Don't see me as a fragil human, but as a human : A case study about the shared life and the spiritual dimension of the social work in a L'arche community

The aim of this thesis is to explore how professionals working in a French community association perceived the notion of spirituality and a shared life practice, and furthermore what contributions and limits these concepts have in the social work. To attain this, a case study has been done using participant observations and four thematically opened interviews within a L'arche community where persons with varying disabilities are living together with professional assistants. To put the association in a theoretical framework, I propose it to be regarded as a case of milieu therapy with spiritual elements, which are the two areas that will be stressed out in the section about previous research. The theories used in the study are ecological system theory, existentialism and Roger's theory about interpersonal relationships. The result of the thesis illustrate how the notion of a shared life practice has good contributions in the social work, such as equal and personal relationships between the members of the community and furthermore a notion of time that makes the work unstressful and natural as a result of the communal living. However, a limit discovered regarding this practice is the exposed and tiering situation for the assistants that hinder a longterm work in the community for most assistants. Another finding is that the spiritual dimension in the community makes way for a holistic view of everyone and contributes with rituals that create strong moments of fellowship within the community, at the same time it risks to make people who regard themselves as non-spiritual not to feel totally included