Podcast: Professor Clive Diaz on psychoanalytical ideas in contemporary social work

Summary

In this episode, Professor Clive Diaz — a social worker, academic and psychoanalytical psychotherapist — discusses how psychoanalytical thinking can enrich contemporary social work practice. The conversation explores core ideas such as transference, countertransference, the unconscious, and the emotional and relational dynamics that often go unexamined in everyday practice. Diaz reflects on the decline of psychodynamic approaches in social work training, and how understanding these deeper processes might help practitioners navigate tensions between empowerment and oppression, structure and humanity. Listeners also get a personal glimpse into Diaz’s life and perspectives through a series of quick-fire questions about routine, meaning and professional identity.