This article charts one woman’s journey from unqualified care worker to Probation Officer and later to academic. It outlines the social, political and theoretical influences she encounters along the way from anti-psychiatry to behaviourism, feminism and the politics of Black power, as well as Marxism, reflective practice and the rise of punitive managerialism. It concludes with a brief outline of recent research which demonstrates that experienced practitioners use their abilities as reflective practitioners to enable them to practise in a way which is suffused with judgement and reflection upon the unique and particular circumstances of the person to be helped, and is not readily reduced to the straightforward application of technique.
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