Rethinking social intervention with groups: premises and guidelines for a transforming practice

Abstract

This theoretical article proposes a review of social intervention with groups, especially the so-called socioeducational and socio-therapeutic, in order to offer certain guidelines that help guide and improve their practice. Part of the reconsideration of the contributions that contributed the most to the theoretical body of the discipline of working with groups, often unknown by social intervention professionals, as well as the identification of some of the actions that most limit their possibilities, its simplification included. And due to this, the focus is especially on the description of a set of transcendental aspects for the understanding of its processes and those that, however, are barely mentioned in the materials that seek to guide social and educational work with them. The framing and the difference between group and grouping, the concept of group matrix, the determination of the task, the transition from dependence to interdependence, the consideration of power and belonging and the possibility of the complementarity of roles, are presented as well as unavoidable elements for a true group support change trigger.