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Group social worker skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

1 min read

Quoted experts

Dr. Florence DiGennaro Reed Ph.D.,

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical group social worker skills. We ranked the top skills for group social workers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 38.7% of group social worker resumes contained social work as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a group social worker needs to be successful in the workplace.

12 group social worker skills for your resume and career

2. Community Resources

Community resources are a set of resources that are used in the day to day life of people which improves their lifestyle in some way. People, sites or houses, and population assistance can come under the services offered by community resources.

Here's how group social workers use community resources:

Provide and assist patients and families with community resources and referrals.
Direct clients towards specific community resources in regards to their specific life situations.

3. Crisis Intervention

Here's how group social workers use crisis intervention:

Conducted outreach and crisis intervention to clients through counseling and solution based therapy and motivational interviewing for adolescents and family members.
Provide crisis intervention services, as well as referrals for psychiatric assessments, consulting with supervisor and completing necessary incident reports.

4. Discharge Planning

Here's how group social workers use discharge planning:

Directed individual and family psychotherapy while acknowledging patient/family needs and rights, which resulted in treatment planning and discharge planning.
Collaborated with interdisciplinary team of physicians, nurses and related health care professionals to ensure continuity in treatment and discharge planning.

5. Mental Illness

Here's how group social workers use mental illness:

Perform the one to one intake process for the mental illness clients of various ages and make initial diagnosis.
Conduct intake interview with severe and persistent mental illness homeless clients.

6. Substance Abuse

Here's how group social workers use substance abuse:

Assisted clients who face a disability or a social problem, such as inadequate housing, unemployment, or substance abuse.
Facilitate Anger Replacement Training and Criminal Conduct and Substance Abuse groups to adolescents detained at the East Mesa Juvenile Detention Facility.

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7. Independent Living

Here's how group social workers use independent living:

Attend court hearings with clients in the Supervise Independent Living Program.
Supervised crisis teens and facilitated self-improvement groups that focused on independent living skills; provided therapeutic counseling and tutorial services.

8. Crisis Management

Here's how group social workers use crisis management:

Provide crisis management and information and referrals to call-ins, walk-ins, and program clients when crisis management staff is unavailable.
Assisted with crisis management and utilized CPI skills.

9. Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is a pattern of violent, intimidating, or abusive behavior in any relationship committed by someone within the victim's circle - partner, ex-partner, parents, family, and friends, to gain or maintain power and control over the victim. This can be emotional, sexual, social, financial, economic, psychological, spiritual, and/or physical abuse.

Here's how group social workers use domestic violence:

Facilitated/educated groups of women on personal experiences with addiction, homelessness and domestic violence issues;from a personal perspective.
Raised awareness and educated community members, professionals and policy-makers about issues of domestic violence that victims and survivors face.

10. Group Therapy Sessions

Here's how group social workers use group therapy sessions:

Worked with adolescents in temporary custody due to behavioral or emotional problems Conducted multiple individual and group therapy sessions per week.
Provided individual counseling to a caseload of five students and facilitated group therapy sessions at a public boarding school for underprivileged students

11. Community Agencies

Community agencies stand for the organizations operated to provide human service in the community.

Here's how group social workers use community agencies:

Make referral and cooperative relationships with other community agencies, to meet the needs of clients.
Networked with community agencies and volunteers to provide services to residents of the community.

12. Therapeutic Interventions

Here's how group social workers use therapeutic interventions:

Provided therapeutic intervention, case management services, and care coordination services to Senior Center participants as needed.
Participated in monthly training seminars that provided educational information about various problems facing our clients as well as effective therapeutic interventions.

What skills help Group Social Workers find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on group social worker resumes?

Dr. Florence DiGennaro Reed Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Chairperson, Director of the Performance Management Laboratory, University of Kansas

In my experience, employers appreciate real-world experience where students/recent graduates can apply the knowledge they learned in their courses to actual work settings. Thus, graduates who have had service-learning practicum courses, internships, or other relevant experiences have resumes that tend to stand out to future employers.

What soft skills should all group social workers possess?

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Associate Professor, Campbellsville University

The "change theory" used in social work practice follows several steps, including engaging, assessing, planning, intervening, evaluating, terminating, and following up. Soft skills are most likely to occur in engagement, intervention, and termination. Social workers are trained to "start wherever the client is," understanding that clients can be individuals, families, groups, communities, or organizations. Social workers are trained to respect the client as the expert in their needs, honor self-determination, use a strengths-based approach, and respect difference while using inclusion. The training turns into soft skills such as being empathetic, warm, genuine, and respectful. Social workers also develop skills in knowing when to listen and when to nudge the client toward action. Social workers are trained to intervene and, when change is completed, to terminate. Helping clients know when to end services also requires soft skills of talking about hard topics, seeing a brighter future and setting goals, recognizing when change is happening, and saying goodbye respectfully.

What hard/technical skills are most important for group social workers?

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Associate Professor, Campbellsville University

Hard or technical skills are most likely to occur in the stages of assessing, planning, intervening, and evaluating change theory. Social workers are trained to gather lots of information and then analyze strengths and needs. Social workers present their assessments to clients and work together to create goals and the steps that reach goals when executed. The process involves using the client's vision of what "better" looks like. Social workers then use evidence-based techniques to move the client toward the goal and define measures to know when the goal is met. The technical skills used in this process include analyzing many types of information repeatedly, knowing what resources exist and how to refer, knowing how to design effective goals and steps to achieve goals, researching current evidence-based practices, defining and measuring progress, and setting limits and timeframes.

What group social worker skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Lillian Wichinsky Ph.D.

Associate Dean, University of Nevada - Reno

The need for social workers with expertise in mental health care, school-based social work, health and substance misuse are particularly important. Sixty percent of mental health care in the US is provided by social workers and the need is growing.

What type of skills will young group social workers need?

M Elizabeth Bowman Ph.D.

Instructor, Gallaudet University

Social work graduates will need an ongoing understanding of cultural competence, explicitly incorporating a global perspective of the social work field and systems of oppression domestically and internationally. Students should be prepared by emphasizing cultural competency training within BSW and MSW programs, with exposure to varying cultures through the international school of social work partnerships. Additionally, social workers are expected to be aware of and competent in using technology, both for record-keeping and internal agency process, and for supporting case management (i.e., internet searches for resources, research for evidence-based practice, technology education, and support of clients).

Do you want to know more?

List of group social worker skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a group social worker resume and required skills for a group social worker to have include:

Social Work
Community Resources
Crisis Intervention
Discharge Planning

Mental Illness
Substance Abuse
Independent Living
Crisis Management

Domestic Violence
Group Therapy Sessions
Community Agencies
Therapeutic Interventions

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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