As a social worker, you perform an important job for society. People may be struggling due to all kinds of problems, then as a social worker you can provide a supportive role.
You check in with people to see how they are doing, and if there are problems that are not easily solved you refer them to the agencies that are relevant to those problems.
Social worker for trauma
You sometimes hear in disasters that social workers have been deployed for the victims. In fact, the chances in a disaster, such as a fire in your home, a murder in your area, a serious accident you witnessed, or in which you were involved, creates trauma is very much present.
A social worker then helps with the practical aspects of a disaster, such as finding a new (temporary) home and the like, as well as the psychological aspects.
In that case, knowledge of NLP and hypnosis can be incredibly helpful in providing help. Especially if the effects are still relatively small at that time.
The cool thing is that research shows that hypnosis combined with cognitive behavioral therapy for acute stress can help prevent PTSD. This was studied specifically in people who had been in a car accident , or who had suddenly experienced violence. People with a traumatic past were even specifically excluded in this study[1]. So it was really about problems that suddenly appeared acutely in one's life.
Social worker for relationship problems
Sometimes your relationship problems can get so out of control that the police are called in. In some cases, you may then be assigned a social worker to help you get things back to normal.
For example, a social worker can identify what a family's problems are now, causing relationship problems to spiral out of control. Then you can refer them to agencies of interest.
Couples with relationship problems triggered by drugs might get a referral to rehab or an AA or NA group to help the person with addiction problems, for example, while the victim might be helped by a practitioner or psychologist on how to set boundaries in a healthy way.
The annoying thing about this type of issue is that people in the middle of it are often embarrassed and find it difficult to ask for help. Exposing yourself to a social worker because you are not doing things "how they should be done" is difficult.
This is why it is important to build rapport with the people you help, so that they feel confident with you and dare to be honest about their problems. After all, only then can you help them in the best way.
Knowledge of hypnosis also helps you build rapport with people so you can help them.
Social worker for stress and depression
Stress and depressive symptoms, in turn, can create their own problems. Sometimes this can be noticed by others who then call in a social worker to help you. There are an awful lot of problems that can cause stress.
A social worker, on the one hand, can help resolve the practical side of that stress cause, such as help with debt and how to pay it off in an orderly fashion.
On the other hand, you can get mental help. Being able to give smart suggestions to help people with stress and depression symptoms so they can move on by themselves, that's a useful skill.
For example, you can give people positive suggestions about their abilities that will restore their confidence that they can overcome their problems.
In addition, you can advise people on how to relax and do progressive muscle relaxation. For example, you can give a guided visualization to help people with this.
Research shows that 20 minutes of hypnotherapy already helps people suffer less from stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms[2].
Suicide social worker
If you suffer from thoughts of suicide, call 113.
Whether you are helping people who are near suicide, have made a failed attempt, or survivors of people who have walked out of life, it is impressive.
The annoying thing is that medication for people with suicidal tendencies is not always the solution, because a side effect of antidepressants, for example, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, can be suicidal tendencies.
Then you actually end up from the rain in the drip.
Researchers therefore indicate that hypnosis may be a better way to help people with suicidal ideation than medication[3].
If, as a social worker, you need to acutely help someone who is in the process of choosing to commit suicide, knowledge of hypnosis can help provide the right suggestions that will give people hope again at being able to resolve their problems. The suggestions can help people see problems in a different way. This can reduce the need to take drastic measures.
When a suicide attempt fails, people are also often referred to a psychologist or psychiatrist, but due to waiting lists in healthcare, a social worker may also be assigned.
Even then, knowledge of hypnosis can help people look at their problems in a different way. Knowledge of how to positively reframe issues helps you help these people.
In addition, a social worker can help those left behind with grief counseling and the removal of any guilt that they did too little, or did not notice anything. Knowledge of hypnosis also helps for this process.
Social worker in illness
For some illnesses, you may be assigned a social worker. People under 35 who are diagnosed with cancer, for example, are often assigned a social worker to get support in dealing with this condition. After all, this is an age when you totally don't expect to get cancer and it can be quite a shock.
Also, a social worker helps them give the diagnosis a place and not come up with too many awkward "explanations" about why they got the disease.
The social worker then makes several calls and can visit to see how the patient is doing. In addition, the social worker assesses whether more help is needed.
Hospital social worker research and the use of Ericsson' s model with hypnosis shows that it can help cancer patients suffer less from treatment side effects and anxiety[4].
Helping people with self-hypnosis
Whatever problem people have, as a social worker you also help people master techniques to solve their problems.
For mental problems, this may include teaching people some mindfulness or even self-hypnosis.
As a social worker, your role is often small, but if you can help people with mindfulness and self-hypnosis you give them tools to help themselves when you can't be there for them at the time.
In a study of how a social worker could teach people self-hypnosis at a pediatric pulmonary center, a lung center for children, it was found that 80% of those who learned it had an improvement in their condition or even stopped suffering from their symptoms altogether.
The patients who participated in this study had an average age of 11.6 years[5]. Their complaints were anxiety, hyperventilation, asthma, chest pain, coughing, shortness of breath, sighing and vocal cord problems.
Using hypnosis as a social worker
There are a number of ways to use hypnosis as a social worker. In normal conversations, you can use hypnotic language to help people, or you can explain to people that you want to help them with hypnosis and ask if they are open to it.
Indeed, we at Hypnosis Institute Netherlands believe it is very important that people are well informed about hypnosis and that they give clear permission to engage in hypnosis.
So as a social worker, you can indicate that you want to try hypnosis, in addition to the other ways you help clients.
You always explain what hypnosis is, and what people can expect from it.
You then use hypnosis to help clients relax. This also helps induce or deepen hypnosis. After that, you can work on techniques to help people deal with their problems.
Hypnosis can be used for many problems
As you can see, hypnosis can play a role in an awful lot of problems to give people the mental tools to deal with stressful situations. Ideal to have at least the basic knowledge on this as a social worker.
It helps you give calming suggestions and empower people more.
Want to learn more about hypnosis and how it can help others? Then come to our free online master class.
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Also pin this handy infographic as a reminder:
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