Being present in the life world of citizens and working relationally is essential to social workers. Practising presence is more than an attitude. It is basically to be understood as a qualified, efficacious way of being for people by being with them.
In a Zuyd University of Applied Sciences knowledge clip, Milotte Hamer and Guus Timmerman explain what presence is about for social workers.
Hamer and Timmerman introduce the concept of connecting with and attuning your practice not only to the life world and the life course of the client, but also to the potential ‘turning points‘ in her of his life. It is illustrated by a case description. They further discuss the concept of the ‘finality‘ of social work and the way the presence-theoretical perspective conceptualizes human beings as interdependent.
