In order to do what they do, community service workers possess some unique qualities. These caring individuals dedicate their lives to helping communities and clients, providing counseling services and connecting people to resources with the goal of enabling those they work with to improve their lives and current situations. Community service workers are caring, compassionate and supportive, but in order to provide the highest level of care, these professionals must be self-aware. Self-awareness enables community service workers to understand their own feelings, leading to a more productive and beneficial relationship between themselves and the clients they work with.
If you’re considering a career as a community service worker (CSW), read on to discover why self-awareness is so important for this line of work, and how this quality can be developed among those in training.
What is Self-Awareness? A Look at this Concept
Self-awareness can be defined as the thorough exploration and eventual understanding of our personal feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and behaviours. Self-awareness is about recognizing the ways that our behaviours have been shaped, as well as the effect that our strengths and weaknesses can have on those around us. When we become more aware of how our attitudes and values translate to our actions, the better we are at interpreting the behaviours of others and developing constructive relationships with those we interact with.
Not only are those who are self-aware more cognizant of their prejudices, but they’re better equipped to set boundaries and prevent their own feelings from influencing a situation they’re dealing with in a negative way. For professionals in community service and addictions worker training, building self-awareness is essential in the delivery of quality care. Below, we explore why this capability is so important.
When community service workers are self-aware, they can provide higher quality care
Why is Self-Awareness Important to Professionals in Community Service Roles?
Self-awareness equips community service workers with a greater reverence for the importance of equality and inclusion in the care that they provide. Self-aware community service workers are able to be empathetic while understanding that their client’s personal problems are not their own. From this unbiased and secure perspective, these professionals can help clients to set meaningful, productive goals and courses of action.
When CSWs lack self-awareness, they may unknowingly allow their feelings to influence their interactions with their clients. In such scenarios, community service workers may have trouble setting boundaries between themselves and the cases they handle, allowing their own emotions to become entangled with those expressed by their clients. For students in community service programs, it’s essential to focus on building self-awareness not only in order to maintain a healthy work-life balance, but also to provide quality care to clients.
Becoming More Self Aware: Steps To Take
If you’re looking for a training program at career colleges in Calgary, you may be interested in finding out how to become more self-aware. Developing self-awareness involves looking inward and asking yourself important questions to get to know yourself, your attitudes, and your behavior better.
One way to develop self-awareness is by practicing reflection. Reflection can be employed after experiencing both positive and negative interactions. It involves an individual asking themselves how they felt about a situation, why the situation transpired the way that it did, and what strengths or weaknesses in one’s behavior may have influenced the situation. Through reflection, community service workers can build a deeper understanding of their personal qualities, helping them to recognize these qualities when they surface in interactions with clients.
Additionally, CSWs can build self-awareness by labeling their own feelings and working to distinguish these feelings from those of their clients. The moment when you become self-aware is when you’ll be capable of being more open-minded and intuitive in providing care to clients—achieving outcomes that are beneficial for everyone. Do you have what it takes to become a community service worker?
Launch your career in community service with a program at AOLCC Alberta today.
