Reflective Writing Assignment to Help Social Work Trainees Work through Poor Supervisory Relationships

This paper describes and illustrates a reflective writing assignment given by a classroom instructor to provide social work student trainees with the opportunity to work through unfinished business left over from unresolved poor supervisory relationships. It is a structured assignment, which integrates reading, emotional expression, and cognitive analysis, and that builds on the ability of writing to foster insight. The discussion details the benefits the students gained from the assignment and the elements inherent in the assignment that enabled them to reap those benefits.