SSR Seminar Series: Reflective and Intentional Practice: Validating a Relational Capacity Scale for Practitioners
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- This is a physical seminar event.
- Registration slots will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.
- Please register by 22 February 2026. Successful registrants will be informed on 23 February 2026 via email.
- If you cannot make it after receiving the email confirmation, please let us know as soon as possible via email.
Seminar Details
Relational capacity is central to effective social work and restorative practice, enabling practitioners to engage authentically, remain open and humble in learning about others’ lived experiences, and hold space for uncertainty and complexity. Grounded in relational-cultural theory and restorative practice, this study aimed to develop and validate a practice-grounded Relational Capacity Scale to examine how restorative principles support practitioners’ relational work. Practitioners from restorative practice, social services, corrections, education, and questionnaire development reviewed proposed constructs and items to establish content relevance and practice alignment. Focus group discussions refined item clarity based on lived practice experiences. The revised scale was administered to 155 practitioners across diverse contexts, with preliminary analyses examining its structure and coherence. Findings support a five-construct scale—Humility, Empowerment, Honouring Complexity, Relational Growth, and Self-Compassion—capturing practitioners’ attunement to self and others and their capacity for mutual, respectful, and growth-oriented engagement. The scale offers a practical tool for reflective supervision, professional development, and organisational learning.
Clinical Director
Lutheran Community Care Services
Founder
Justice Movement
Associate Professor
Department of Social Work,
Co-Director
Social Service Research Centre
National University of Singapore
Deborah is a restorative justice facilitator at Lutheran Community Care Services in Singapore where they work to drive a restorative movement to break the cycle of hurt and build connected communities of empowered individuals. Deborah is interested in integrating expressive therapies in her practice to explore and understanding nonviolent ways of communicating and addressing conflict. She is currently exploring trauma-informed and creative dialogic processes to transform conflict, particularly addressing harm that has occurred in familial relationships. She had obtained a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Boston College, USA and a Bachelor of Social Science (Hons) in Psychology from the National University of Singapore. Deborah is also trained in restorative practices by the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP, USA).
Kek Seow Ling is the Founder of Justice Movement, which raises awareness of the needs of victim-survivors of harm. She holds a Master of Arts in Restorative Justice and is a social work–trained practitioner and supervisor. Seow Ling has spoken at international, regional, and local conferences on restorative justice and social work practice. Her contributions to the field include developing restorative practice principles and designing training curricula such as Family Group Decision Making and Building Relational Capacity. She has co-written the book chapter “Imagining Restorative Justice for Intimate Partner Violence,” contributed to the journal article “Project Rekindle: Mending Broken Ties” in Advancing Corrections Journal, and co-authored Relationships, Community, and the Restorative School(Routledge). She serves on the Board of Trustees of the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP).
Dr. Jungup Lee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work and Co-Director of the Social Service Research Centre at the National University of Singapore. Her research seeks to refine the understanding of how adverse childhood events relate to subsequent behavioural and mental health outcomes for children and adolescents. Specifically, Dr. Lee’s research focuses on identifying multi-level risk and protective factors (e.g., family, peer, school, and community levels) that shape various patterns of externalizing and internalizing behaviours to facilitate the development of more effective intervention strategies for social workers providing services to children, adolescents, and young adults. Her research interests include cyberbullying, school violence and safety, child maltreatment, online harassment, technology-facilitated sexual misconduct, juvenile justice, and youth mental health and digital well-being.
Lecturer
Department of Social Work,
National University of Singapore
Katherine is a Lecturer in the Department of Social Work at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She holds a PhD in Social Work and Criminology from the City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK). Her doctoral research investigates how restorative practices implemented with male youth probationers living in a probation hostel support desistance from offending. She draws on her experience as a social worker and probation officer to integrate practice, theory, and research.