Liberation psychology

Domain V · Systemic, relational, group & community · Ignacio Martín-Baró · 1986 · El Salvador

What it is

Liberation psychology is not a single therapy or a manual. It is a framework and a critical orientation for psychology. It was developed in the 1980s by Ignacio Martín-Baró (1942–1989), a Spanish-born Jesuit social psychologist at the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA), San Salvador, during the…

Format

• No formal phases exist. Martín-Baró set out tasks and orientations, not a staged protocol, and none of the sources used here gives session numbers or criteria for moving between phases.
• De-ideologize everyday experience. De-ideologizing means rescuing the original experience of groups and persons ("rescatar la experiencia original de los grupos y personas"), and it should be done, as far as possible, through a process of critical participation. Some secondary accounts name the…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• What it is. Liberation psychology is not a single therapy or a manual. It is a framework and a critical orientation for psychology. It was developed in the 1980s by Ignacio Martín-Baró (1942–1989), a Spanish-born Jesuit social psychologist at the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA), San Salvador, during the Salvadoran civil war. He was murdered with five Jesuit colleagues and two women on 16 November 1989. He drew on…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Moralising about clients' desires. Keep the work exploratory.
• Research ethics, protection of respondents and political risk.
• Safety first. Do not bring together polarised parties when there is real danger.
• Token naming that changes nothing. Working when the client disagrees with you openly.
• Appropriation, and conflicts with medical care, which you handle respectfully and collaboratively.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.