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Monthly Archives: June 2015

Clinical Assumptions and its effects!

26 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by Tahereh Barati, PhD in Articles

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Aboriginal Culture, abuse, Better Future, Clinical responsibility, consciousness, Human dignity, Indigenous Culutre, political system, Professionalism, Social Work, Social Workers, The Children's court case, Trauma, University of Toronto

Human beings are wired to make assumptions about self, others and the world around. Making assumptions is a step towards making self safe, understanding and aware of what is happening around us.  Assumptions are part of human development and growth. Assumptions allow us to receive information knowledge and then process them internally and relationally.

Assumptions don’t get created by themselves; they are created and recreated in a network of people and they are reinforced in particular ways to serve some purposes and goals. Assumptions need to be tested constantly. When they are not tested and are taken as ‘truth’, they harm ourselves and others.

Yesterday, I attended the 100 years of Social Work profession at University of Toronto, 100 years of offering education, training and research.  In this symposium, I heard stories regarding significant impacts of clinical/political assumptions on aboriginal/ indigenous children and families in the past 100 years.  Speakers like Alanis Obomsawin and Cindy Blackstock reflected back on how political agendas and clinical assumptions joined and supported one another throughout the history. They shed light on how this marriage led to miscarriage of justices and ongoing injustice that destroyed indigenous cultures and harmed generations of people.

We, as professionals, have to constantly practice critical thinking and question what is going around us to be able to effectively provide services to our clients.  When we become complacent and when we allow our consciousness to be compromised, our ability to examine/question our personal/ clinical assumptions is minimized. This reduction will facilitate conditions for further experience of trauma and harm in people’s lives.

Now it is time to do something about the way the past was shaped by our colleagues. It is up to us to shape our future differently and not to repeat what other professionals did in the past.  Let’s stop the history from repeating itself.  The only things we need are our consciousness and critical thinking. Let’s work together to make a better future for all!

Happy Possibilities!

Tahereh Barati

 

 

 

 

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Globalism & Capitalism: The Failure of Utopian Desire and Social Engineering

26 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by Tahereh Barati, PhD in Articles

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Dr. Rinaldi's Horror Cabinet

dystopia_1

James C. Scott in his Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed  took a long hard look at the Utopian projects of the 20th Century, the state-initiated social engineering projects that all in one way or another ended in tragedy and failure. What he discovered were four basic elements that in combination led to utter failure in each and every case. The first element is the administrative ordering of nature and society. The second element is what he termed high-modernist ideology. For Scott this was the scientific and technological project of enlightenment progress, the endless expansion and inclusive rationality at the heart of capitalism and even socialist projects. The third element is an authoritarian state that is willing and able to use the full weight of its coercive power to bring these high-modernist designs into being. A fourth element is closely linked to the third:…

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Attending To The Needs Of Others!

10 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by Tahereh Barati, PhD in Articles

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It is important to attend to our own needs as well as others’. In this article ‘how to’ is described beautifully. Enjoy!

Think Different

Attending To The Needs Of Others

Picture of a giraffe's head

Following on from my previous post, some folks may be wondering just how to go about “attending to folks’ needs”. As the brevity of my previous post seemed to find favour, I’ll keep this one (kinda) brief, too.

Giraffe Listening

For me, it all starts with learning to listen with giraffe ears. “Listening to get in touch with what’s alive in a person” as Marshall Rosenberg puts it.

And there’s probably no better place to start learning to listen than with oneself. I mean, listening TO oneself. You can do it in secret, without anyone knowing, until you’ve found a little confidence in the practice of it. Confidence which may help in listening to others.

Empathy

Empathy is “the ability to be wholly present with someone”. It’s not what you say, and certainly not what you think. It’s the ability to just be present

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Cultural Fit

08 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by Tahereh Barati, PhD in Articles

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Think Different

Cultural Fit

I note a recent spate of articles advising employers to “recruit for cultural fit”. And the inevitable backlash against that advice. Like most advice, this simple soundbite conceals a whole can of worms.

Where Are We At?

If we’re happy with our current “culture”, then by all means hire for “cultural fit”. We will likely hire new people that look the same, act the same and think the same as those folks already in the organisation. And thereby reinforce our existing culture and status quo. Which, if we’re happy with it, is what we want, right?

But if we ponder for a moment and conclude that our current “culture” is more of a hindrance than a help, we might want to look to a future in which the culture is different from how it is now. Maybe, markedly different.

“Until I came to IBM, I probably would have told you that culture…

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