• Provide constructive feedback and share any additional insights.
• Responses should be at least 150 words each.

respond to Kendra’s post

When I think about the word family, my definition is very different from what many people probably picture. I grew up in a very dysfunctional family, and because of that, my understanding of family has changed a lot over time. As a kid, I often felt different because my family did not look like the families around me. I was raised by my Pentecostal grandparents, who truly believed that if we prayed hard enough, my parents would be healed. My parents struggled with substance use and were rarely present at school events or activities. I learned at a young age how to hide what was really happening at home. We were very poor because of my parents drug use, and I carried a lot of shame around that. At school and church, I just wanted to fit in. There were so many times I wanted to talk about what was going on in my life, but instead I stayed quiet and pretended everything was okay.

As I got older, I started to realize that I did not grow up with examples of healthy communication, emotional safety, or stable relationships. That realization was hard, but it also helped shape how I define family now. Today, I do not spend holidays with my biological family Instead, I spend them with people I have chosen, including close friends, my partner, and my dog. These are the people who show up for me, support me, and make me feel safe. Because of that, I define family as the people who provide care, consistency, and support, not just those you are related to by blood.

My definition of family has been shaped by my life experiences and my education in social work. I believe families are meant to meet basic needs like support, belonging, and connection, but those needs do not have to come from biological relatives. Families can look very different, and that should not be judged. This connects with anti-oppressive social work, which focuses on understanding peoples lived experiences rather than forcing everyone into one idea of what family should look like (Morgaine & Capous-Desyllas, 2021).

Anti-oppressive practice is especially important in family work because social workers can easily make assumptions about what a good or healthy family is. In real practice, this means asking clients how they define family and respecting chosen family. It also means understanding how addiction, poverty, trauma, and systemic barriers affect families. Too often, families like mine are judged instead of truly understood.

Self-reflection matters a lot in this work because our own experiences can influence how we view clients. My background reminds me how quickly families can be judged from the outside. Because of that, I try to stay open, respectful, and curious when working with families whose lives may look very different from my own. I also try to help clients see that they get to decide who they want in their lives and what support looks like for them.

When I think about how I would want my own family treated by a social worker, I would want empathy instead of judgment. I would want someone who understands addiction and poverty without reducing my family members to those struggles alone. One positive experience I had was with my dads social worker. She worked with him for over fifteen years, helped educate me about his medications, and treated our family with respect. We still talk today, and she is about to retire. That relationship showed me what meaningful, anti-oppressive social work can look like.

Overall, my experiences have taught me that families do not need to be perfect or traditional to matter. Anti-oppressive social work means honoring peoples realities and allowing families to define themselves on their own terms.

Reference

Morgaine, K., & Capous-Desyllas, M. (2021). Anti-oppressive social work practice: Putting theory into action (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.

• Provide constructive feedback and share any additional insights.
• Responses should be at least 150 words each.

respond to Jessica’s discussion post

Personal Definition of Family

I define family as a system of relationships characterized by emotional connection, mutual responsibility, shared meaning, and ongoing commitment. While biological may be part of a family structure, is it not the only requirement. Family can include individuals connected through blood, marriage, adoption, partnership, friendship, recovery communities or other enduring bonds. From a systems perspective, family is a relational unit in which members influence one anothers development, coping, attachment patterns, and worldview.

Evolution of My Definition

Earlier in life, my definition of family was more traditional and structurally focused, emphasizing biological relationships. Over time, I have adopted a more inclusive, systemic, and culturally responsive understanding. Clinical training and practice have reinforced that families are dynamic systems shaped by context, trauma, resilience, and adaptation. My evolving definition now recognizes blended families, single-parent households, kinship caregivers, LGBTQ+ families, multigenerational homes, recovery-based communities, and chosen families as equally legitimate and meaningful.

Influences on My Definition

• Cultural and societal changes: Seeing more diverse family structures has helped me understand that families do not have to fit a traditional mother-father-children model to be valid and healthy.
• Professional education: Learning about family systems, attachment, trauma, and strengths-based approaches has taught me that family is not just about structure, but about relationships and how members influence one another.
• Personal experience: Going through challenges, conflict, healing, and growth has shown me that family can be a place of both struggle and strength.
• Clinical work: Working with families affected by substance use, trauma, mental health concerns, and social injustice has helped me see how outside factors like poverty, discrimination, policies, and stigma impact how families function.
• Integrating Anti-Oppressive Practice in Work With Families

Connecting Theory to Practice

To integrate anti-oppressive principles into family work, I would:

1. Center family-defined meaning: Avoid imposing dominant cultural norms regarding what a healthy family should look like.
2. Examine power dynamics: Acknowledge imbalances between practitioner and family, and between family members themselves.
3. Contextualize presenting concerns: Assess not only intra-family dynamics but also systemic stressors such as discrimination, socioeconomic barriers, or policy constraints.
4. Use strengths-based framing: Identify cultural resilience, interdependence, and adaptive survival strategies rather than pathologizing difference.
5. Collaborative goal setting: Engage families as experts in their own lived experience, co-constructing treatment plans rather than prescribing interventions.

In practice, this might mean adapting communication style to align with cultural norms, validating experiences of marginalization, advocating for resources, and continuously interrogating how my own assumptions influence clinical interpretation.

Self-Reflection in Anti-Oppressive Practice

Self-reflection is foundational to anti-oppressive practice because bias is often implicit rather than intentional. Without ongoing self-examination, a social worker risks reinforcing dominant narratives, misinterpreting cultural expressions, or pathologizing survival behaviors. Reflective practice includes examining personal values, cultural positioning, privilege, countertransference, and areas of discomfort.

In family work specifically, self-reflection helps ensure that assessments are not filtered through rigid expectations about parenting roles, communication styles, discipline practices, or family hierarchy. It also fosters humility, which is essential in culturally responsive practice.

Personal Connection: How I Would Want My Own Family Treated

If my own family were receiving services, I would want a social worker to approach us with:

• Respect and dignity, regardless of presenting concerns.
• Cultural humility, avoiding assumptions based on structure, socioeconomic status, or life experiences.
• Strength’s recognition, acknowledging resilience rather than focusing solely on deficits.
• Collaboration, ensuring that our voices shape the direction of intervention.
• Trauma-informed sensitivity, recognizing that behaviors often reflect underlying stress or pain.

I would want the practitioner to see us as whole people, not diagnoses or case numbers, and to understand the broader systems influencing our functioning. Most importantly, I would want them to engage with compassion, transparency, and ethical integrity.

Concluding Reflection

My understanding of family has evolved from a structural definition to a relational and systemic one. Integrating anti-oppressive principles into family practice requires continuous self-reflection, cultural humility, and active resistance to dominant narratives that marginalize diverse family forms. Ethical family practice demands that social workers move beyond neutrality and toward intentional advocacy, collaboration, and contextual awareness.