The Healing Power of Community: Mutual Aid, AIDS, and Social Transformation in Psychology

The Healing Power of Community offers a diverse range of interdisciplinary and depth-psychological perspectives to support the use of mutual aid approaches in group and community practice as a remedy for individualism and social and political divisions. It begins with an autoethnographic study of Project Quest, an HIV/AIDS clinic, and applies its lessons to the current global mental health climate. Chapters cover topics such as mutual aid communities, rethinking professionalism and boundaries in a crisis, healing collective trauma, group psychotherapy, psychodrama, depth psychology, and how mental health professionals can support radical change in non-profit clinics, public administration, private practice, and research. The book argues for a radicalization of mental health and community-based practice to meet the mental health needs of our era in creative ways.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 198 pages
Publication date: 04 July 2024
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

The Healing Power of Community presents a comprehensive exploration of interdisciplinary and depth-psychological perspectives, advocating for the integration of mutual aid approaches at all levels of group and community practice as a remedy for individualism, social, and political divisions. Authored by three distinct voices who collaborated during the peak of the AIDS crisis, the book begins with an autoethnographic study of Project Quest, an HIV/AIDS clinic established in 1989, and then examines how the lessons learned from this clinic can be applied to our current global mental health climate. Filled with clinical and theoretical applications, the chapters cover various topics such as what mutual aid communities are, rethinking professionalism and boundaries in a crisis, healing collective trauma, group psychotherapy, psychodrama, depth psychology, and how mental health professionals can support radical change in non-profit clinics, public administration, private practice, and research. The book argues for a radicalization of mental health and community-based practice in the present day, exploring how this can be achieved by moving beyond individual-level approaches and creating new frameworks to meet the mental health needs of our era in innovative ways.

This book is specifically designed to engage clinical social workers and mental health care clinicians working in community-based mental health, as well as those involved in community psychology, collective trauma and grief, HIV/AIDS advocacy, policy making, and political advocacy. By offering a diverse range of perspectives, The Healing Power of Community provides valuable insights and strategies for promoting healing, social justice, and community well-being.

Weight: 330g
Dimension: 228 x 152 x 15 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032478739