In the social work realm we often hear the word “empowerment” frequently, as social workers our job is to not only empower our self as the article mentions but to empower others as well (Leonardsen, 2007). Empowerment is a simple but complex theory, it focuses on seeing your client’s strengths and using them to promote and facilitate the change that the client is in need of. The Author of this article goes into great detail explaining his thoughts on social workers using two perspectives, the relational and individualistic perspectives.
Leonardsen looks at empowerment in a two methods with the first perspective being the individualistic perspective. Which is only being able to see a client’s issues on an individual level, you see it as the …show more content…
As we know there are many ways to define poverty and any situation because each situation is unique to us as a person. The main take away from the article is that as social workers we need to take into consideration when we are working with clients and realize that people are not just one person, but members of an entire system (Leonardsen, 2007). My favorite quote from the Author is this, “The more we are able to move two steps back and observe how these challenges appear in a systematic way in our society, the easier it will be able to act strategically at societal levels (Leonardsen, 2007).” It is all about taking care of the client and knowing that they are a part of a big picture. We must be mindful that everything in life effects everything else. One more take away from the article is that social work students must be taught and feel empowered through education, “If students of social work are to learn about empowerment they should practice their role as students in a fully empowered way. This is nothing but an application of the principle of correspondence between theory and practice “The ideal of empowerment, of course is to make clients independent of systems of help (Leonardsen,
Leonardsen looks at empowerment in a two methods with the first perspective being the individualistic perspective. Which is only being able to see a client’s issues on an individual level, you see it as the …show more content…
As we know there are many ways to define poverty and any situation because each situation is unique to us as a person. The main take away from the article is that as social workers we need to take into consideration when we are working with clients and realize that people are not just one person, but members of an entire system (Leonardsen, 2007). My favorite quote from the Author is this, “The more we are able to move two steps back and observe how these challenges appear in a systematic way in our society, the easier it will be able to act strategically at societal levels (Leonardsen, 2007).” It is all about taking care of the client and knowing that they are a part of a big picture. We must be mindful that everything in life effects everything else. One more take away from the article is that social work students must be taught and feel empowered through education, “If students of social work are to learn about empowerment they should practice their role as students in a fully empowered way. This is nothing but an application of the principle of correspondence between theory and practice “The ideal of empowerment, of course is to make clients independent of systems of help (Leonardsen,