Real World Clinical Social Work
Here are a few comments we have received about Danna Bodenheimer's book, Real World Clinical Social Work: Find Your Voice and Find Your Way.
What People Are Saying
[From the Foreword] Picking up where MSW programs leave off, she guides the reader on a wild and wonderful tour of clinical social work practice—everything the conscientious, committed, well trained social worker needs to know.... Using powerful case examples and a series of carefully crafted questions, this book challenges readers to think broadly and deeply about their own social work practice and identity. It is an invaluable companion for beginning social workers and educators alike.
Lina Hartocollis, Ph.D., LCSW
Dean of Students, Director, Doctorate in Clinical Social Work Program
University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice
Reading Danna Bodenheimer’s Real World Clinical Social Work: Find Your Voice and Find Your Way is like spending a weekend in a wonderful candid conversation with many of our favorite theorists! While sharing her own perspectives and experiences, Bodenheimer invites us to reflect on topics as far-ranging as the essential components of the different modalities we can use in assessing and addressing client needs to identifying the elements that are critical to both the effectiveness of our professional practice and the sustenance of our personal lives. In language that is accessible, oftentimes metaphoric, and yet not at all simplistic, this book also introduces us to some of the clinical experiences of clients and therapists through an interweaving of their stories and theories. Just prior to presenting us with a thoughtful array of “post graduate options” for further learning and development, Bodenheimer explores the dimensions and dilemmas associated with still-controversial subjects like clients’ transference and clinicians’ countertransference, including feelings of love. Whether just entering the world of a master’s-prepared social worker or having spent decades as an agency-based or private practitioner, an educator, or an administrator in the social services, spending time with Real World Clinical Social Work is a real gift to yourself and everyone you serve.
Darlyne Bailey, Ph.D, ACSW, LISW
Dean, Professor, and MSS Program Director
Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, Bryn Mawr College
As students graduate from our MSW program, they often express a mix of excitement and anticipation about beginning social work practice. They almost always wonder, “Am I ready to do this work?” Dr. Bodenheimer’s book is a wonderful bridge for new graduates as they move from the support of graduate education and agency supervision to independent practitioners. Using years of teaching and astute practice experience, she provides continued education, support, and clinical insight. While grounded solidly in practice theory, Dr. Bodenheimer guides practitioners to find their own practice wisdom and style that is so essential to the social work profession. No doubt, new social workers will find this an accessible, practical primer...and a life raft for embarking on the profession!
Anne Marcus Weiss, LSW, MSW
Director of Field Education
University of Pennsylvania
School of Social Policy & Practice
Danna Bodenheimer has written an insider’s guide to clinical social work that doesn’t make the reader feel like an outsider. This book is the clinical supervisor you always wanted to have: brilliant yet approachable, professional yet personal, grounded and practical, yet steeped in theory, and challenging you to dig deeper.
Jonathan B. Singer, Ph.D., LCSW
Associate Professor of Social Work
Loyola University Chicago
Founder and Host, Social Work Podcast
It is nearly impossible to begin a career as a budding clinical social worker without the accompaniment of a variably loud inner voice that says, “You have no idea what you are doing.” Dr. Bodenheimer befriends the beginning clinician with this incredibly personable and accessible book and says, “Sure, you do.” Dr. Bodenheimer uses herself as a vehicle for connection with the reader, and she speaks directly to that inner voice with compassion, understanding, and guidance.
Cara Segal, Ph.D.
Smith College School for Social Work, faculty
Private Practitioner, Northampton, MA