Hilda Loughran is a social work academic in the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice at UCD. She has been involved in social work education for many years. Her areas of practice, education and research interest include counselling skills: motivational interviewing, solution focused work and group work, she is also involved in teaching addiction, theories and methods and research. She has been actively involved in engaging service users in social work education and research. Her most recent publication is Counselling skills for social work. At the IASW Annual Conference in May 2019 Hilda presented a paper on this topic addressing the roots of social work in building relationships  and also looked at some of the concerns and challenges that face social work in the current climate.

Counselling Skills for Social Work;

• Social Work conversations, counselling and theraputic interventions
• Talking and Responding
• Listening
• Thinking, processing and reflective practice
• Questioning
• Assessing and assessment
• Empathy, reflection and refective responding
• Affirming, advising and motivating change
• Applying social work skills in solution focused work