Nicole Ford’s Path to Social Work
While in high school, Nicole Ford was selected by her peers to be part of a group called Natural Helpers. In this group, she began to learn the basics of mental health and healthcare professions. It was through this experience that Nicole affirmed her desire to pursue her career as a social worker. Following her high school years, Nicole completed both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work.
Nicole recalls her experience in helping one of her clients that she worked with for 3 years, while employed by a social service agency. This client had abusive parents, changed schools a lot, and was extremely angry. She would often get in trouble at school and was in danger of being kicked out when she first started working with Nicole. When this client was 16, she decided that she was no longer interested in therapy, as she had both tools to manage her anger and a healthier view of herself and the world. However, Nicole remained concerned about her. Recently, this client contacted Nicole. She wanted to let her know how well she was doing and how much their work together had helped her. In addition, she had just finished her bachelor’s degree in social work and wanted to pick Nicole’s brain, as she was considering continuing on to receive her master’s degree. This really allowed Nicole to see how her work can help to change the trajectory of people’s lives.
She now works in a private practice as a clinical social worker. In this role, Nicole spends between 4 and 10 hours per day, 4 days a week, meeting with clients. She typically schedules the 50-minute sessions with her clients back to back and completes paperwork, such as documentation, research, and consultations, from home. In addition to seeing clients during their sessions, Nicole also consults with their doctors and psychiatrists by phone, coordinates with school staff, keeps notes on each of her sessions, submits insurance claims, and does both the billing and bookkeeping for her business.
One part of her career that she absolutely loves is getting to know each and every one of her clients. She sees them learn to recognize their strengths, helps them to improve their self-esteem, aids them in reducing their anxiety and depression, and guides them in improving their communication skills. It’s witnessing successes like these that show Nicole the impact she has made on her client’s lives.
In addition to this, Nicole also loves receiving updates from her clients regarding how well their lives are going. She often receives texts or emails from them explaining to her how helpful her work with them was and how they are better off because of it.
While she loves getting to work with her clients, as a social worker, Nicole does run into some more difficult moments. For example, she occasionally works with clients that have extremely serious concerns, such as abusive relationships, drug/alcohol abuse, or suicidality. Between sessions with these clients, she spends a lot of time worrying about how they are doing. This can be even more difficult and stressful when she has several high-risk clients on her caseload at one time.
Overall, Nicole believes that social work is a great way to make a positive impact in the world. However, she thinks that it’s important that, as a social worker, you are able to set boundaries between your work and home life, as oftentimes you are put right in the thick of very difficult situations.
Nicole also recommends that if you are interested in the more clinical tract or psychotherapy, you should consider degrees such as clinical psychology, marriage and family therapy, or mental health counseling. Degrees like these focus more narrowly on the clinical skills necessary for psychotherapy.