This is one of the profession's corner stone values. It means that the social worker must respect clients' rights to decide for themselves how they will live their lives, to the extent possible, and that the social worker will not try to interfere or impose her own values on clients. The social worker will also work toward making it possible for the client to have as much control over her own life as possible. So, this means that social workers don't tell clients what to do, or try to prevent clients from doing something that the social worker doesn't agree with.
