the role of critically reflective practice in working with child sexual abuse siobhan maclean writer...
TRANSCRIPT
THE ROLE OF CRITICALLY REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN WORKING
WITH CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
Siobhan Maclean
Writer and independent social worker
Reflective practice / critical reflection : what is it?
• Process of review to inform learning (eg: Schon, Reid etc)
• Active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge (Dewey 1933)
• Mental process of trying torestructure existing knowledge and insights(Korthagen 2001)
Critically reflective practice: key components
Rethinking / deconstructing power Awareness of values and implications for practice Exploring emotions / emotional
intelligence Drawing on knowledge / developing
knowledge and practice wisdom
Self awareness Creating uncertainty through dynamic
questioning – willingness to live with that uncertainty 3
Child Sexual Abuse: key issues
Power and powerlessness Changing societal values Emotional impact / distress Developing / emerging knowledge Impact of personal experiences / values (self awareness) More questions than answers (uncertainty)
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POWERVALUESEMOTIONSKNOWLEDGESELF AWARENESSUNCERTAINTY
Reflective Practice: Power
• Fook – critically reflective practice• Deconstruction of ‘realities’ with a
focus on power dynamics
Is sexual abuse about sex or
about power?
What are the power dynamics
in each situation – individual,
organisational, cultural,
societal?
Who is making decisions?
Reflective Practice: Self Awareness
How did you find out about
sex?
How do you feel about sex?
How do you use your “self” in
your work?
Personal process relies on personal awareness
Distress and emotions
Reflection and self awareness are key aspects of emotional intelligence – “keeping distress from swamping the ability to think, to empathise and to hope” (Goleman 1996)
How does a practitioner
manage emotional distress
and avoid the potential for
helplessness?
Is supervision sufficiently
emotionally supportive?
Drawing on Knowledge
Knowledge is fixed and creates limitations to the way that we see things……Knowledge is time, context and societally and culturally specific..
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When was child sexual
abuse first raised as an
issue?
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Freud’s Seminar ‘The Ateology of Hysteria’ (1896)
“Almost all of my women patients told me that they had been seduced by their father. I was driven to recognize in the end that these reports were untrue and so came to understand that the hysterical symptoms are derived from phantasies and not from real occurrences…… It was only later that I was able to recognizein this phantasy of being seduced bythe father the expression of the typical Oedipus complex in women.”
(Sigmund Freud 1933)
Reflective processes can potentially unearth any assumptions about anything…. Some crucial but hitherto deeply hidden assumptions may be uncovered. (Fook 2004: 59)
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Do reflective processes
bury as much as they
unearth ?
The earth was flat……….
Child sexual abuse didn’t happen….
Sula Wolff (1973)Seminal text
No mention of child sexual abuse
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10 years on…..Judith Herman
“This distributing fact…. Has been repeatedly unearthed in the past hundred years, and just as repeatedly buried….. The information was simply too threatening to be maintained in public consciousness.” (1982:7)
• Women don’t abuse…• Where they do they have been coerced
or controlled by men….
Critically reflective practice recognises that there is no truth and that we need to be open to all possibilities…..An ability to “imagine” or thinkbeyond knowledge
We talk about the realities of
childhood sexual abuse – but how do
we “know” what they are?
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Difficulties / barriers
Time constraints Striving for certainty Evidence based practice Reflective practice can be painful and
create a crisis of confidence Organisational constraints Lack of reflective supervision Lack of clarity about reflective
practice
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Dangers in Reflection• Reflecting into a void and seeing
only what we want, can take or believe....
Reflexive spaghettiBurnham (1993)
Reflecting on reflections about reflections….
Ties us up and prevents action
Characteristics of a reflective practitioner (Brookfield 1998)
• Assumption analysis : challenging our own beliefs and values
• Contextual awareness : recognition of social construction of beliefs and practice
• Imaginative speculation: ability to imagine a different way
• Reflective Scepticism: Challenging or suspending existing knowledge and beliefs
So what can be done? (Individual level)
Find a model of reflective practice which you are comfortable with – this will vary for each practitioner
Seek out “critical friends” Develop awareness of what is
impacting on reflections Don’t avoid the questions – but
likewise don’t delay actions
So what can be done? (Organisational / societal
level)
Critically reflective organisations (Munro)
Challenging powerEducate children and young
people to critically reflect
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