Reframing Social Work with an Anti-Oppressive Lens: A Guide for Beginning Practitioners

This book offers a state-of-the-art overview of agency-based social work practice, consistent with the values and ethical principles of the profession. Applying an anti-oppressive, liberatory social justice lens to working with Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and other at-risk populations, the book provides contemporary theoretical frameworks and practice approaches, rich clinical examples, and practice wisdom from expert agency-based social work clinicians working in the dominant fields of practice: child welfare, education, health, mental health, youth justice, carceral systems, substance use, intimate partner violence, racial and other traumas, palliative care, world of work, and older adults. This is the essential guide for beginning social workers and supervisors practicing in diverse organizational settings.

The book provides both an overview of practice in the aforementioned areas, as well as an in-depth look at intersubjective practice with the specific population. Each clinical chapter provides:

the history of social work in the practice setting; an overview of the current research in the area; the predominant evidence-based practice approach(es) being used; the role(s) of the social worker in the specific setting and grounded in anti-oppressive and ethical clinical practice; an extensive case example and discussion, inclusive of the clinician’s reflections and countertransference reactions; practice and supervisory wisdom offered by the authors as to how to negotiate the organizational system to best benefit their clients; evolving nature and future direction of the practice area; and reflection questions for students, instructors, and beginning clinicians.

Reframing Social Work with an Anti-Oppressive Lens is primarily intended for social work students as well as beginning social workers and their supervisors who could also benefit from its contents. Chapters can readily be assigned in placement settings such that the supervisor-supervisee dyad can reflect on the core aspects of social work practice within their agency context.

Kirk ＂Jae＂ James, DSW is Clinical Assistant Professor and Interim Director of the DSW Program in Clinical Social Work at New York University Silver School of Social Work. JAE received his DSW from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice, and in 2018 he was inducted into their Alumni Hall of Fame. He is also the recipient of the 2020 NYU Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Faculty Award, and Chair of the Diversity, Race, Oppression, and Privilege (DROP) curricula area at New York University Silver School of Social Work. Formerly incarcerated, JAE has dedicated his life to creating liberatory spaces to heal and dismantle systems of oppression for all people. He is completing a book entitled 94A6325: Coming of Age in the Era of Mass Incarceration, which is a reflection and amalgamation of his lived experience and research within carceral systems.

Linda Lausell Bryant, PhD, LCSW is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Clinical Associate Professor at New York University Silver School of Social Work. She also directs the Adaptive Leadership in Human Services Institute at NYU Silver, while serving as the Katherine and Howard Abel Executive-in-Residence. Prior to this, she was the Director of the DSW program at Silver. In her 36-year career, she has been the Executive Director of Inwood House, associate commissioner at the NYC Administration for Children’s Services, and was appointed by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the New York City Panel for Education Policy. She is currently president of the board of the National Crittenton Foundation. She is the recipient of the Latino Social Work Coalition’s 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award, NYU Silver’s Distinguished Contribution to Student Engagement Award and the 2022 Martin Luther King, Jr. Faculty Award. She has co-authored A Guide for Sustaining Conversations on Racism, Identity and Our Mutual Humanity and Social Work: A Call to Action. She is a sponsor and contributing author to Latinx in Social Work, a book of narratives for healing and justice.

Carol Tosone, PhD, LCSW is Professor at New York University Silver School of Social Work and recipient of the NYU Distinguished Teaching Award. Carol is a Distinguished Scholar in Social Work in the National Academies of Practice in Washington, D.C. Currently, she serves as Co-Director of the NYU Trauma-Informed Clinical Practice Program. Carol serves as Series Editor for the Essential Clinical Social Work Series, published by Springer. She is Editor Emerita of the Clinical Social Work Journal (Springer), having served for the past 15 years as its Editor-in-Chief. She also served as the Founding Director of NYU’s DSW Program in Clinical Social Work. She completed her psychoanalytic training at the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health in New York City where she was the recipient of the Postgraduate Memorial Award. Carol received a Fulbright Senior Specialist Award at the Hanoi University of Education in Vietnam and served as a visiting professor at universities globally. Carol is author of numerous professional publications and executive producer and writer of training and community service media. During her career, Carol has delivered over 300 national and international presentations in various venues. Carol was recently named as the 2023 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Association of Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work (AAPCSW).