Holistic Engagement and White Neoliberal Social Work: Resistance or Accommodation?

ABSTRACT

The article situates key themes on holistic engagement practice (HEP) within the context of white neoliberal social work practice. Through a secondary analysis of qualitative data using a critical phenomenological framework, the authors analyze the narratives of social workers who completed a 2-day training on holistically engaged social work practice and reflected on the impacts of the training on their work and lives. The authors explore the role that neoliberal structures, along with social work culture, training and institutional expectations, play in the meaning participants assign to HEP, and their ability to engage such practices in their daily personal and professional lives. Findings reveal themes around the culture of busyness, self-care as a means to an end, the challenges of vulnerability, and importance of relational social work. These findings shed light on the structural and cultural changes needed in the profession to embody whole person practice. Implications focus on needed structural changes in organizations and in social work education, as well as the need for practitioners to have opportunities for longer- term immersion in holistic practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Holistic
• critical social work
• colonization
• qualitative secondary analysis

Disclosure statement

Neither author(s) has any conflicts of interest to declare.

Additional information

Funding

Funding to support this research was provided by the University at Albany’s S Faculty Research Awards Program.