Reflective Practice: Psychodynamic Ideas in the Community

The case studies in this book explore the multiple layers of trauma and conflict in communities and organisations, and the complexity of response that is required. Divides along race, class, culture, gender, language, age, disability, and political lines are extensively discussed, and the question of the power of the 'expert' social service professional is debated from a range of perspectives. The book emphasizes the importance of a thorough understanding of context for community work. A remarkable feature of Reflective Practice is that, while considering one clinic's efforts to assist with positive transformation in a range of South African contexts, it at the same time reflects on the process of change within the clinic itself. The authors show how change in others cannot happen without change in ourselves. The book requires engagement from the reader, and sets the reader the challenge of thinking deeply and on multiple levels about community-based practice and what it means both for communities and for those who wish to be agents of change.