Liberation Practice International

Founders of the LPI Approach

See Jana's article on "Addressing Structural Oppression in Social Work Practice" in The Journal of the Ontario Association of Social Workers Newsmagazine. Read it here.

View the LPI Trailer here:

I use an LPI approach because it integrates a focus on power relations and is rooted in a possibility oriented social work. I also like how it includes conversations of spirituality and healing. I find it to be a friendly approach, which I am able to use it in my daily work. I like the focus on critical reflexivity and transformative dialogue/action. Using LPI, I am not only working with my client but also my self (non-stop). I realize I am also within oppressive relations and that I need to constantly be aware of the discourses surrounding and coming through me - moment by moment.

Using an LPI approach, I am aware that I am always "possibly problematic". I try to have my 'Noticer' on. I know systemic chatter is persistent, so I am try to watch myself; I question my interpretive lenses. I am constantly building my 'Noticer'. Most of the time the chatter does not get its way, which allows me to act from my values and commitments- the reason I do social work. It also facilitates my own personal agency.

Besides critical reflexivity and facilitating transformative dialogue, I use an LPI approach when doing my "assessments". LPI Life Source Mapping helps me look at the multiple structural and discursive influences, while focusing on possibility and resilience/resistance. Having concrete frameworks at hand like the LPI mapping points, allows me to mediate experience, while addressing the concrete structural barriers.

LPI Life Source Mapping also responds with a flexibility matching the realities of my practice. An ongoing, "temporarily conclusive" approach to assessment and intervention allows for a fluidity realistic to the changes in my client's lives. I also like that the mapping points include spirituality, political/community healing and self-care. I find it useful in every day social work because it focuses both on my own journey towards liberation and self-agency, as well as specific practices and processes that I can use across roles and contexts. I guess it's the transferability that I count on because my work isn't so cookie cutter, even though I am called a "community worker". Like many workers, I work with everything and do much more than my job description.

The LPI DVD series is something I return to often because it specifically outlines how to address power relations and structural realities. I like how it grounds everything into everyday/every moment practice. LPI has helped me to get that I have an opportunity to do activism in each moment of my practice, whether I am doing policy work or counselling. Using an LPI approach, policy is not distinct from other work I do. There is no micro/macro distinction. "Everything speaks". I use the same critical reflexivity of Life Source Mapping when building policy. It also gives me concrete frameworks to check out if I am really practicing what I preach. I guess what it does is bring me into a place of self-responsibility, because the focus is mostly on me, and what I am doing/being. I feel this emphasis helps my practice a lot because it helps me stay conscious of my impact.

I guess I also like the idea that this approach is developed by and for practitioners and that it is always changing. It is very alive and "bottom up". I also like the international aspect to it. I feel part of an international community, although my practice is in Toronto. This sense of community keeps me going. I guess to me, LPI is a collective effort, which I am happy to be part of. It's great to be part of a community that shares an emancipatory agenda.

Here are the frameworks I carry with me for critical reflection in order to facilitate my emancipatory agenda.

*Robert has been created as a voice to reflect the LPI approach in practice

When using this reflective framework, mapping points may intersect and overlap. This reflective tool is non-linear, non-conclusive and ever moving.

"Emancipation" is understood as the ability to see through the taken for granted truths, definitions and scripts perpetuated by the dominant culture. These often inform our internal and external dialogue. It is about deconstructing the "Systemic Chatter", in order to expose power relations and to clarify one's position in relation to them.

"Entitlement" is countering the effects of exploitation and marginalization, through addressing rights, resources and rootedness. It facilitates equity and 'Building home'. It addresses structural issues through political and social action on an individual, local, national or international level.

"Energy of Possibility" counters 'spiritual injury' (emotional and energetic injury), often the effects of oppression and stressed contexts. Through acknowledgement of the emotional pain and behaviors, as well as exploring holistic initiatives, a movement towards transformative healing and a space of energy and resilience, passion and possibility can emerge.

"Efficacy" counters a sense of powerlessness, helplessness as well as limited access, opportunity and mobility. It is about gaining or facilitating confidence, competence and capacity to impact one's environment and transform internal/external barriers.

"Exercise of Power" is countering the personal and structural constraints and barriers, such as discrimination within organizational structures. It is about action to facilitate individual, organizational and social participation and transformation.

"Engagement" is being able to encounter another person or group. It acknowledges the lenses of objectification and challenges one's own internalization of the scripts and definitions imposed by the dominant culture that may get in the way. It is the ability to be with another, being aware of judgment and evaluation. It is a valuing of one another.

"Esteem" is being able to encounter oneself, while challenging one's own internalization of the scripts and definitions imposed by the dominant culture that may get in the way. It is the ability to be with you, being aware of judgment and evaluation. It is a valuing of ones' self.

"Expression" is countering the effects of regulation, suppression and cultural imperialism. It is about asserting and facilitating a space for voice, personal significance, cultural identity, ancestry and full participation.

Systemic Chatter
Systemic Chatter consists of the dominant narratives, which are both informed by and support the structures found within our society. Systemic Chatter shows up within our internal and external dialogue reflecting inherited power relations within historical and contemporary conversations.