Personal Statement on Doctorate in Clinical Social Work

Introduction

The evidence-based practice has been of great interest to me. The foundation for this interest is based on the fact that I am a social worker with a background in clinical psychology. My passion for learning the evidence-based approaches grew spontaneously because of the interest that I demonstrated in both the research and psychotherapy. Further, I have also had an opportunity to learn and develop my knowledge about these areas from some of the most significant contributors to the evidence-based psychotherapy as a thematic area in clinical social work. One of these contributors is Daniel Stern, MD, and who is considered the world's famous developmental psychologist. I was fortunate enough to have Dr. Stern develop and sharpen my skills as my professor and thesis advisor during my Diplome d'Etudes Superieures Specializes (DESS) program at The University of Geneva, Switzerland. In the same way, David D. Burns and his colleagues from Stanford University played a critical role in developing evidence-based knowledge in me through training and consultation. His efforts made me reach the level of a trainer.

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Through training with Dr. Stern, I was involved in a research project that examined the attachment relationship between the parent and infant. These experiences shaped and transformed me into a clinically-minded clinician. In reality, it increased my fascination in various clinical models that are strongly connected and supported through research. The ongoing question early in my social work career has always been to ask the question: what is the problem the person (and parent) is seeking help for, and what approach and methodology will provide the healing and change the individual is seeking? Undeniably, research has shown that theory can offer a clear conceptual framework where an individual can adapt to improve his understanding regarding various aspects of human development as well as the relationships that exist between human beings. The fascinating element in my view is, therefore, the implications of the research on clinical practice. Notably, the current clinical practice revolves around the need to improve the help given to individuals who seek to improve and reduce suffering in their lives in the most appropriate approach. Through research, therefore, clinicians have been exposed to the most scientifically supported and effective treatment methods in addition to developing instruments and techniques that comprehensively help address the challenges and needs presented by the individuals. Ordinarily, the manualized treatments have always focused on studying a specific or single problem (such as anxiety, phobia or depression). However, the real patient has often presented more than four separate diagnoses. The mechanism of transferring the knowledge obtained from the research into a well-adapted methodology for the real patients had therefore been a significant question and priority.

As a part of fulfilling my learning ambitions regarding the evidence-based practice, I sought training in the EBT for various health problems such as the trauma, pediatric OCD and other anxiety disorder. I also got training in TEAM-CBT, which is a multimodal form of evidence-based treatment. It is important to recognize that the TEAM-CBT was developed by Dr. Burn at Stanford University. A close look at his approach would reveal that it is psychotherapy in an Evidence-Based framework and incorporates all the elements of evidence-based practice which include testing, empathy, agenda setting, and numerous methodologies. I have been therefore able to gain a considerable amount of knowledge through the framework. For instance, I have been able to monitor the progress and therapeutic alliance and empathy. This has further enhanced easy implementation of a broad spectrum of methods until symptoms have decreased and finished with relapse prevention. As part of my everyday ambition, I yearn to continually refine and gain more knowledge about other therapeutic methods, thereby ultimately adding them to my toolkit. Studies have shown that different patients have a varying degree of response to varying methods of therapy. As such, continuous expansion and gaining more knowledge is critical.

Throughout my life, I have been sensitive to issues such as diversity and equality. This kind of sensitivity drove my commitments to the concept of democratization of highly effective treatment approaches. Through leadership roles and responsibilities that I hope to take, I will be able to shape the social work practice through offering training services to future clinical social workers. My passion for the evidence-based practice instills a lot of motivation into me and therefore allows me to grow professionally. Together with the experience and knowledge in clinical psychotherapy, I believe that I am also increasing as a psychotherapy trainer. This is evidenced by the fact that for the past three years, I have been involved in a series of training programs of my staff and other professionals within the community. The dissemination of knowledge as well as teaching of clinical skills is my primary area of fascination. I am driven by the passion for training other graduate students and the clinicians who also practice the approaches that I utilize as a clinician. As part of this experience, I noticed that the majority of clinicians always look for more tools to add to their clinical toolkit. Nevertheless, specific challenges affect their daily activities, and therefore, I believe that offering a toolkit that will help provide solutions to such challenges will be a great milestone in the clinical social work discipline.

The most intriguing question has therefore related to how I can become more excellent and active in the process of knowledge and skills dissemination while practicing within the evidence-based framework. In this sense, therefore, my primary aim is to expand the scope of my work to be able to impact a large number of people. This initiative can further involve writing the papers that can easily be published under the direction and consequently be presented at the professional conferences. As such, I will be able to move to this direction. Ideally, the completion of my MSW and the two master's degrees that I completed in psychology created a strong foundation for me to take a clinical position in the school-based mental health program. As part of this program, I was involved in the provision of psychotherapy for the elementary school children together with their families.

Moreover, I maximally pursued and utilized every little opportunity that crossed my way in terms of acquiring the skills in the evidence-based psychotherapy. I further received training in cognitive behavioral therapy, which largely included exposure and response prevention, trauma-tailored treatment, and the approaches of mindfulness. Although I found them essential in assisting many individuals, I still had a feeling of incompleteness in me especially regarding the therapeutic methods used to address the client's motivation and resistance to treatment.

Providentially, it was not long until I discovered a team in New York which practiced Dr. Burns' TEAM-CBT approach. Ideally, the TEAM-CBT or TEAM refers to an evidence-based framework that integrates motivational tools in addition to numerous 50 empirically supported methods. This approach was of great appeal to me because all of its four components were all based on research studies. As a result, I was able to travel to New York to learn and practice this kind of evidence approach, and this was after making appropriate arrangements to attend the training every week. The year 2014 marked a pivotal moment in my life because it was the year when I had my first attendance at the intensive training in California under the leadership of Dr. Burns. Weekly participation in online training under the guidance of Dr. Jill Levitt, adjunct faculty at Stanford, greatly helped my overall knowledge in this area of research. Live interaction with other masters' students through consultation and learning was crucial in propelling me to become a Level 4 trainer certification. As a result, I got the opportunity to teach my TEAM training groups locally.

Majority of my clients reported positive feedbacks about the dramatic reduction in their symptoms as part of the patient outcome that resulted from the implementation of the newer model. These improvements were based on the fact that I had been a successful therapist before. My part-time practice further contributed to this great milestone. A major aspect of the quality of the therapeutic relationship that intrigued me was the utilization of skilled empathy. Through my training, I gained the ability to improve my empathy skills mainly through feedbacks and role-play. This approach was vital to resistance reduction among patients. This model presented greater significance and powerful outcome because it used research to support the four components. It is a framework and not school therapy. As such, it is highly eclectic and individualized and focused on treating the client rather than the diagnosis. The clinician has, therefore, the opportunity to make their desired selection from a spectrum of techniques from the various school of thoughts such as CBT, mindfulness, spiritual, and interpersonal or relational approaches in line with the client's response mechanism.

The year 2015 further marked a critical time when I experienced a tremendous milestone in my professional life. This is the time I left my position at the school and decided to take a fulltime private practice. My husband had not secured stable employment, and I felt that I had to support the family. I began providing training groups for psychotherapists in the community. After approximately one year of full-time private practice, I realized that if I continued practicing alone, I would only be able to help a limited number of psychotherapy clients, compared to a larger group practice. This move was however accompanied by few challenges because there were few TEAM-trained therapists in New York. This prompted me to hire a mental health professional who had a practicing license and trained them. Fascinatingly, I was able to assure the attainment of quality and consistency in the staff that I trained on my own. It is during this that I developed thought of starting a training center, where the like-minded therapists in the community could learn from the techniques presented. Although this opportunity came with a lot of benefits, few challenges were also presented regarding the planning and execution of the ideas.

Opening a group practice and hiring of staff was a profoundly new concept, and therefore I needed to be sure that it would be viable. A further consultation from two friends in California played a critical role in equipping me with the required knowledge and skills for operating a successful practice. Our discussion revolved around various essential aspects such as marketing, networking, hiring and training, finances and billing. The utilization of cognitive tools, when faced with uncertainty, helped me remove fear and a series of negative thoughts that had dominated me.

As a social worker, I had previously worked with people who had no means. As such, our group practice was restricted by the high cost of the CBT in the New York metro area and the disparities in access to the treatment that emerged. My primary aim was, therefore, to ensure that this population had gotten adequate access to high-quality treatment. The integration of the managed care systems in practice helped reduce these challenges. My goal entailed offering high-quality, evidence-based treatment in the TEAM-model. It is through this training that I learned that many of the rising MSW clinicians sought spectra of practical training that will pro...