Doing and bearing witness: A response to Dick Blackwell

Abstract

Blackwell (1997) argues that the role of the therapist with torture victims is to bear witness to their outrage, and that the urge to be helpful should be resisted. This response considers the relevance of these ideas to mainstream social work. It argues that publicly funded professionals must use evidence, must use their practical knowledge, must be accountable, and must address structural inequality and power dimensions. It also argues that ideas of holding and containing, of the importance of relationship, of making space for thinking, are particularly important in the light of recent developments in social work organisation. It offers a model for understanding social work activity in terms of four orientations to the task, and proposes that social workers need to avoid being boxed in to a single mode of working