Towards a socially just social work practice: the liberation health model

This article discusses the 'liberation health' model for social work practice and explores how this model may be used to bring conversations about race and class into the therapy room. It begins with a review of mental health social work teaching in the United States and moves on to demonstrate differences between traditional and liberatory practice methodologies. The term 'liberatory' is used in this article to refer to a variety of anti-oppressive theoretical frameworks, with an emphasis on the work of Paulo Freire and Ignacio Martin-Baro. Additionally, the author demonstrates interviewing strategies for bringing conversations about intersectionality into the therapy context.