Skip to main content Skip to search

YU News

YU News

Wurzweiler professors publish social work articles

Dr. Norman Linzer, the Samuel J. and Jean Sable Professor of Jewish Family Social Work at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, along with Dr. Jay Sweifach, Associate Professor at Wurzweiler, and Dr. Heidi Heft LaPorte, Associate Professor of Social Work at Lehman College, published "Sharing the Trauma: Guidelines for Therapist Self-Disclosure Following a Catastrophic Event" in Best Practices in Mental Health (July, 2010) 6 (2), 19-56. The article highlights the results of a qualitative study that explored the perceptions of front-line social workers in their use of self-disclosure when working with clients with whom they shared a traumatic event. The social workers were formed into focus groups in the United States, Canada and Israel, and the disasters included the SARS epidemic in Canada, 9/11, ongoing terrorist acts in Israel, and hurricanes in Florida. The findings are part of a larger study that examined the impact of man-made and natural disasters on social work practice. More recently, the authors also collaborated on "Social Work Responses to Terrorism: Balancing Ethics and Responsibility" in International Social Work, (Nov. 2010), 53 (6), 822-835. This article presents a qualitative study that examined how Israeli social workers contend with ethical issues regarding confidentiality and disclosure in the aftermath of a terrorist attack, with respondents sharing examples from their own experiences of how ethical issues emerged as a result of confidentiality obligations.