Vulnerable families as active agents of their own change process: a bidirectional perspective

The literature on successful practice with vulnerable families reports social workers' efforts in forging therapeutic bonds with clients, their ability to both recognize clients' strengths and pain and support them as they work through adversity. Vulnerable families' own contribu- tions to their change process, however, have remained largely opaque. This article offers concrete conceptual tools to consider both social workers and clients from vulnerable families as active agents in the change process. Empirical evidence collected by practitioner-researchers through in-depth discussions with 10 vulnerable families illustrates clients' agentic capacities for autonomy, construction, and action as well as joint construction and maintenance of the helping relationships with social workers, thereby illustrating their active contribution to the process of change.