Empowering Clients to Have an Impact on Their Environment: Social Work Practice with Groups

Abstract

Social work practitioners often are forced to overlook the environmental realities of their clients' lives. The tension inherent in the conflict between the realities of contemporary social work practice and the profession's social justice mission leave many social workers frustrated, with little choice but to follow prescribed and proscribed procedures and practices centered in their clients' “clinical” environment. Given the enormity and intractability of broader social problems, workers can also feel overwhelmed and powerless to effect change in the clients' physical and social environments. By ignoring environmental realities, social work professionals unwittingly reinforce clients' feelings of hopelessness and powerlessness. Social work practice with groups is uniquely positioned to be a powerful force for influencing clients' social and physical environments.