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The spatial aspects of therapeutic intervention receive marginal attention in the practice and discourse of therapeutic professions. Currently, influenced by the classic Freudian tradition, the central therapeutic space of social workers and psychologists is the agency and the office. Despite the fact that models of home therapy have been developed over the years, its practice has remained marginal in the professional discourse. This article introduces the concept of intervention in a real-life context as a theoretical and practical framework for work with people in poverty that takes place outside the agency. The article is based on a qualitative study that examined the ongoing experiences of nine women who participated in an intervention programme based on the poverty-aware social work paradigm. The findings revealed that intervention in a real-life context takes place in four major realms: the home space, in which meetings were held regularly; the utilisation-of-rights space; the emergency space; and the professional-friendly space. The discussion sheds light on intervention in a real-life context as a means to practise the psychodynamic concept of holding in working with people who live in poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors of this article describe an essential feature of inclusive educational practice: non-abandonment. When students' needs and difficult behavior are overwhelming, teachers may abandon them emotionally as a defensive reaction to their own experience of emotional distress and helplessness. Non-abandonment represents a constructive strategy for dealing with these students based on the psychodynamic concepts of containing and holding. The authors provide a theoretical grounding for the processes of abandonment and non-abandonment, and then illustrate how these two processes play themselves out in school practice, drawing on action research conducted with educators in Israeli schools. They then describe eight elements in an active strategy of non-abandonment. These are: (1) make a conscious choice to assume professional responsibility for these students; (2) 'stand by' students whose behaviour leads others to abandon them; (3) reframe self-defeating ways of thinking to open new avenues for action; (4) attempt to understand students' real needs, including emotional ones; (5) adapt teaching practice to meet these needs, even going beyond traditional pedagogy; (6) create school frameworks in which teachers can systematically reflect on and improve practice; (7) address teachers' emotional needs by making their own negative feelings openly discussable; and (8) promote teamwork and supportive relations among school faculty based on honest feedback and mutual non-abandonment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]