Self

The Fault Line

The above image was drawn by my Critical Perspectives Professor. It is a linear line that represents the starting point for a person from a marginalized group. Moving towards to the end of the line they become informed of their oppression and can no longer blame others for their oppression. As critical social workers it is our duty to the people we serve to educate them on their oppression, and to empower them to have their own voices, and be advocates for social issues in their lives. If we do not give them the tools then we are not truly empowering them to make informed choices. In educating the marginalized populations of their oppressions we are raising consciousness.


We were asked at the beginning of the semester to think about who we were, what we believed, and how we take care of ourselves. In answering these questions we were asked to use the concept of the medicine wheel to illustrate our reflections. The above image is my reflection. I feel I continue to work on my spiritual self, I embody many different teachings and I am constantly exposed to more. I am content with where I am headed spiritually and where I have already travelled. Mentally I am conflicted, and realize I am experiencing trouble sleeping and feel inflicted with stress. Physically I have noted no words, I am being completely honest with myself. I do not feel I have neglected to take care of my physical self and it requires some work and more reflection. Emotionally I am happy and have found passion in my education and feel content in what I am doing in life.

The importance of the medicine wheel is its encouragement of a holistic view of ourselves. It takes into account the mental, spiritual, emotional and physical facets of who we are as people. Ideas of the medicine wheel remind me of an article I read in undergrad. In the article the author describes the notion of “wholeness” seen in Aboriginal culture, the worldview is circular, and everything is interconnected. Little Bear describes wholeness is like a flower with four petals, “when it opens one discovers strength, sharing, honesty and kindness, these four petals create balance, harmony and beauty (Little Bear, 2000). I also feel we can use it in practice to know the different areas of our client’s well being. Heron states that “resisting the reproduction of dominant power relations rests on an analysis of one’s subjectivity and subject positions (Heron, 2005).” It is important in critical social work for us to focus in on ourselves and reflect on who we are as people. If we preach self care yet are not taking care of ourselves than is it realistic to push this upon clients we serve? I always remember the analogy of being in an airplane and not being able to give any dependents oxygen unless you have put your oxygen mask first. So helping others can only occur once you have helped yourself. I also view the wheel as a journey, it is ever changing and won’t remain the same. As you have new lived experiences it will change, as you reflect more you will be able to add more things.

Self awareness allows ourselves as social workers to be aware of our cultural baggage and to separate it so it does not interfere with our efforts to know one another (Dean, 2001). If we allow our conceptual baggage to interfere with our work then we may cast judgements to clients. For example if we are believers that abortion is bad then how can we help a young girl who is pregnant make the decision of whether or not to have the baby? We must ask ourselves are we able to remove our personal bias’s out of the situation we are in to help this young girl make the best decision for herself. Dean also calls for an exercise of increasing our own self-knowledge at the same time increasing the understanding of the other (Dean, 2001). This is an important concept because we need both to create social change. Self awareness in critical social work also helps us to understand who we are, and how we have come to be who we are. We can reflect on how we have been shaped by society. Foucault uses the idea of institutions making multiple imprints on our body, he states “institutions mobilize us in intimate ways including particularly through our bodies (Foucault, 1999).” We must recognize what these imprints mean and the effect the imprints have on how we see the world around us. In reflecting on ourselves we can create new imprints which in turn will assist us in helping marginalized people, and also assist in giving us a voice that stands against oppression.