Rhianna Solida
Skills Demonstration Critical Reflection
SOWK 311-001
November 23, 2022
The skills demonstration assignment was one that I found pretty enjoyable. I liked being
able to feel like I had the ability to demonstrate some of the things that I have learned during my
time in the social work program. I was nervous to feel like I wasn’t going to meet criteria, but it
gave me confidence in my future in the field. I also liked collaborating with my classmates
during practice and during the interview as well, it was helpful to hear feedback from my peers
that could help me with client assessments in the future. Physically, during the skills
demonstration, I felt pretty uncomfortable. I tend to move around in my seat a lot and fidget and
slouch, but I wanted to make sure that I was engaging through my body language by being still
and focused. One tactic that I used to ensure that I was staying focused on the topic and the client
was verbal following. I did my best to make sure that the questions that I was asking stayed in a
kind of flow that followed from one to the next and built off of each other. I feel like this not
only helped me to stay engaged but allowed me to build a more complete picture of the situation
that the client was facing. Another tactic that I used to facilitate the conversation between myself
and my client was the elimination of counterproductive communication patterns. I think I started
off not exactly sure how the demonstration was going to go so I started by asking some questions
that kind of lead to a certain answer because I wasn’t exactly sure what my client was going to
talk about, but by the end, I realized that they are supposed to lead the conversation and I am
there to facilitate a comfortable space to talk about what they deem necessary.
During my skills demonstration, I used reciprocal empathy to acknowledge what my
client was saying and how they felt about it. This can be seen when my client talked about his
kids and his relationship with their mother, and I responded with a reflection of how he stated
that he felt about these relationships. I felt that this kind of empathy was easy for me to convey
by staying focused on what the client had to say and my actively listening to them. I also
portrayed additive empathy when discussing his kids as well. He told me that he didn’t want his
kids to end up in the same position as he did, or resent him for going to prison, and I responded
with something along the lines of “it sounds like you would like to be a good role model for your
kids moving forward.” This shows additive empathy by actively listening to the clients
statements and inferring implied meaning and helping them to add words and feelings to their
thoughts.
