Latin American Critical Clinical Social Work: A proposal for incorporating anti oppressive decolonial perspectives and local knowledge in justice-focused clinical practice

Clinical social work (CSW) has been primarily developed by social workers in the United States, Canada, Australia, and other western societies with dominant neoliberal-based perspectives. Given the recent recognition of CSW practice in several Latin American countries, the need for a culture-specific, clinical, decolonial practice that not only includes theoretical frameworks from western dominant clinical social work, but that also incorporates relevant and culturally sound practices rooted in history, culture and local knowledge become necessary to engage in clinical practice that is social justice focused. The following article proposes a theoretical framework and practice perspective for a culture specific Latin American CSW that considers the historical oppression and colonization of Latin America. A brief overview of dominant western perspectives of CSW will be presented which will be followed by a general proposal of Latin American Critical Clinical Social Work (LACCSW) that includes theoretical underpinnings from critical perspectives such as anti-oppressive practice, feminist theory, decolonial theories, and critical race theory, as well as Liberation Psychology and Popular Pedagogy. In addition, an argument is made for the importance of incorporating local knowledge, history, and cultural differences which are particular to the region of Latin America. Although the proposal is theoretical, possibilities for direct practice will be considered throughout the article.