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Be explicit. Ask, ask ask. This is what most clients want you to do. Clients really want to feel understood. If they have a provider who treats them with respect and asks more direct questions, they feel better understood and more connected to the provider. — O RA N A KAS H
published by Indiana University Press. “This is very politically charged,” she said. She has incorporated her research findings into her own clinical practice as well as into trainings for clinicians to explore the role cultural disfluency and power differentials might play in their work. “I’m an optimist, and, in my research, I try to focus on what’s going well and strengthen it,” she said. —Laurie Loisel Prolific Researcher
providers “just don’t understand the cultural code” of their clients, she said. That absence of a shared cultural code—and possibly more importantly, the failure to acknowledge the role power differentials play in a therapeutic relationship—means clinicians unintentionally inhibit clients from painting a fuller picture. “They assume things,” said Nakash. She acknowledges that assessments are tricky: therapists must balance the task of collecting information
with the need to build a relationship with the client. But carefully drawing out a client’s story not only provides important information, it strengthens the relationship. In relaying findings to clinicians, she reminds them that their most important role is to make a connection with the client. “Be explicit. Ask, ask ask. This is what most clients want you to do,” she said. “Clients really want to feel understood. If they have a provider who treats them with respect and asks more direct questions, they feel better understood and more connected to the provider.” Nakash has teamed up with Assistant Professor Benjamin Capistrant, Sc.D., on research looking at elderly LGBTQ people of color, a population about whom there is little research, but concerning trends. “We really want to try to understand their mental health needs. Why are there increased levels of depression, suicidality and opioid use?” said Nakash. Also in recent months, Nakash finished work on a book project looking at mental health issues among Palestinian citizens in Israel,
Professor Jim Drisko, M.S.W. ’77, Ph.D., is both a teacher and researcher. Drisko was elected to the National Academies of Practice in Social Work in 2008 and was named a first cohort Fellow of the Society for Social Work and Research in 2014. He was awarded Best Conceptual Article of 2015 by the Journal of Social Work Education for his work on assessing educational outcomes. While serving as the Chair of the M.S.W. Research Sequence at Smith, Drisko has completed two projects. The first took him 12 years to read, digest and fully understand. His article, “Qualitative research synthesis: An appreciative and critical introduction,” was published in May 2019 by Qualitative Social Work journal. The article provides an overview for researchers who want to explore a topic in depth and combine the results of multiple qualitative studies. “Done well, qualitative synthesis can guide practice and policy and help ensure many different voices are represented,” said Drisko. Drisko’s second area of current work is focused on reviewing the effectiveness of play therapy. As a clinician, Drisko wondered if research actually supported this widely used and often taught model of treatment. He teamed up with former SSW Ph.D. students Perri Corvino, Lisa Kelly and
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