Clinical Concentration

Two-thirds of our students in the Social Work, Social Policy, and Social Administration (SW) Program enter the clinical concentration, which prepares students for advanced practice with individuals, families, and small groups. The basic principles and values of practical thought serve as an orienting perspective, emphasizing theoretical diversity and comparative approaches to growth and change. Defining features of the program emphasize the use of both scientific and humanistic domains of understanding: the crucial role of the practitioner-client relationship; students' progressive narrative and experiential learning; and the importance of diverse client narratives, empirical findings, and methods. Students consider the strengths and limits of different approaches in light of the values and concerns of the broader social work profession as they develop a critical reflective practice.

The program also emphasizes the ways in which social, cultural, political, and economic conditions shape the experience of vulnerability, need, and problems in living, and the role of advocacy as practitioners work to create more humane and responsive organizations and communities. Direct practitioners serve a variety of roles in a wide range of settings, and graduates assume supervisory, management, and consulting responsibilities over the course of their careers.

Required Courses

Students who elect the concentration in clinical practice take the following courses:

1. A two-quarter course sequence in one practice method, one course emphasizing conceptual foundations and the other course emphasizing applications. Practice methods sequences include cognitive-behavioral, family systems and psychodynamic. While it is strongly recommended that students take the conceptual foundations course before an applications course in cognitive-behavioral and family systems perspectives, it is required for the psychodynamic sequence.

2. A one-quarter course in a second practice method. Again, it is recommended that this course be a foundations course if choosing cognitive-behavioral or family systems perspectives; it must be the foundations course if choosing the psychodynamic perspective. Alternatively, The Practice of Group Work (41500), Comparative Perspectives in Social Work Practice (42401), or Knowledge and Skills for Effective Group Work Practice (62322) can also be taken to fulfill the one quarter course requirement.

3. One research class: 44501 Clinical Research or another research course if 44501 was taken in the first year

4. One human behavior in the social environment (HBSE) course. For most students, this will be 32700, but those with extensive background in the socio-cultural, socio-economic, psychological, and cognitive contexts of human growth and behavior need to register for an advanced course. 

5. A clinical field placement intended to provide students with an opportunity to develop, apply, and test practice knowledge and learn practice behaviors by working under the guidance of a supervisor in a clinical practice setting. Field instruction involves a minimum of 640 hours, usually 24 hours a week.

Electives

Students have the opportunity to take elective courses in areas of special interest. Courses may be selected from the curriculum offerings on particular fields of practice, theories of behavior, treatment modalities, social problems, target populations, research methods, or from courses in the social administration concentration. Bridging courses - those courses likely to be of interest to both clinical and social administration students - bear on issues of supervision, management, and understanding organizational dynamics. Students also have the opportunity to gain interdisciplinary perspectives by taking courses in other graduate programs and professional schools of the University.

Intervention Theories and Practice Methods

Clinical practice students in the Social Work and Social Welfare (SW) program are required to take a two-quarter course sequence in one practice method, one course emphasizing conceptual foundations and the other course emphasizing applications and at least one additional course in a different practice method. Practice methods include cognitive-behavioral, family systems, and psychodynamic perspectives.  It is strongly recommended that students take a conceptual foundations course before an applications course in cognitive-behavioral and family systems methods. In any case, a foundation course must always be part of the two-course methods sequence chosen. 

1. Practice Method: Cognitive-Behavioral Approaches 

2. Practice Method: Family Systems Approaches 

3. Practice Method: Psychodynamic Approaches 

A one-quarter course in The Practice of Group Work (41500), Comparative Perspectives in Social Work Practice (42401), or Knowledge and Skills for Effective Group Work Practice (62322) can also be taken to fulfill the one-quarter course requirement.
*   Can count as either conceptual foundations or an applications course.