EMPOWERMENT AND SPIRITUALLY SENSITIVE SOCIAL WORK
GÜÇLENDİRME VE MANEVİYATA DUYARLI SOSYAL HİZMET

Author : Hıdır APAK
Number of pages : 399-411

Abstract

Spirituality; has begun to have a growing popularity in the academic literature. This popularity has also shown itself in the discipline of social work. Social work is a scientific discipline that centers on people, and thinks of helping them. It is necessary for social work to face the fact that it is necessary to recognize people from all sides and to try understand them in order to fulfill the function of service concept, which is inherent because of that it, would be against the purpose of help to intervene in them without understanding the human being. This is where spirituality comes into play as one of the fundamental dimensions that influence social work discipline at this point. Another concept emphasized in social work discipline is empowerment. The common point in social work definitions and their explanations is the notion of power and empowerment. In social work practice, a paradigm shift by focusing on the strong aspects of the client and an empowering approach that leads to a new way of thinking move through traditions, beliefs, values, spirituality, talents, resources, achievements of the clients. In recent studies, it is known that one of the most fundamental sources motivating the individual is spirituality. In this context, the role of spirituality in empowerment is an undeniable reality. Focusing on the resources and strengths of the clients is possible by including spirituality in the context of social work practices. Spirituality is a good resource that can be used in empowerment context. However, some dimensions of spirituality can also create a weakening effect and weaken some clients. It can be said that spirituality is one of the factors that influence the empowerment process, and that some dimensions may have a weakening effect. The main purpose of study in this context is to try to reveal the relation of spirituality and empowerment in social work practice by referring to the concepts of spirituality, empowerment and social work.

Keywords

Empowerment, Empowerment Approach, Spirituality, Social Work

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