Therapeutic heterotopias in social work - Discipline and deliverance of mothers in the context of child protection

Abstract

This study investigates the role of family therapy in child protection, focusing on how it disciplines and delivers mothers by representing and contesting ideas about motherhood. Using Foucault's concept of heterotopia, the research examines therapy sessions with mothers involved in child protection services. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, interviews and observations, a detailed and rich case of group therapy is presented that forms the empirical foundation for the analysis. Results indicate that therapy creates a dual space of discipline and deliverance, where mothers confront and reframe their mental narratives. The main conclusion is that while therapy offers relief and new identities, it also imposes normative expectations of motherhood, highlighting the tension between individual mental work and broader social structures and underscoring the complex interplay between therapeutic interventions and societal norms. A therapeutic gaze risks blurring the capacity to understand, recognise and act on the structural and social causes of social problems.