What Are Affirmations in Social Work?

Written Originally for the publisher Wiley’s client: https://www.socialworkdegrees.org/

In social work, emotional support can be a two-way street. Social workers need it and so do clients. In both cases, a tool worth considering are called “affirmations.”

While social workers are tasked with emotionally supporting clients, this task can require some social workers to seek emotional support.

Daily affirmations are a technique used in social work to help clients, which can also help social workers cope with the stress that comes with the job.

But what are affirmations, and what do affirmations mean in the context of social work?

This article is a definitive guide to affirmations in social work –what they are and how to use them in personal and professional practice.

What Are Affirmations?

At the most basic level, an affirmation is an act or process of confirming something, usually in the form of an explicit declaration, such as a speech act or line of thought.

In other words, affirmations are when we confirm that something happened the way we thought it occurred.

The clinical utility of affirmations can help trauma survivors achieve closure with the events they experienced by affirming that they happened. However, a challenge in PTSD treatment is that those diagnosed with PTSD experience profound derealization about such events.

More plainly, PTSD patients often feel as if the events that occurred which caused their illness in the first place never happened or aren’t real. An affirmation can help such patients come to grips with the reality their condition is preventing them from seeing clearly.

The process or act of affirmation differs from case to case. Still, the purpose of affirmation is always the emotional support and encouragement of the client to face brutal realities and the challenges they present in everyday life.

Because these challenges occur daily, daily affirmations benefit clients primarily because they condition clients to no longer mistrust their vision of past traumatic events.

We can achieve closure temporarily on the trauma of our lives. Still, suppose we do not repeatedly remind ourselves how we reached this closure. In that case, the emotional pain of that trauma will inevitably re-arise.

Therefore, daily affirmations are an indispensable tool for practitioners to use for clients with PTSD and other trauma-related conditions.

Because social workers often work with traumatized clients, affirmations are beneficial tools social workers should use to treat their clients.

The way social workers treat clients with affirmations can vary. In some cases, social workers can reiterate emotionally supportive and encouraging interpretations of past traumatic events.

This can be especially helpful, as sometimes clients lack external affirmation about their traumatic experiences. Sometimes, even family and friends disaffirm trauma, making a counselor beneficial.

Another way is to teach clients how to perform daily affirmations themselves directly. For example, clinicians can guide clients on performing daily affirmations by writing affirmations and showing clients how to write affirmations for themselves.

How to Write Affirmations

Affirmations are created based on what challenge one is trying to confront. Affirmations are great for facing traumatic events from our past. Still, they are essentially helpful in helping us resolve all of our challenges.

For some, the primary cause of mental distress is uncertainty about the future. Individuals not sure about their occupational or social future are bound to experience high stress and anxiety levels.

Hence, one of the first ways to write affirmations is to write about your dream future.

If you haven’t the slightest clue what you’d like to do as an occupation in the future, the best course of action is to sit down with a pen for as long as it takes and to think this problem through.

Individuals who affirm a dream need to pose to themselves some serious questions and also need to resist the urge to ignore answers that arise which aren't purely positive.

For example, it is good to ask yourself, “what are the things I am doing right now that I know I’ll regret in 20 years.”

That question will elicit strong emotions initially because the answer likely isn't pretty. But the answer to such a question is beneficial because it delivers the information clients need to end counterproductive behaviors.

Another question worth asking is, “what are the things I am doing right now that I know I won’t regret in 20 years.” This question can help individuals identify what is working in their lives, which gives them the information needed to double down on such positive efforts.

These questions are designed to identify and affirm the right course of action based on clients' needs and desires for their ideal future.

The next step in writing one's affirmations down is to believe in them.

Having a dream future is one thing, but believing in it is different. In fact, in the early stages of having a dream future, clients will likely not believe it is possible.

Clients have envisioned such a future because it does not resemble their present or past. Lacking experience or knowledge that such dreams are likely already lived by someone else can be discouraging.

To believe in one's dream future, individuals need to give themselves good reasons to believe in it becoming a reality. And simply having a vision of a future is not enough to think it will happen –instead, one needs a blueprint for their future.

A future blueprint will involve conceiving a practical step-by-step strategy designed to reduce actions and thoughts one knows one will regret in the future and to increase actions and thoughts one knows one won't regret.

For instance, if your dream future is to be a spectacular social worker, but you lack stellar study habits, you must devise a written plan to develop better studying habits.

The final step in the process of writing one’s affirmations down is to achieve your dreams.

Now that the steps are laid out, it is time to implement them.

Practically implementing affirmations must be done daily, as affirmations, at their core, are a method of conditioning ourselves into better mental, physical, or practical habits.

Sometimes this might mean repeating a positive utterance to oneself every morning or waking up a little earlier each day to study. Either way, affirmations are reminders to take care of yourself by actively contributing to the formation of better habits.

Positive Affirmations for Social Workers

Social workers might use daily affirmations to help their clients. Still, daily affirmations can also be beneficial to social workers themselves.

Social work is a stressful occupation, as social workers are tasked with helping others cope with some of the most pressing and stressful problems individuals and groups face.

Some challenges occur in the process of becoming a social worker, making these specific utterances the perfect mantras for social workers to use for their daily affirmations:

●  	Social workers often say, "I feel that I've failed my client." In response, social workers must note that "by myself, I cannot help, but with support from others, including my client, I can achieve anything."

●  	Similarly, reminding yourself that the bulk of your battle is caring about your clients is a way to ease the stress from self-criticism. "Just because I care enough to worry I'm failing shows that I care about my clients."

●  	"I cannot save everyone." Unfortunately, there will always be uncooperative clients without much redemption, and reminding yourself of this does not detract from your care for your clients. Instead, it enables you to care for them by being self-forgiving.

●  	Remind yourself that "my clients need me" because it is true. Social workers save lives, case-closed, and there's nothing wrong with patting oneself on the back for this.

●  	"I am only human." No matter how much social workers care about their clients, they are only human and will likely experience fatigue at some point in their careers. When experiencing compassion fatigue, remind yourself that you're only human and to take some rest.

Social work plays an essential role in society. Societal problems at a larger scale, and social or psychological problems at the individual level, are both issues social workers are tasked with.

Because social workers take on such a profound responsibility, self-care routines are crucial for social workers. Without a self-care routine –such as one that includes many positive self-affirmations– social workers risk burning themselves out from too much stress.

Likewise, social workers have goals related to social work and unrelated to it. Social workers pursuing a degree in social work, for example, can benefit from daily affirmations because studying and schoolwork require the development of positive habits.

A future in social work is a highly attainable career that can be fulfilling and which serves a profoundly useful service to human society.

If you are interested in becoming a social worker or are a social worker interested in more self-care tips,click here to learn more.