What is the Liberation Health Model?

The Liberation Health Mode was developed over 20 years ago by a group of social workers looking to provide practical tools for social work practice in the age of neoliberalism.

It is built on the work and thought of previous radical theorists, activists, and movements, including Paulo Friere, Ignacio Martin-Baro, Antonio Gramsci, and the rank-and-file movement in social work during the Great Depression.

Liberation health posits that the problems of individuals and families cannot be understood in isolation from the economic, political, cultural, and historical conditions which give rise to them and seeks to provide a method of practice that helps individuals, families, and communities understand the personal, cultural and institutional factors that contribute to their problem and act to change these conditions; to liberate themselves from both internal and external oppression.

The goal of Liberation Health is to allow the clients’ experiences of oppression—including racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.—to be addressed and understood directly in the clinical setting.

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Introduction to the Liberation health Model

about us

The Liberation Health Something was founded out of the Boston Liberation Health Group in order to facilitate the promoting and practice of the Liberation Health Model. We are social workers, activists, and political organizers who have been directly involved in the development, training, and practice of Liberation Health in Boston and around the world.

We provide clinical therapy, train on the Liberation Health Model, and provide justice-oriented consultation services for organizations seeking to strengthen their commitments to anti-racist, anti-oppressive practices.

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  • Dawn Belkin Martinez, PhD, LICSW is a clinical professor and associate dean of equity and inclusion at the Boston University School of Social Work, where she coordinates the clinical practice with families sequence. Formerly the chief social worker on the inpatient psychiatry service at Children’s Hospital in Boston and an instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, she has nearly 30 years of experience as a scholar, clinical social worker, and activist in the movement for our collective liberation. 

    Dawn is a nationally recognized expert on anti-oppressive social work practice and was recently appointed to the coordinating committee of the International Social Work Action Network. She is the co-author of the book Social Justice in Clinical Practice, A Liberation Health Framework for Social Work (Routledge, 2014), faculty affiliate at the BU Center for Antiracism, and a founding member of the Boston Liberation Health Group, which provides training and mentorship in anti-oppressive social work practice to over 2,700 social workers across the country. As the associate dean for equity and inclusion at BUSSW, she has designed, developed, and implemented diversity, equity & inclusion initiatives, in addition to providing consulting and supervision for social justice-focused practice, both nationally and internationally.

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  • Zack is a social worker and activist that has been practicing and training the Liberation Health Model for over ten years. An activist and political organizer as well as a program administrator, Zack is practiced in using the Liberation Health Model to guide his direct service work, his understanding of the socio-political moment, and his organizational leadership.

    He began his career in social services as a therapeutic mentor for high risk youth in Boston, where he later provided training and supervision for other mentors. He also served on the board of Fathers’ Uplift, a mental health clinic geared towards fathers, before joining the team as the Senior Program Director.

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