Self-identity, embodiment and the development of emotional resilience
Open accessAbstract
Recent social work reforms in the UK have highlighted the need for social work practitioners to be empathetic, reflexive and resilient. Current literature defines resilience as the individual's adaptive response to adversity, stress-resistant personality traits and the ability to ‘bounce back’, yet the processes by which resilience is developed remain underexplored. The stressors associated with training to be a social worker particularly necessitate such an investigation. This study adopts a phenomenological approach to explore social work students' lived experiences of managing emotion and developing resilience. Emotion is constructed as a relational concept, developed within intersubjective space and as an embodied experience. Findings indicate tensions in student narratives around the expression of emotion and ‘being professional’. Critical incident narratives reveal often overwhelming difficulties experienced by students, prior to and during the social work programme. A variety of coping strategies were adopted including active resistance, spirituality, critical reflection and social support. Narratives as ‘discourses-in-the-making’ highlight embodiment as a valuable analytical lens by which emotional conflicts are experienced, deconstructed and resolved through the process of integrating the personal and professional self. Spaces to develop emotional resilience within the social work curriculum are discussed.
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Some participants struggled with emotionally challenging experiences and felt they had to downplay them, mirroring reports of social work cultures that encourage the suppression of emotion.
“A vivid sense of some participants struggling with emotionally challenging experiences and feeling they had to downplay them -as one put it, to be a”
From Critical Mindfulness in Social Work: Exploring the Potential of Reflexive Self-Care in the Journey from Student to Social Worker (2022) · cites this paper as Rajan-Rankin, 2014
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“30 Building emotional resilience, de fi ned as the ability to effectively cope with adversity, 34 is a key feature of emotion regulation.”
Background
- Authors
- Rajan-Rankin, S.
- Venue
- British Journal of Social Work
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2013-05-17
- Volume
- 44
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 2426-2442
- ISSN
- 0045-3102 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-263X
- OpenAlex
- W2133945759
- Cited by
- 110
- References
- 55
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 3
- FWCI
- 14.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- The British Journal of Social Work (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Kent Academic Repository (University of Kent) (acceptedVersion)
- Brunel University Research Archive (BURA) (Brunel University London) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Public Administration › Social Work Education and Practice
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Resilience and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
- Keywords
- psychological resilience, embodiment, social work students, self-identity, professional identity, emotional management, coping strategies, critical reflection, spirituality, social support, professionalization, social work education, resilience development
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