nurturing, and feelings. Relationships serve as a catalyst, an enabling dynamism in the support, nurturing, and liberation of people's energies and motivation for issue solving and the application of assistance. People's vital relationships emerge from shared and emotionally charged events. Emotionally charged relationships with other humans provide the climate for the development of human personality, the nutrient for its development, and the impetus for its subtle adjustments. All people have their first contact with their mothers when they are born. The parent-child relationship is the most important since it helps to establish the groundwork for one's personality development, confidence, attitudes, and self-esteem.

The Nature of Relationship

'Relationship is a human being's sensation or sense of emotional connectedness with another,' writes Helen Harris Perlman (1957). It emerges and develops slowly, like an electric current, when emotion is awakened by and invested in someone or something, and that someone or item "connects back" responsively. We feel "connected" when we have a heartfelt connection with another (person or item).

• Relationships can be 'good' or 'bad,' brief or long-lasting, nuanced and sincere or superficial and skin deep, quick and spontaneous or meticulously constructed.
•  However, its dynamics include the presence, recognition, deposit, reception, and responsiveness of emotion between individuals or between a person and an item or activity that has moved him/her.
•  Joy and sorrow, pleasure and deprivation, hope and despair, merriment and depression, fury and grace, guilt and hostility, and any or all of these emotions may be felt and shared. For example, a child who is very bonded to his or her parents will be overjoyed when he or she meets them. 
• An abandoned child, on the other hand, would respond differently when he or she met the family. In the latter case, emotions may range from hatred to anger to resentment. There is a hunger in the majority of mutually beneficial relationships. 

Relationship in Social Case Work 

The foundation of social casework is defined as a relationship. The relationship between the caseworker and the client is critical. It is the principle of life that animates the process of investigation, diagnosis, and therapy, making casework a live, warmly human experience. Social work relies on its belief in the basic worth and dignity of persons, as well as on strengthening their capacities to attain their full human potential. The caseworker-client connection is the means through which knowledge of human nature and the individual is applied; knowledge alone, without skill in a relationship, is insufficient. The relationship is also the channel through which the entire casework process flows; through it flow the mobilization of human capacities and the mobilization of community resources; through it flow the skills in interviewing, research, diagnosis, and treatment (Biestek: 1957).

Characteristics of Client Social Work Relationship 

The caseworker-client relationship entails considerably more than just a cordial friendship. Clients bring their sentiments, attitudes, and behavior from previous relationships into the casework relationship. As a result, the client tends to react to the casework situation in a way that is influenced by his or her personal experiences. Casework focuses on understanding the client, his or her psychological requirements, and developing a "contact" in order to establish a relationship. If this communication is to be useful, the client must have faith in the worker's good faith, and the worker must regard the client as an individual. It is the caseworker's obligation to build this relationship. This professional relationship is developed with the goal of fostering a personally gratifying and socially helpful existence in the client. It is the individualized goal that is set to be accomplished in each partnership.

1. Warmth is defined as a positive, energetic, outgoing interest in another person (or object or activity), as well as a spontaneous reaching out to take in another with joy or compassion (Perlman: 1979). By displaying an open, 'warm' attitude, the caseworker can communicate to the client his/her openness and concern for understanding the client's situation, client attitudes, and sharing of experiences. The worker demonstrates warmth when he or she pays to the client with attention, listens attentively, exhibits confidence, and understands the client's situation. As a result, he gets his client's trust.
2. Empathy entails feeling with and into another person, as well as being able to put oneself in the shoes of another ( (Perlman: 1979). It could happen spontaneously or as a result of carefully practised 'hearing with the third ear' and responding in tune to the other person. Looking at a situation/case from another person's point of view is what empathy entails. The caseworker is able to transmit to the client his/her comprehension of the client's problem with accuracy and 'oneness' through empathy. Empathy differs from sympathy in that it creates a link with the experience of being assisted by another person. The caseworker expresses sympathy by stating things such, "I understand how you feel," or "I can tell you're unhappy and angry." Empathy is the act of leading oneself to another in order to feel into and absorb the essence of the other in the present moment. The client feels understood and valued as a result of the caseworker's empathy.
3. Genuineness: To be authentic and congruent, the caseworker relies on his or her own felt experiences in the client's connection. To be genuine means to be devoid of pretense. It is to have a sense of wholeness, of knowing who and what one is, what one's guiding ideals are, and as a result of being on relatively good terms with oneself. Genuineness is the result of life events that allow one to be self-observant, self-aware, and self-acceptant of one's own strengths and limits (Perlman: 1979). A real and congruent connection is defined by consistent and honest openness and behavior that matches the verbalized aims and values of social work.
4. Authority is a necessary component of the caseworker-client interaction. Perlman (1979) defines authority as the "ability" to be employed for the client rather than "over" or "against" the customer. In a casework partnership, authority does not imply dominance or purposeful imposition. The client has the option to accept, reject, or amend the worker's recommendations. Instead, authority denotes the bearing of those rights and capabilities that are inherent in unique knowledge and are bestowed in special functions (Perlman: 1957). Being in charge does not make the employee superior to the client. It rather suggests that the caseworker has skill in understanding, assessing, and dealing with the client's problem. Knowledge and competence confer authority. The Client seeks assistance from a person with authority over information and abilities, someone who knows more than him/her.
5. Transference and Counter Transference: The phenomena known as transference or transference reactions are the most commonly seen requirement to 'work' a relationship. Each of us brings conscious and unconscious thoughts and attitudes that evolved in or still belong to previous major relationships to any emotionally charged connection (Perlman: 1957). For instance, in casework with a teenage girl to assist her with career alternatives, the worker listens to the girl's objectives and challenges. The worker assists her in developing a career plan while keeping her aptitudes and preferences in mind, and she also arranges for her to visit a nearby vocational training center ,In such a circumstance, the girl may develop feelings for the worker similar to those she had for her mother/grandmother when she was younger. The client receives significantly more emotional gratification from such a relationship than is realistically possible in a caseworker-client relationship. It should be noted that the customer who visits the agency frequently feels helpless and inadequate because he or she is unable to solve his or her own problem. As a result, clients are more likely to bring irrational elements into the relationship and desire to regress, desiring parental nurture and parental dominance. These, on the other hand, are harmful to the client because they can persuade the client to remain in an idealistic, infantile dependence rather than working towards self-reliance in the partnership.