A Social Work Practice Approach to Traumatic Loss in Global Contexts of Contemporary Social Change

This paper contributes a new form of social work response to aspects of traumatic loss affecting people in shifting global realities. We examine the experience of critical, unexpected loss, believing this requires practitioners to re-define relational space with a deeper intuitive method of researcher and practitioner reflexivity. We present our model, the ‘Cycle of Intuitive Growth’, which elevates the healing capacity of intuitive knowledge within the person’s sense of self-realisation. The ‘heuristic lens’ of intuitive reflexivity adds to conceptualisations of transpersonal research and practice. Our intention is to identify universal principles for research and scholarship in loss and trauma work, recognising the specific credentials of social work responses to community conflict in contemporary systemic shifts. This paper evidences the development of our primary terms ‘Critical Intuitive Reflexivity’ and ‘Traumatic Loss and the Transfiguring Self’ for practice application. Both contribute to the current climate of social work research, advancing clinical practice approaches for diverse and marginalised communities.