The dilemmas for black social work professionals: therapeutic implications

This paper explores the nature of social work and therapeutic practice from the perspective of black practitioners in Britain today. Black practitioners carry their histories of hurt, loss and reunion, migration and racism with them, and this lends a particular meaning to the idea of 'therapeutic' for them. The writer articulates some of the complexities and tensions of black professional social work identity through a number of vignettes based on her own experience and biography. The paper was presented as a keynote address at the Therapeutic Social Work Today conference at the Tavistock Clinic in 2001.