Hello beautiful people! So if you have already read my "about me", you would know that I'm a social worker and graduated the University of South Florida last spring with my Masters degree. I'm currently working on getting my LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) and just sent in my application yesterday to become an intern! So that is very, very exciting.
I thought about making this post because being a social worker is obviously very important to me and maybe some readers out there are wondering about what it means to be one or if it's something they would want to do. So here ya go!
(Also, my shirt seen above with "I'm a social worker, what's your superpower?" is from a shop on Etsy. They have one for a nurse as well, or any other that you would like, I'm pretty sure the owner of the shop can customize it for you if you ask. Click here to go to the shop!)
Cracking assumptions
I've heard a lot of assumptions when people talk about social workers. The most popular being; "Oh, so you take away people's kids, right?" or "You'll never make any money", or "Wow... that's hard. It takes a special person to do that". If you think some of these assumptions sound a bit annoying to hear, you're right, lol. Let me try to break some of these assumptions for you.
"You take away people's kids, right?"
- There are SO many different jobs and titles a social worker can have besides being a Child Protective Investigator. That was never the route I wanted to go while going into this because my mom was actually a CPI and her job exhausted her, trust me, I heard so many stories. There are so many different areas of work you can switch to, which also don't require any extra type of licensing. They may prefer you have experience with a specific population of people, but really it doesn't matter. You can be a forensic social worker, offering behavioral and psychological services to the criminal justice system while working in a court room or advocate for a woman who is in a abusive relationship, a Nicu social worker, empowering families during times of crisis that they didn't expect, you can work at the VA, giving resources to homeless veterans, a psychiatric social worker, working with teenagers with eating disorders or adults who have schizophrenia, you can work in a hospital as a discharge planner collecting resources to help others, a school social worker, helping kids resolve social, behavioral, and emotional problems at school and at home, a hospice social worker, addressing the needs of people with late-stage illnesses, you can work at a kids camp as a social worker, with kids who have behavioral problems, who act out or are autistic... there are seriously so many ways you can work as a social worker, which is one of the main reasons why I choose this job. It is so broad!
- Let's get into the juicyness of this next assumption. While yes, being a social worker isn't the highest paying job.. you'll never be totally rich, but you can definitely make good money. I personally think becoming an LCSW is the best decision you can make as a social worker. Higher pay and more opportunities. If you're curious, just google some jobs on indeed.com. If you're thinking of becoming a social worker but want to stop your education after you get your Bachelors... unfortunately, the pay is so much less than what you deserve. There are probably many jobs without needing a Bachelors, that you could get that pay more. But if it's what you love to do, who's business is it? But let's face it, if you're in the "helping profession" we all still care about the money even if our main goal is helping others. I definitely recommend getting your Masters if you're thinking about going into social work. Also, probably the best place you can work (money wise0 as a social worker is in the healthcare field; being in a clinical setting.
How to get licensed as an LCSW? (Licensed Clinical Social Worker)
- If you decide to go down the path of becoming an LCSW, you register as an intern first and it takes two years to get all of your supervised hours, once finding another LCSW who is licensed to supervise you. Keep in mind, this info is in the state of Florida (where I live) so it may be different depending on where you live. You need to be doing these hours in a clinical setting. It's only an hour a week max, 100 hours in total, and then you have to take a 4 hour timed test, at whatever point you would like. If you get lucky, you may score your first job somewhere that will pay for your supervised hours or find someone who will do it for free... or else the payments can be pretty expensive. But being an LCSW is pretty much basically being a therapist. It's much more marketable than going into mental health, as a counselor, and getting your LMHC. So if you want to get into the helping profession in some sort of way, by being a counselor, therapist, or what have you; honestly getting your LCSW is the best way to go.
"You're a social worker? That takes a special person to do that"
- My final, most heard assumption. I never truly know if this is a heart-felt compliment, and people don't know how they make it sound, or if it's really just people being rude and feeling more superior than you for whatever reason. Well, whatever it is, it annoys me, lol. (A lot of things annoy me but whatever). So, yes. It can be hard. But any job can be hard. Typical corporate jobs, working behind a desk, can be extremely stressful with deadlines. Being a doctor can be extremely stressful, I would assume, when you're on call for four days straight and have barely slept, or when you literally have someone's life in the palm of your hand. There's also definitely pressure on certain social work jobs. When my mom was working in child protection her caseload was ridiculous. She was also on call some nights and would have to leave in the middle of the night to pick up a child. Now, she works from home with an insurance company and gives people resources or chats with them if they're feeling sad because they just found out their husband is cheating on them. She's never on call and never has to leave the guest room of her house. Any job can be hard and it doesn't always have to be hard. You can always change things. Change your job or find outlets to release your stress, like practicing self-care, playing the piano, singing, going to yoga classes. The good thing about my job is when I clock out, I'm done. I don't take anything home with me. But you know what, the same thing used to happen to me on crazy nights as a server working in a sports bar. And anyways, I'm not always going to be at this job. I like to think everything happens for a reason, and maybe the next thing from here will be even better. I think it's all about balance and loving what you do at the end of the day. Because honestly, being a social worker is so, so rewarding. I wish there were more "special" people out there who wanted to become one.
I just think it is important that, no matter what you do, no matter how much money you're making or how many hours you're working, that you truly love what you do.
Have a great weekend.
Lots of love,
Sammi
