The Alchemist and the Social Work Profession

One of my all time favorite books is Paul Coelho’s, “The Alchemist”. If your thinking “TLDR”, the book is a brief and powerful novel about a shepherd named Santiago who sets off on a journey to create his personal legend. (If you’ve read Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero With a Thousand Faces” you know how the stages go.) While searching, Santiago runs into all sorts of people including an alchemist. These people teach Santiago the truth about truth, life, love, chasing dreams, creating self awareness, and being process oriented. Naturally I wondered, “How can I apply Santiago’s lessons to my own life as a Social Work Professional?”

The role Self Discovery for clients, as well as myself, is important. It is my duty as a Social Work Professional to help clients by pointing them in positive directions helping them identify and pursue their own personal legend. Together we craft realistic objectives and actions plans to reach those objectives. Along the way we engage regular self reflection so we stay on track as well as further uncover our own motivations and challenges.

Along Santiago’s journey he gets to meet and build relationships with a cast of interesting characters who guide him. We do the same as Social Work Professionals. We meet a cast of interesting characters in our clients and use active listening, empathy, and past experience to help guide them as well as learn from our clients by asking important questions. As Social Work Professionals we don’t work in a vacuum either. We work within a network of professionals from whom we can also learn and grow. This steel sharpens steel approach starts a dynamic relationship not only between ourselves and the client we’re assisting in that moment, but cascades down to all of other clients. We should take this lesson away from Santiago’s journey. There is something we can learn from everyone in our ecosystem, clients and colleagues alike.

As with every Hero’s Journey, Santiago faces multiple challenges along the way. So do we. So do our clients. We need to show and promote resilience in the face of these challenges, approaching them as opportunities for growth, not just hurdles to clear. We need to facilitate this attitude within our clients by sharing coping strategies and set the example of a clear headed calm approach to problem solving. We must stay flexible, open minded, and adaptable in order to meet the evolving needs of our clients and our profession.

When we incorporate these lessons from “The Alchemist” into our profession, we will enhance our practice, support our clients more effectively, and maintain our well being in a demanding field of work. This short novel’s theme of perseverance, connection, and self discovery offers evergreen insights that align closely with the principles or our chosen vocation.