Social Work: Mediating Conflicts Holistically
by Angie Howlett

Mental health issues and interpersonal conflicts have been on the rise in the post-COVID era. Pandemic stressors have caused greater incidences of anxiety, depression, codependency, and interpersonal conflict. COVID taught the world how deeply connected our mental health is with our physical, emotional, and social health systems, especially when it comes to relationships with employers, coworkers, family, and friends. A disruption in equilibrium of any one of these systems can negatively impact interpersonal relationships, leading to depletion of resources needed to resolve conflicts (including with oneself!). These stressors have generated demand for counsellors and highly trained professionals in de-escalating interpersonal conflicts to bring awareness to how each system is connected. This is where social workers come in. To many, the first thing that comes to mind when they hear “social work” is supporting the community’s most vulnerable, and not holistic healers in the realm of mediation. While the former definitely continues to be true, in recent decades social workers have used their skills and training to bring individuals back to balance by restoring relationships through healing on a holistic level. 

Social work is a discipline that combines the social sciences and humanities to deliver person-in-environment and client-centred services. The Canadian Association of Social Workers, or CASW, (2020) defines the practice of Social Work as “focus[ing] on the person within their environment and recognizes the importance of family, community, culture, legal, social, spiritual, and economic influences, that impact the well-being of individuals, families, groups, and communities. Social work applies a strengths-based perspective and views individual, families, and communities as resourceful, resilient, and having capacity.” The use of a strengths-based approach, and the recognition of the individual, family and community as capable, facilitates problem solving through drawing from their own strengths, resources, and systems. Registered Social Workers, or RSWs, conduct holistic assessments and interventions that consider each individual’s and family’s systems of influence that impact their well-being as a whole. Clients can therefore leverage resources from all systems of support to assist in resolving conflicts holistically.

The scope of practice for social workers includes anything that can improve a client’s physical, emotional, mental, social and, occasionally, spiritual well-being.  However, areas of competency inform a unique social worker’s scope of practice. According to Tia Bell, a Calgary-based social worker and clinician, as well as guest presenter of The Designer Practice Podcast (Das, 2023), scope of practice refers to the areas of interest in which a clinician has acquired further training, continued education or professional development, and in turn, defines the people whom they are best able and best suited to support. Most social worker regulatory bodies in Canada require 40 hours of professional development. Each hour of training and specialization that the practitioner receives facilitates a holistic approach, as they learn how each area of competency supports the client’s overall health and wellness. The CASW’s scope of practice document outlines a multitude of different areas of specializations or areas of competency in which a social worker can obtain advanced training, including but not limited to individual, family, and group counselling and conflict resolution via mediation. 

Like counselling, mediation takes a holistic approach to problem solving. It gets to the root cause of the issues that clients, or parties, face. Each issue could stem from any one system (social, mental, physical–even financial!) being out of balance and needs in each system not being met, thus creating an imbalance within another. Human brains are physiologically designed to send messages when threats are imminent, resulting in a fight or flight response. Though the context has evolved since the development of our primitive brains, modern day dangers, such as the loss of employment, can create an imbalance in our social system, financial network, and even physical safety (i.e. the ability to pay for housing, clothing, food, etc.). These system imbalances eventually lead to conflict in personal and professional relationships.  A highly skilled mediator with training in social work naturally possesses the skills required to dissect the systems at play, and the perceived threat, by connecting empathically, encouraging boundaries through healthy communication, and builds capacity for future problem solving by identifying feelings and the unmet needs driving them.   

Social workers are organically skilled in mediation and conflict resolution thanks to training in systems theory and strengths-based problem solving. Using a strengths-based approach encourages clients or parties to look at available resources and leverage these resources to resolve unmet needs leading to conflict within their personal and professional relationships. Recent global events continue to disrupt support systems, eventually leading to interpersonal conflict with important players within those systems, causing challenges to mental health.

Social workers as mediators play a key role in maintaining mental health because of their built-in skillset in deconstructing power imbalances and connecting empathically to one another’s feelings, driven by unmet needs within each system. While conflict resolution skills are naturally acquired in social work training, each practitioner develops their areas of competency, knowledge, and skill to support individuals’, families’, and communities’ physical, social, spiritual, and economic influences that impact overall health, safety, and well-being. Conflict is a normal part of the human condition. Next time you are grappling with conflict, consider adding a Registered Social Worker to holistically support you in your time of need. 

Angie Howlett is a Social Worker, Mediator, and Owner of White Dove Counselling and Mediation (formerly The Conflict Counselor). Angie supports individuals, couples, families, and groups facing conflict in their personal and professional relationships. Angie is passionate about transforming relationships through mediation and effective communication. She lives in Saskatoon with her husband and daughter. For more information, see the display ad on page 15 of the 30.2 July/August issue of the WHOLifE Journal.