SOCW 6500 Week 3 Process Recording Example

Whether to Let Her Son Help: A Process Recording of Sixteen Turns With a Composite Client in Her Sixties, Setting Each Verbatim Turn Beside What the Worker Felt and the Skill Attempted, Including a Flash of Impatience and a Reassurance Caught in Hindsight

Student Name

Walden University

SOCW 6500: Field Education I

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Whether to Let Her Son Help: A Process Recording of Sixteen Turns With a Composite Client in Her Sixties, Setting Each Verbatim Turn Beside What the Worker Felt and the Skill Attempted, Including a Flash of Impatience and a Reassurance Caught in Hindsight

Purpose of the Contact

This was a second home visit with a woman in her sixties enrolled in the agency's older adult program after a knee replacement. The purpose was to explore her decision about whether to accept help at home from her adult son, who has offered to move in for two months. The client and the exchange are composite, built from patterns in several contacts; no real person is described. My learning theme for this recording, chosen with my field instructor, was reflecting feeling before moving to tasks.

The Recording

Table 1

Process Recording, Second Home Visit

Turns are verbatim as reconstructed from notes written immediately after the visit. A tilde marks a column left blank for that turn.

Overall Impressions

The conversation moved from her son's offer to the fear underneath it, and it reached that fear only after I made a mistake and corrected it. The first half went well by my learning theme: turns 3, 7 and 10 reflected content, meaning and both sides of her ambivalence before I asked anything about tasks. The impatience at turn 9 surprised me. I had thought we had "solved" the question of her limits, and when she raised them again I felt frustrated, as if she were going in circles. Looking back, she was not going in circles; she was holding two things at once, her limits and her wish to stay in charge, and my summary at turn 10 was the first time I named both.

Turn 12 was the clearest error. I reassured her about the stairs because I wanted her to feel better, but the reassurance was mine, not hers, and it closed off the worry before she could say what it was. Her flat "Maybe" at turn 13 told me so. Black and Feld (2006) describe process recording as a way for students to see their own patterns by tracking themes chosen in advance; this recording showed a pattern I have noticed in role plays too, reaching for comfort when a client's worry makes me uncomfortable.

The recovery at turn 14 mattered. Reflecting the uncertainty in her voice opened the way to turn 15, where she named the fear of falling, which is what the decision about her son is really about. Hepworth et al. (2017) describe empathic reflection as a way to help clients reach feelings beneath the surface content, and this exchange is a small example of how it can work.

Questions for Next Contact

1. What kind of help would let her feel safe without giving up control of her home, for example help with laundry and groceries from a home aide, or her son visiting on set days rather than moving in?

2. How does the fear of falling show up in her days now, and has it changed what she does?

For Supervision

I will bring turn 12 to supervision and ask my field instructor how she handles the urge to reassure. Bogo (2015) counts talking through recorded practice with a field instructor among the strongest supports for learning in the field, and this turn is where I most need that talk.

References

Black, P. N., & Feld, A. (2006). Process recording revisited: A learning-oriented thematic approach integrating field education and classroom curriculum. Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 26(3-4), 137-153. https://doi.org/10.1300/J067v26n03_09

Bogo, M. (2015). Field education for clinical social work practice: Best practices and contemporary challenges. Clinical Social Work Journal, 43(3), 317-324. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-015-0526-5

Hepworth, D. H., Rooney, R. H., Rooney, G. D., & Strom-Gottfried, K. (2017). Direct social work practice: Theory and skills (10th ed.). Cengage Learning.