Today is World Social Work Day.
I have been a social worker for 34 years..
I qualified at the age of 22 and now in my 50s, I still practice social work on the ground.
It’s not easy being a social worker especially in the 21st Century with less and less resources being given to you.
We are the alchemists of the modern world.
Alchemy is transforming the base into GOLD!
But sometimes all you feel is a world going mad when you are working with what the world labels as mad, bad or sad.
This is how I felt when I watched the TV series on Netflix “Adolescence” on Saturday 15th March 2025.
After watching it, I felt I am surrounded by a society that now accepts it as normal that children kill each other for the wrong look, or being dumped, or for verbal abuse or for humiliating one another on social media.
I cried after watching it.
I cried tears of frustration and there was this deep sense of sorrow.
I have worked with countless children especially boys since 1997 who have been arrested for serious crimes including murder.
So what the TV series explored with detailed skill and precision, I am very familiar with children being interviewed in a police station, appropriate adults being present, secure children training centres and independent forensic psychologists trying to assess mental capacity.
The Psychologist in the TV series, I could really relate to as she has been me on many occasions interviewing a young person who is playing mind games with me.
The child who plays the central character Jamie played him very well.
Considering it is his first time acting, a raw and rare talent has been discovered.
I understand he was selected after the casting director Shaheen Baig saw 500 other boys self tapes
He acted well and so did Stephen Graham who co-wrote the script and played Jamie’s father..
The script asks some serious questions and it shows the indifference of some teachers, police officers etc
For me though what the TV series really highlighted was how technology can give us a false sense of comfort that everything is ok with our children because they don’t go out and how it can lure children to make the wrong decision, a fatal decision.
In the TV series there were some very tender moments and the fact that the authorities were dealing with the case, made it very surreal for me.
However serious youth violence is not normal and should never be seen as normal
My work life is on the screen like that, seemed surreal.
The TV series is multi-layered, raising loads of issues across 4 episodes.
I wish I had more reflective spaces to reflect on the issues for me as a social worker but for now I want to raise the important question for us as a society in Great Britain: Have we stopped caring about the children dying or getting injured at the hands of other children?
And also what is our role as adults to prevent children dying?
#knifecrime
#socialmedia
#worldsocialworkday
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Taniya Hussain qualified as a Social Worker in 1991 from Coventry University in England, UK. She has been working on the front lines in London UK, consistently holding space for individuals and families in chaos and crisis for three decades especially, children and young people on the margins of society. Taniya studied Psycho-dynamic counselling from 1991 to 1993 at Goldsmiths College in London. Taniya met Sheikha Halima Krausen in 1992 and has been studying Islam with her ever since especially Mystical Islam, Tassawuf (Sufism) and walks on the Chisti path. Taniya fuses Jungian Pyschology and Islamic Psychology and this fusion can best be understood if you read her book Dancing with Darkness which is available on Amazon. It became a Best Seller on Amazon in the UK, U.S and France in April 2025. The book tells the story of Tamara Alvi, a fictional charachter and is a psychological thriller and a story of healing. Taniya started her coaching and consulting business in January 2018 and she works mainly with High Achievers and High Performers and High Performing Leaders, offering reflective spaces since 2018 and what she refers to as THE REFLECTIVE SPACE. Taniya since starting her busines discovered that she is a powerful healer and was shocked that clients were relieved from pain even though they have been diagnosed with a chronic illness. Taniya is delighted to have discovered Paceology, which is the detailed study of PACE. She is the first paceologist. She noticed when working with high performers when you slow down in one area of your life, this causes you to speed up in another area and vice cersa thus leading to increased levels of productivity, creativity, clarity and energy. She brands herself as the Muslim Alchemist because she really is The Muslim Alchemist as she guides you to transfom the base, in other words the shit that you have experienced into GOLD whether that is love of yourself or God or another human being or a healthier body or a life where you feel at peace and calm and fulfilled or more energy or more money. You definintely will feel lighter, more freer and more clearer even if you book one consultation with her or several sessions.
Taniya has a very holistic approach when working with individuals and works with you on multiple layers, the emotional, the psychological, the social, the physical, the mental and the spriritual. She uses stories from the Quran and the Bible when working with clients on a one to one basis or in group workshops as well as breathwork, body scanning, cognitive behavioural therapy, neuro linguistic programming, motivational interviewing. systems theory, neuro science. She is trained in multiple modalities as well as using her own Paceology and insists on offering her clients a trauma informed and trauma responsive service.
She is constantly integrating her knowledge of the Quran and Bible with her vast social work experience and training. Taniya's extensive ability of applying psycho-dynamic theory to organisational settings, teams and groups as well as to individuals results in those who attend her sessions or workshops as feeling lighter and more energised. Taniya uses skillfully her understanding of the Shadow, that Jung constantly talked about and her Mystical Training. She also has integrated her passion for inter-faith dialogue and the archetypes that Jung often refers to, come alive in her one to one sessions and her group workshops thus resulting in individuals feeling more freer and fulfilled after they stop working with her. Taniya just does not provide clarity she WAKES you up to. Taniya has a great skill in being able to see the blind spots in others and does this in a non judgemental way and a way that you feel safe. She also "untangles energetic knots" (a term she uses for Shadow) in your body to promote healing from mental and physical disease. Clients usually are healed in a short amount of time because she pinpoints the memory, the event, the thought that first caused the disease. She also provides one to one sessios or training workshops to social work teams, school, secure and prison estate on youth justice, knife crime prevention as well asidentification and prevention of early onset of burnout.
Taniya has three sons, who were born in 1996, 2001 and 200 and lives in Surrey, England and when she is not coaching or writing songs, blogs and poems, she loves to spend time, travelling, walking, listening to music, watching films or playing cricket.
She speaks fluent English and Urdu and basic German and French and is learning Arabic and Hebrew.
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