Professional Development and Resilience (SWK515)

The demands on social workers, especially, those in supervisory position, can be emotionally, socially and psychologically draining. Those who work in social service agencies often do so out of a sense of ‘calling’ - to serve. SWK515 Professional Development and Resilience aims to help students nurture themselves and develop resilience in the face of challenges in their professional and personal life. It also helps students to identify and build on their hidden strengths from a multiple intelligences’ perspective. Through a process of self-discovery students will develop enhanced self-awareness and self-understanding. Students will acquire an array of interdisciplinary knowledge and skills and learn to access and develop their hidden strengths for personal and professional growth and resilience. Additionally, this course highlights how social workers – managers or leaders in the sector – can build resilience not only for themselves as a professional but also for their staff and organisation. This expanded understanding reflects the responsibility of leaders not only to manage service effectively, but to nurture cultures of care and integrity, especially in high-demand, resource-constrained settings.

• Overview of course and introduction to Bryan’s work through journaling
• Stress, burn-out and resilience
• Development of self/self-assessment
• Theory of multiple intelligences (MI) and application
• Self-awareness and self-care tools
• Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Power of Flow
• Ways of Knowing – identifying personal way of knowing
• Emotional intelligence in social work practice
• Reflective and reflexivity in social work practice
• Resilience as a leadership responsibility
• Supporting staff resilience and psychological safety
• Fostering organisational resilience

• Analyse the signs of stress and burn-out.
• Apply resilience theories and models to practice cases
• Develop resilience and skills at personal and professional development.
• Propose strategies to manage burn out in practice.
• Design approach to support staff well-being and development.
• Evaluate organisational factors that promote or hinder resilience.