Dual Role Transition among First Time Pregnant Social Work Student Trainees

Since most social work student trainees are women of child bearing age, every year at least some of them become pregnant in the course of their fieldwork. This study investigates the dual transitions of becoming a mother while becoming a professional among 10 married social work student trainees whose fieldwork training coincided with their first pregnancy. The findings obtained from a cross-case thematic analysis of the contents of semi-structured interviews show that these trainees come to their fieldwork preoccupied with their pregnancy, torn between that and their clients, and feeling guilty and, in some cases, professionally inadequate as a result. They also show that some of them cope with their pregnancies by pushing themselves to over-function in matters that do not involve direct client interaction. The paper ends with practical recommendations to help pregnant trainees free up room for their clients' needs by providing them with opportunities to talk about their own.     

Social Work Students' Feelings and Concerns about the Ending of their Fieldwork Supervision

This qualitative study examines the feelings and concerns of 80 social work students at the ending of their fieldwork supervision. The findings show that students who described good relationships reported mixed or ambivalent feelings about the ending, deriving from their warm feelings of attachment, on the one hand, and from their drive to grow and develop, on the other. Those who described poor or fair relationships were spared feelings of sadness or loss, but they were also left without good feelings and with little ability to express their bad ones. The paper offers practical suggestions for improving the supervisory process and ending the fieldwork supervision.     

Therapists’ Responses to Treatment Termination: An Inquiry into the Variables that Contribute to Therapists’ Experiences

The study investigates predictors of emotional responses to treatment termination in a sample of 48 professional social workers and 92 student social workers in Israel. The findings show that the respondents found treatment termination to be moderately difficult, and client initiated terminations to be especially difficult and to bring in its wake particularly negative emotions. They also show that the aftermath of the termination was related to the process. The less abrupt the termination, the more control the therapists had over the termination process, the more central the therapeutic relationship was to them, the more they attained the therapeutic goals, the less they believed that the therapy had failed, the more choice they had in the treatment termination, and the more they wanted the termination, the more positive self-feelings the therapist reported. The paper suggests that treatment termination is better viewed as a transition than a loss and discusses the clinical implications of the findings.     

Gender‐sensitive intervention to improve work with fathers in child welfare services

Although the importance of including fathers in child welfare services has been increasingly recognized, social workers' engagement with fathers is still limited and sometimes fraught with negative bias. This paper attempts to lay some needed foundation to meet the challenge of working with fathers. It presents in succinct form the existing knowledge on how fathers experience and manifest their distress and on how they view the social services and social workers. It discusses, in some detail, three main issues – power relations, mutual fear and communication differences – in the interactions between female social workers and the fathers in the social welfare services. And it emphasizes the need for social workers to be aware of how their experiences with their own fathers may affect their interventions with men. It ends with observations and recommendations for developing the gender awareness that is necessary for effective practice with fathers.     

Social Work Practice in Conflict-Ridden Areas: Cultural Sensitivity Is Not Enough

This paper tries to raise awareness of the distortions thatviolent political conflict may introduce into social work practicewith members of the rival community, and proposes training guidelinesfor social workers to help reduce those distortions. The understandingof the impact of political conflict on practice is based onthe Israeli–Palestinian experience. The suggestions regardingwhat social workers should be aware of when practising in situationsof political conflict, however, and the training guidelinesthat are offered can apply to practice in other conflict-riddenareas worldwide.     

Where professional and personal values may clash: social workers' attitudes towards professional involvement in the evacuation of Israeli settlers from Gaza and Northern Samaria

Israel's evacuation of settlers from their homes in Gaza and North Samaria provided a real time opportunity to examine social workers' attitudes towards offering their services in controversial political situations. This study, conducted shortly before the evacuation, is a qualitative examination of the attitudes of 108 Israeli social workers towards offering professional services to the evacuees. Findings show that while most respondents supported social worker involvement, around a quarter either qualified their support or objected outright. Calls are made to ensure that professional services and resources become available to persons of all political persuasions and in all political situations.     

Women Pursuing Higher Education in Ultra-Orthodox Society

The study reported in this article concerns the beginnings of higher education for women in the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) enclave in Israel. Haredi Jews are a self-secluded fundamentalist group committed to particularly strict interpretation of Jewish religious law. In recent years, they have been compelled by poverty and other factors to allow academic education, hitherto considered out of bounds, especially for women. Focus groups with 32 Haredi women enrolled in the social work program at the Haredi College in Jerusalem reveal the obstacles the women encountered both from conservative forces in the community and from within themselves as well as the means that they used to cope with them.     

The Male Way of Mourning Divorce: When, What, and How

Based on the literature on divorce, this paper explores the distinct ways in which men mourn the losses inherent in the breakup of a marriage. It argues that men have a distinct way of mourning that differs from that of women. They start the mourning process later than women, mourn the loss of their home and children more than the loss of their wives, and tend to express their mourning through actions rather than in words or obvious emotional manifestations of grief. The paper considers possible reasons for these behaviors and their implications for practitioners.     

Field Supervisors' Feelings and Concerns at the Termination of the Supervisory Relationship

This study deals with the neglected subject of the feelingsand concerns of field supervisors at the termination of thesupervisory relationship. Analysis of the written responsesof 55 field supervisors to three open ended questions revealsa mixture of co-existent feelings: satisfaction, fulfillmentand pride, along with relief, sadness, and/or frustration. Itshows that the supervisors’ most prevalent concern waswith whether they were good supervisors, and that only halfof them related to professional issues involved in the termination.About half reported being left with feelings of gratification;others wrote of being left with the sense that they had notaccomplished what they would have liked to. Beyond the specificfindings, the study’s main contribution is the light itsheds on supervisors’ perspectives on the experience offield supervision as a whole. Recommendations for practice andresearch are made.     

Postdivorce paternal disengagement: failed mourning and role fusion

In this article, I suggest that postdivorce paternal disengagement may be rooted in the father's tendency to link his children and ex-wife as a single entity in consequence of his failure to adequately mourn the loss of his ex-wife and to redefine his paternal role and identity in distinction from his spousal role and identity. I also suggest that the ex-spousal conflict that disengaged fathers often blame for their disengagement is the product of these failures and shows the progress from conflict through disengagement. These claims are developed on the basis of findings of other authors and illustrated though a case analysis of an absent father.