Meeting and response : social workers emotions in their profession

The focus of this research is to investigate how the client's emotions can affect the social worker and how the social worker manages these feelings in order to make the right decisions. We have used a qualitative approach in our investigation. We have interviewed six social workers at social welfare bureaux in southern Sweden. Our theories are ‘Naïve Theory’ and ‘Affect Theory’. The social workers have told us about their experiences in meetings and how they handle the clients' feelings. According to the social workers that we have been in contact with, the clients can show all sorts of emotions, ranging from clients that are happy to those that are angry. It is more common that clients show irritation or frustration against the social worker. The main conclusions are that it is important that the social workers are aware of the feelings that they encounter in meetings with clients, and that they may be affected in different ways. The co-worker of the social workers is important when it comes to the handling of emotions. A client's emotions can affect a social worker and if the social worker does not pay attention to these feelings and learn how to handle them, this may cause the social worker unable to perform their work or that they bring the emotions home.