this isn’t a magical question and pertains to social work so i fully respect if you don’t want to answer this, but i’m wanting to overcome trauma-based agoraphobia right now and i could probably use a social worker. however, unfortunately a lot of the trauma comes from authority figures, caretakers, hospital staff–in other words, the more someone has -authority- or appointment to take care of me, the more i fear them. do you have any insight for how to approach the fear of caretaker abuse? ty!!

I am sorry to hear about your troubles. I hope you will be able to work through them.

I don’t know what services you have available, (pay on your own, insurance, medicaid, BDDS, state agency), but it sounds to me like you need a mentor. All mentors are supposed to do is take you out places and have a good time while modeling behaviors. They are a lot less intrusive than a therapist or behavior coach, and less likely to be ordering you around.

That being said, some mentors are aspiring therapists and sometimes try to “fix” people.

You have every right to interview a service provider and only work with the ones you choose. The people referring the services might bitch about it, but you can always say you want to switch providers.