The Use of Self as an Educated Professional

Introduction

Probably, each person consciously or unconsciously influences the world around them. It is essential to realize that being a part of the social construction of the world, people should strive to develop it by helping others or protecting those who need it. Everyone can benefit society and start the implementation of significant and valuable changes. Therefore, using a person’s experience of oppression and privileges can contribute to understanding the imperfection of some social phenomena and the attempt to improve them.

My Experience of Oppression and Privileges

If people make full use of the experience gained, they can not only avoid a repetition of an unpleasant situation but also help others not to face it. Experience should “become character-forming and inform the assumptions and expectations people make about themselves, others, and the world” (Trevithick, 2018, p. 1837). Since every person, being a member of several social groups at once is oppressed in some spheres of life and privileged in others, I am no exception. After analyzing my experience, I have come to an important conclusion. In most cases, members of certain social groups are oppressed due to prejudices and stereotypes, and these prejudices should be defeated. Therefore, it is wrong to divide people into worthy and unworthy of help based on their race, religion, or sex.

As an educated professional, I will fight against prejudices across all systems. For instance, if I have three customers who need my services and have diverse religions, there will be no difference between them for me. In addition, last year, I had to choose a working group to join: in one of them, the specialist working with scientific data was a man, and in another a woman. Since the woman was a better professional, I decided to become a member of the second one, discarding all stereotypes. Therefore, people should use their experiences of oppression and privileges to make the world better.

The Development of Self-Awareness

Since people need to understand themselves to understand others, self-awareness must be constantly developed. Everyone probably tries to answer who they are, what they need from the world, and “how they are shaped by the relationships they encounter” (Trevithick, 2018, p. 1837). These questions are essential for me; therefore, I utilize several techniques to improve my self-awareness. Firstly, I regularly meditate, asking myself what I want to change in the world. Secondly, I write a diary to indicate my big goals and plans. Finally, I take various psychological tests to understand my inner world better. However, I still need to work on my intuition to develop self-awareness. In addition, I have to improve my social skills, which will contribute to my professional capacity. For example, I often face situations when I do not know what to tell my clients to support them and convince them that their problems will be solved. Thus, the development of self-awareness can positively influence the improvement of professional skills and abilities.

Conclusion

People should use their experience and self-awareness to improve the world and extirpate negative social phenomena. The careful analysis of the situations when someone has faced oppression can contribute to understanding how to act to help others avoid such problems. It is crucial to understand people around, but it is more crucial for a person to discover their own inner essence. Therefore, people should constantly develop themselves: they should start changing themselves if they want to change the world.

Reference

Trevithick, P. (2018). The ‘self’ and ‘use of self’ in social work: A contribution to the development of a coherent theoretical framework. The British Journal of Social Work, 48(7), 1836-1854. Web.