Archive | 2021
Managing Negative Feelings About Clients
Abstract
Social workers are like anyone else in that there are people to whom they are drawn and others toward whom they develop negative feelings. Some clients have engaged in behaviors so repulsive that almost anyone would feel uncomfortable in their presence, but there are others who simply “push the buttons” of social workers in ways that are unique to each of them. The purposes of this chapter are to recognize that social workers may have difficulty experiencing empathy for some clients and to consider how they can transcend that barrier to develop positive working relationships with them. Three sources of negative feelings are considered: client rejection of the social worker, client violation of social norms, and unconscious practitioner reactions.