Utilizing an Image to Evaluate Stress and Coping for Social Workers

This paper demonstrates a method by which social workers can evaluate the impact of a high stress situation (on themselves and on others) by utilizing a single drawing. This is used to create an informal and collaborative evaluation of stress reactions and of coping as synergetic parts of one whole. The theoretical implications of this study for social work education are the integration of social work values to initiate a collaborative, empowering, and non-stigmatizing evaluation into the rapid work needed in a crisis situation. The focus of this paper is theoretical and illustrative, focusing on how to educate social workers to self-regulate stress and to focus on coping.