I chose to interview Mark Duney from Harbor Counseling Services for my assignment. Because I had never taken public transportation before it took some research to figure out where the Gatra runs and how do I get there because, of course, it doesn’t run right out in front of my house. I walked downtown, about a half a mile, to where the Gatra stop was near Dunkin Donuts. I was not sure what I was doing and felt very nervous and anxious.
I am used to just getting in my car and driving to where I need to go. I asked the driver if it went to North Plymouth near Ernie’s just to be sure that I was on the correct bus.He said yes. I put my fifty cents in and went to sit down. There were two older men on the bus.
The bus had an odor to it, could not quite put my nose on it but it was not pleasant. I sat toward the front. We stopped once to let someone on, a younger woman, she seemed to know everyone on the bus so I am assuming this was the transportation she used all of the time. She said hello to me and asked me if I were new in town or a tourist.
I told her that I was on an assignment for school and had to use public transportation. She laughed. The bus arrived at my destination, 340 Court Street.The Social Worker Mark Duney works at Harbor Counseling Services.
He began the service in 1980 in a small office in Hingham. In 1982, he joined another practice group and Harbor Counseling took a hiatus for 15 years. In 1996, Harbor Counseling Associates was reborn as a small, specialized practice that has grown into a helpful, reliable, and truly “safe harbor” for their clients and their families. The theories that shape his work are psychoanalytic/psychodynamic theory, Freud, object relations theory, gestalt theory, brief therapy/problem-solving therapy, behaviorism, rational-emotive therapy, cognitive therapy, systems theory, and structural family therapy.
The Agency and Service Provision System Mark Duney provides services to individuals, couples, and families. He sees people between the ages of six and one-hundred six. He is specializes in attention deficit disorder, child-family therapy, and child psychiatry. The clients come from corporations, law enforcement agencies, schools, and physician offices. Mr.
Duney sees clients who suffer from depression, anxiety, stress, relationship problems, and “normal people with normal problems. ” I asked Mark Duney about addiction as I read on his website that he treats people who suffer from it as well as alcoholism.He said it is the central part of his practice. He specializes in addiction. Eating disorder, gambling, sex addiction, alcoholism, opiates, or combination of both alcohol and opiates.
His practice is oriented toward the Twelve step recovery program. If people have difficulty or objections in dealing with this program, he helps them through it. He firmly believes that the Twelve step recovery program is the only way to recover from addiction as well as therapy. Diversity Mark Dunay was trained in a diverse community in Cambridge and Somerville.He had a mix caseload in terms of economic, race, and culture.
He was trained to recognize the importance of culture and address it early on in the therapy, making sure it was okay for them to work with a white male (now old) therapist. You do not make believe that there are not differences in culture that they do not influence the way people come for help and the way their expectations are for getting help. He has a gay friendly practice. He has helped many young children come out and he has a subculture of gay people and couples who he sees.Culture is very, very important. According to the article from Social Work, Deciding Who to See: Lesbians Discuss Their Preferences in Health and Mental Health Care Providers, it states that the participants in the study all considered if there were walk-in and emergency services available and the special training the provider had, and the level of understanding of lesbians.
Mark Duney said that he is available all the time for his clients. If anyone has a crisis, he wants them to call, and he will get back to the client as soon as he can.A crisis can be experienced by anger, hostility, anxiety, fear, sadness or melancholy. A client in crisis should be assessed as soon as possible.
Recognizing the different approaches to the process, goals, relation to treatment and type of information gathered for an individual in crisis in comparison to one that is a weekly or bi-weekly client. Using any type of interventions other than crisis could either prevent or interfere with effective crisis intervention (Myer & Conte, 2006). The Strategy Mark Dunay’s strategy is that he stresses the whole notion of solving problems in a collaborative way.People come in, and he asks, “Why are here? ” Then they immediately state why they are there, and he knows he has a problem statement. Then his strategy is to back away from discussing the problem immediately.
He makes people feel very welcome, respected, and shows interests in what they are about as a person as opposed to a person walking in with a problem. He asked what the client does for fun, what kinds of people are in the client’s circle, where did the client grow up in order to get people to be comfortable in talking about themselves.In the class textbook, it says that it is important for the social worker to engage the potential client otherwise the client may not feel comfortable to tell the social worker vital information and feelings about him or herself. If the client does not feel comfortable or does not like the social worker he or she will not return (Hepworth, Rooney, R. , Rooney, G.
, & Strom-Gottfried, 2013, 2010, p. 38). Establishing rapport also allows the client to see that they can trust the social worker, and they can see that the social worker is out to make sure that he or she succeeds (Hepworth et al. 2013, 2010, p. 38).
Issues Related to Diversity Mark Duney stated that acknowledging the clients culture, specifically relating it to the children he sees that go to Plymouth South High School, and the differences between an African American child and a Cape Verdean child is important.An African American or Cape Verdean child that goes to Plymouth South High School is a minority there as it is a largely white, Irish Italian, Portuguese High School culture. In the article, Trends and Issues in Serving Culturally Diverse Children with Disabilities, states that factors such as race, ethnicity, nationality, language, social class, to graphical location, and professional or personal interest groups are key ingredients in the pattern of identity that emerges. The article also says that most families that live in the United States who come from a different culture are seen as either discrete or traditional.
Knowing the differences in ethnicities is imperative to knowing how the child and his or her family functions and how it might either interfere or allow the child’s therapy to progress.Work Expected of the Client The number one expectation of the client for Mark Dunay is honesty. Once they define the problem and begin collaborating on strategies, they will try to put the strategies to practice, and if the strategies do not work they will tweak them. There is 168 hours in a week, so if they see him every 60 hours every week or every two weeks then the bulk of time is spent outside the office. They will need to do most of the work outside the office. The precondition is honesty.
He has thrown people of out therapy if they have lied to him.An example of the client’s work is, he gave a client some suggestions to try this past weekend when he got a call about someone who was teetering on the brink of picking up a drink when he has been sober for several years. They discussed all the pieces of a solid recovery program that needed to be in place in order to prevent a relapse. Then he made an appointment for the gentleman to follow up in a couple of weeks.
The client is relying on his sponsor, going to meetings, and he is into prayer and meditation.The best thing the client did was not keep the secret, he called his sponsor, and called the EAP and was sent to Mark Dunay. Now the client has to do the work he needs to do to keep his sobriety in place. Collaboration is a vital part of the social work profession. Clients and social workers are encouraged to work together to identify problems, create goals, form theories, and practices to work for the individual, and resolve problems.
Feedback is important for the client, and the social worker as it tells what is working, what needs to change and helps to give understanding.Clinical practice involves two participants, the client and the social worker (McDowell, 2000). The Methods He asks if they really want to make the change. Are they really there to get help? He is not going to be in a power struggle with the client.
He is there to give his very best to them, and he expects the same of the client. He is not taking the responsibility of someone’s life. The client owns his/her life, he is going to help them find solutions. If they want to do this, they will do it. Resilience and Strength Resilience and strength has a tremendous role in this process.
He sees people who have ego strength.He sees mostly professionals, a mayor, pro-athletes, a school superintendant teachers, professors, department chairperson, and Catholic priests. Everyone that comes has some strength and some resilience and sometimes they are not aware that they do. You have to turn them on to it, especially if the co-dependent person has lost themselves in the other person’s addiction.
He helps them to uncover every strength that they have and make good use of that strength. Self-efficacy is a belief that someone has in him or herself that he or she can accomplish the goals or strategies that the social worker has set in place.The most powerful means for enhancing self-efficacy is to assist clients in actually performing certain behaviors prerequisite to accomplishing their goals” (Hepworth et al. , 2013, 2010, pg. 42). As well as to make the clients aware of their strengths and for he or she to see their progression (Hepworth et al, 2013, 2010).
The Major Barriers Mark Duney does not believe that his client gives him major barriers. They show up. They understand the mission right from day one. He is very honest and open with them and expects the same from them.
The barrier that he sees is himself.He is too aggressive or too direct. He has had people tell him when they were referred to him that he is very direct, and they are warned before they come. They are in trouble they are in pain. Things are not working.
Aggressive but not disrespectful, and they go right to work. He does not hold peoples hand. He is direct and will tell a client if he feels that a marriage is not going to work. Summary In this process, I have learned that empathy, collaboration, and understanding the importance of culture are just some of the aspects of an established, successful social worker.
It was great interviewing a social worker who has practiced for decades. Mark Dunay was a pleasure to interview and gave great insight as to what an aspiring social worker should do to achieve her goals. People will not do business with you if they do not like you, so ask questions about the client to get to know him or her first, let them know a little bit about you, make them feel comfortable enough to open up and get to the problem. Once the client feels as if he or she can trust you, the process of working on a solution to the problem can happen.
