Use of self is a core concept in the development of authentic social work and human services practice. For students with a history of adversity, learning how to integrate past adverse experiences into their use of self can be difficult. Adversity may have motivated many to enter the helping professions, but students may not always be sure how and when their adverse experiences can be integrated into their use of self. A qualitative survey of students from three different universities in South East Queensland, Australia, found that recognizing experiences of adversity and their impact could be an essential component in learning use of self. Further data was collected via interviews with 20 students at the primary researcher’s university. A grounded theory approach enabled qualitative data to be analyzed from 199 surveys and all interviews to explore how student experiences of adversity contributed to their understanding and development of use of self. By acknowledging past adversity, students described how they used a relational rather than a traditional dichotomous model of use of self in learning to be a practitioner. The outcomes of this study highlight the importance of formally acknowledging students’ own lived experiences of adversity and the importance of understanding use of self from a relational perspective for this cohort.

自我利用是发展真正的社会工作和人类服务实践的核心概念。对于有逆境历史的学生来说，学习如何将过去的不利经历融入到他们对自我的使用中可能会很困难。逆境可能促使许多人进入帮助职业，但学生可能并不总是确定他们的不利经历如何以及何时可以融入他们对自我的使用中。对澳大利亚昆士兰东南部三所不同大学的学生进行的定性调查发现，认识到逆境经历及其影响可能是学习使用自我的重要组成部分。通过对主要研究人员大学的 20 名学生的采访收集了进一步的数据。扎根理论方法能够分析来自 199 项调查和所有访谈的定性数据，以探索学生的逆境经历如何促进他们对自我使用的理解和发展。通过承认过去的逆境，学生们描述了他们在学习成为一名实践者时如何使用关系而不是传统的使用自我的二分法模型。这项研究的结果强调了正式承认学生自己的逆境经历的重要性，以及从关系的角度理解自我使用的重要性。学生们描述了他们在学习成为一名从业者时如何使用关系而非传统的二分法自我使用模型。这项研究的结果强调了正式承认学生自己的逆境经历的重要性，以及从关系的角度理解自我使用的重要性。学生们描述了他们在学习成为一名从业者时如何使用关系而非传统的二分法自我使用模型。这项研究的结果强调了正式承认学生自己的逆境经历的重要性，以及从关系的角度理解自我使用的重要性。