Action and Reflection in Work with a Group of Homeless People

Abstract

The paper reviews work with a group of homeless men and women and explores contradictions which became manifest for the worker as he engaged clients who are economically and therefore socially and politically a part of an oppressed class. The work of Paulo Freire informs the discussion and illuminates practice principles toward a more radical approach to group work with poor, institutionally oppressed people. The paper also addresses clinical aspects of the group. Thc contention is that the historical split between social action and clinical work can be healed when work is focused at the psychosocial interface.