SIUE Faculty Present at NACSW Conference
Last month Bryan Duckham and Hsin-hsin Huang presented at the NACSW (National Association for Christian Social Workers) conference. The conference is part of the NACSW’s continued effort to help its members integrate Christian faith and professional social work practices. The conference covers a broad range of topics across all areas of social work, however one of the core themes of the conference is how to integrate concepts of faith in spirituality into social work education and practices while being respectful of religious and cultural diversity.
“The theme of spirituality is becoming more and more important in social work because for many years people didn’t talk about religion in social work,” Huang shared, “The question is how do you talk about it in a way that is respectful of all religions.”
Duckham and Huang both stated that one of the challenges in social work education is the need to prepare students for helping clients deal with philosophical and spiritual struggles, without forcing a particular religious bias on the students.
“Part of the question is what do you teach and where do you start drawing the lines,” explained Duckham, “I think if social workers can’t talk to their clients about it they’re missing a huge facet of who that person is.”
Duckham presented a workshop titled, “Phenomenology and Christianity: Can They Co-Exist?”. His presentation looked into the history of Phenomenology and how it has been interpreted and used in relation to social work research over time. Duckham also addressed areas where Biblical studies and Phenomenology come into conflict as well as how they can work together in research.
Huang presented a workshop titled, “Facilitate Self Forgiveness for Women Who Have Had an Abortion.” The workshop focused on issues of low self-esteem and depression some women have after having had an abortion, and how addressing spiritual concerns can help facilitate self forgiveness along with other clinical techniques for facilitating healing.
Filed Under: Social Work
