ABSTRACT
Systematic extension of competence that leads to work at a higher quality grade in a section of the profession is as a rule recognised as professional development. The experience of self in group encounter is particularly helpful for psychoanalytic social work because psychoanalytic social work does not take place in a special situation apart, but rather in everyday encounters and interactions which are very little regulated. The wide variety of possible principal professions and the basic courses in psychoanalytic social work offered to those in them demonstrates that there is as yet no systematised or organised approach. Psychoanalytic social work requires the frequent creation of space for reflection. The reflective space enables distancing from the interactions with clients and thus observation of them from outside the situation which is necessary to clarify the social worker’s own contribution. Less frequently to be found in psychoanalytic social work are physicians and nurses from the psychosocial area such as the socio-psychiatric services.
