A Day in the Life

What does a day in the life of a social worker look like? Social work is one of the fastest growing professions in the U.S. and it allows for an enormous range of specialties and career paths. SSW alumni serve clients in a multitude of impactful ways throughout the United States and the world. Explore the dayto-day lives of just a handful of distinguished alumni, featuring the work of those in private practice, sex therapy, bibliotherapy, higher education, macro practice and more. Dive into their lives and learn how they balance client care, family life, hobbies and self-care.

Editor’s note: The following stories include composite scenarios of clients and do not represent any real clients. First names are used throughout to encourage connection with these snapshots of people’s intimate lives.

Therapy, Teaching and Tails: Campus Counseling And Canine Therapy

By Faye S. Wolfe, Photos by Shana Sureck Photography

“When I started the M.S.W. program, I had no idea of becoming a therapist,” said Beth Prullage, M.S.W. ’01, LICSW. “Then I fell in love with being a therapist.” She has worked in that capacity with children and families, for the LGBT Aging Project as a bereavement counselor, and in a variety of settings, including schools and as a hospital administrator. “As a social worker you can have different careers within a career.”

Variety is also the spice of her work life at UMass Amherst, where she is a psychiatric social worker and co-coordinator of the Groups Program at the Center for Counseling and Psychological Health. Her hybrid schedule brings her to campus three days each week; the other two she works remotely. Whether she’s at home or at the center, her role offers a satisfying, diverse range of responsibilities and interactions hour to hour, week to week.

A typical day might start off with a staff meeting or a clinical team meeting. During the latter, she and her fellow clinicians have in-depth discussions and give and receive feedback. Next, she might meet with one of the three second-year Smith M.S.W. students she supervises to go over their recordings of client sessions. “They have different learning and clinical styles, and they’re working with a wide range of people,” said Beth. “I enjoy teaching and supervising students. I learn so much about my own practices from them.”

Having a whole hour for lunch feels “luxurious,” she said. It’s a valued perk, a chance to take a deep breath. “My life feels balanced in many ways,” Beth said. “I have close friends at work I go for walks with.” Rosie, her certified therapy dog, often comes along.

After lunch, Beth meets with individual clients, usually for short-term therapy, but a few over longer periods. There’s the first-year student who is daunted by life on a large campus. A year or two later, that student might be back, knee-deep in her major and feeling overwhelmed by her course load. “I really like being part of a community where I see young adults at different moments in their journey,” said Beth.

Next is a session with, in Beth’s words, “an undergrad figuring out substance use, trying to understand their limitations and what impact substances might have on them.”

On another day, the issue might be boundary-setting or self-management, or related to gender, race or sexual orientation, or to friendship, intimacy or being away from home for the first time.

Later in the afternoon, she might see a grad student feeling the weight of pursuing a Ph.D. and anxious about how to balance academics with parenting. Then she counsels an international graduate student who comes from a country where psychological problems are stigmatized, yet has overcome that cultural barrier to seek help.

If the day happens to be a Wednesday when school is in session, she and Rosie can be found offering pet therapy to groups of five students in 15-minute slots. Some participants come once, some regularly. Rosie’s reassuring canine presence makes it easier for the humans to talk about themselves and to each other. One student has regularly sent photos of Rosie to her mom. “It’s great when a couple of students decide to have dinner together, great seeing friendships develop from the sessions,” said Beth. In contrast to what can be intense one-on-one counseling sessions, the pet therapy is “fun and not hard.”

Her day on the university campus finishes up with group therapy for graduate students, which she co-leads with a trainee. But because Beth is an SSW practicum faculty advisor and seminar instructor, her professional day might extend into the evening, teaching a second-year seminar via Zoom, for instance. And on a summer day, you might find her on the Smith campus as an adjunct professor, teaching such subjects as family therapy, group therapy and narrative therapy to SSW students.