A social worker focuses on the individual holistically looking at the entirety of their past and present experiences, within the context of the system they belong in (Becvar & Becvar, 1996). Social workers believe that a therapeutic intervention should be applied to an individual’s full set of experiences and behaviour. The belief is that a therapeutic understanding throughout the client’s treatment should be extended to include the wider system. Social workers focus on the client’s entire environment, and how it can be utilised to ease the client’s distress, and facilitate better coping tools and resources leading to a client surpassing an illness or condition. The basic premise is that all care and assistance offered should lead to a client’s empowerment rather than have a disabling affect on the person in turmoil.

 

Social Workers focus primarily on the competencies of their clients, and all the positive characteristics, talents and resources within and around a client (Sheafor, Horejsi, & Horejsi, 2006). The social work view is that people often overlook how much capacity they have within themselves together with their courage and integrity. Such strengths must be highlighted in the transformation process within therapy, which encourage the client to be motivated and begin the process of change