Why Choose a Master of Social Work (MSW) Degree?

I ‘m often asked why people should choose to pursue a master in social work (MSW) degree over the myriad of other human services graduate degrees that are available. My answer is the same one that influenced my degree choice many years ago: an MSW degree opens up more career paths than any other comparable degree. No other human services-oriented degree encompasses this breadth:

• Therapist, planner, community organizer, executive director, policy analyst, researcher, program developer
• Work across systems: individuals, families of all forms, groups, organizations, neighborhoods, service systems, communities, regions, states, nations

Clinical Social Workers = Therapists + ? + ?

A recent Twitter dialogue that started between @iggyp and me yielded a great question from @LovEternal asking what roles clinical social workers take on beyond the role of therapist? It seemed like a great excuse for a blog post 🙂

Clinical social work focuses on direct practice with individuals, families or groups. Providing therapy is certainly part of what most clinical social workers do. But they also will provide a range of other services that might be needed for their clients. For example:

• Help to coordinate care with multiple service providers
• Advocate for an agency to change a policy/procedure to better meet a client’s needs
• Educate clients about key information that relates to their lives to help them understand themselves or their lives in a different way.
• Work with a group so they can support each other and help each other to solve problems (and then don’t need the social worker anymore).