A Guide to Social Work: Working with Emotional Intelligence

by Shelly Taylor

his comprehensive book offers an in-depth exploration of social work practice, tracing its origins and evolution while emphasizing essential core values and ethical standards. It delves into the professional identity of social workers, their scope of work, and the importance of ethical decision-making through real-life case vignettes.

The guiding principles of Emotional Intelligence (EI), developed by key researchers like Goleman and Salovey–Mayer, form a central theme, highlighting key domains such as self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. The book explores the neuroscience behind emotions and their regulation, demonstrating how EI impacts social work outcomes.

It provides practical techniques for developing self-awareness, mindfulness, emotional regulation, and managing workload and boundaries to prevent compassion fatigue. Strategies for building rapport, cultural humility, conflict resolution, and motivational interviewing are covered alongside tools for assessing and co-constructing intervention plans using emotional data. Emphasis is placed on ethical challenges, supervision, team coordination, and organizational change through an EI lens. The content aims to equip social workers with the skills to foster resilience, improve client outcomes, and promote social justice, offering a well-rounded resource for practitioners, students, and leaders in the social services field.

110 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 17, 2025

About the author

Shelly Taylor is the author of two full-length poetry collections, Lions, Remonstrance (Coconut Books Braddock Book Prize, 2014) and Black-Eyed Heifer (Tarpaulin Sky, 2010), as well as three chapbooks, Dirt City Lions (Horse Less, 2012), Land Wide to Get a Hold Lost In (Dancing Girl, 2009), and Peaches the Yes-Girl (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2008). Hick Poetics, co-edited with Abraham Smith, an anthology of contemporary rural American poetry, is newly released from Lost Roads Press (2015). She is Assistant Editor of chapbooks at Horse Less Press. Born in deep southern Georgia, Taylor lives in Tucson and is a lecturer at the University of Arizona, a bartender, and a barrel racing hopeful.