A social worker shares what mentors taught her: stay responsive instead of reactive with clients, show up consistently, and build the therapeutic relationship first. Everything else follows from that.
What have I learned from my mentors? So many things. I'm not even quite sure where to begin. I think that the first thing I learned when I started social work was that the goal was to be responsive and not reactive. And if we could achieve a non-reactive self in therapy, in life, that we would have achieved a lot. And that we could be the most helpful if we were not reactive. I also learned to show up and be there for my clients and to form amazing relationships with my clients and learned that the relationship was what was going to take us to new heights and help them achieve their goals. And I could go on and on and on. I had some really amazing mentors when I was working, and I still do.
