Fall 2025 SOWK 530 Week 03 - Authenticity and Self-Disclosure in the Therapeutic Alliance

Fall 2025 SOWK 530 Week 03 - Authenticity and Self-Disclosure in the Therapeutic Alliance

title: Fall 2025 SOWK 530 Week 03 - Authenticity and Self-Disclosure in the Therapeutic Alliance
date: 2025-09-08 15:57:31
location: Heritage University

tags:

• Heritage University
• MSW Program
• SOWK 530

presentation_video: > Fall 2025 SOWK 530 Week 03

description: >

Week three is an asynchronous week Students will read two chapters from Hepworth et al. (2023) focused on empathy, authenticity, and skills for engaging with our clients across many contexts There are forums asking students to observe and report on empathetic communication in their lives, challenges and considerations with empathetically responding They also have a chance to explore content from the readings and consider anti-oppressive practices in their practicum and what some of the potential assumptions we make in regards to direct practice skills In my lecture video this week, I talk about authentically responding. The types of self-disclosure we might engage in with our clients. The agenda for the lecture video includes:

• Assignments for week 03
• Authenticity in the therapeutic alliance
• Self-disclosure and an example

The Learning Objectives This Week include:

• Define and differentiate authenticity, self-involving statements, and personal self-disclosure within clinical practice.
• Evaluate the appropriate use of self-disclosure in social work, considering timing, purpose, and professional boundaries.
• Observe and reflect on empathic communication in everyday interactions, including one’s own use of empathic responses.
• Evaluate anti-oppressive practices within practicum settings and assess how agency culture shapes client engagement.
• Critically examine how “Westernized” assumptions in direct practice skills may affect diverse client populations, and explore culturally responsive adaptations.

Plan for Week 03’s Lecture Video

Agenda

• Assignments for week 03
• Authenticity in the therapeutic alliance
• Self-disclosure and an example

Lecture Learning Objectives

• Define and differentiate authenticity, self-involving statements, and personal self-disclosure within clinical practice.
• Evaluate the appropriate use of self-disclosure in social work, considering timing, purpose, and professional boundaries.

Assignments for Week 03

Content

• Read Hepworth et al. (2023) Chapter 5 Building Blocks of Communication: Conveying Empathy and Authenticity
• Read Hepworth et al. (2023) Chapter 6 Verbal Following, Exploring, and Focusing Skills
• Watch Royal Society of Arts. (2013) Brené Brown on Empathy
• Watch my lecture video

A-02 W-01 Asynchronous Engagement

The expectation is that each of your replies will be substantive and provide meaningful perspectives, contributing to the forum’s conversation and scholarship. They can be related to the prompts or building on conversations shared by peers. There are five forums for this week, and you are expected to make at least six replies across any of the forums. These forums include the following:

• The Personal Experiment Observing Your Conversations forum encourages students to step back and observe the presence (or absence) of empathy in everyday interactions, while experimenting with using empathic responses in their own relationships.
• In Challenges and Consideration with Empathic Responding, students reflect on Brené Brown’s take on empathy and explore what makes empathic responding both powerful and difficult in practice.
• Students investigate how their practicum agencies approach equity, anti-racism, and accountability, then reflect on how these organizational values shape client engagement through the Anti-oppressive Practices in Practicum Setting forum.
• The “Westernized” Assumptions of Direct Practice Skills forum opens up space to question the cultural lens embedded in standard social work practice skills and explore how those skills might be deconstructed or adapted across diverse client populations.
• In the Chapters Five and Six Content Discussion, students select from a variety of practical prompts, touching on topics like informed consent, empathy, reflection, self-disclosure, and client mistrust.

A-03 Reading Quiz

Complete W-03 Hepworth et al. (2023) Chapters 05 and 06 due by Saturday 9/13, 8:00 AM.

Authenticity

Authenticity is defined as the sharing of self by relating in a natural, sincere, spontaneous, open, and genuine manner.

Types of Self-Disclosure: Encouraging to reciprocate with trust & openness

A significant aspect related to authenticity is self-disclosure. Self-disclosure can encourage clients to reciprocate with trust and openness. We can define two broad categories of self-disclosure: self-involving statements and personal self-disclosure

• Self-involving statements include messages that express the social worker’s personal reaction to the client during the course of a session.
• Personal self-disclosure messages, by contrast, center on struggles or problems the social worker is currently experiencing or has experienced that are similar to the client’s problems

Personal self-disclosure messages

The use of self-disclosure can be a meaningful and useful tool that we use as social workers. I also want to provide caution to you. First, let me tell you about my experience and then a couple of things I have found that you should consider.

• Tell story of my dad
• Tell story of starting our in social work and self-disclosure
• Talk about the three things that are important.

• Done for the client, purposefully
• Enough details to provide connection and understanding, but limited
• Focus on other forms to demonstrating authenticity, use sparingly

Cues for Authentic Responding

As social workers, we sometimes have to authentically respond when the client makes requests or when we believe it is for the best interest of the client.

Clients Request for Self-Disclosure

• Request for personal information
• Request for social worker’s opinions, views and feelings

Social Workers Decision to Share Perceptions and Reactions They Believe will be Helpful

• Social worker’s opinions, views, and feelings
• Disclosing personal past experiences
• Providing Feedback
• Experiencing discomfort in session
• Sharing feelings of frustration, anger, and hurt
• Responding to positive feedback
• Giving positive feedback
• Saying no and setting limits

Authenticity: Four Elements of an Authentic Message

As social workers practice authentic responding and teach clients to respond authentically in their encounters with others, they should keep in mind the following guidelines related to the four elements of an authentic message:

• Personalize messages with the pronoun “I.”
• Share feelings that lie at varying depths.
• Describe the situation or targeted behavior in neutral or descriptive terms.
• Identify the specific impact of the problem situation or behavior of others.