In the present article, the authors intend to share their reflections and questionings brought up by the practice of Therapeutic Accompaniment (TA) in an Institutional Shelter dedicated to providing protection to individuals with special needs. The entrance of the therapeutic companion in this institutional context has put into operation forces that promoted tension when in contact with the instituted, reinventing the clinical practice. Thus, the authors were challenged to problematize the political implications of their wanderings inside and outside the institution, produced by the practice of TA. This work sustains that the understanding of TA should not be defined only as a practice that is able to take the insane out of the asylum and into the street, but should also include a broader approach, as a political device that holds the power to unsettle the institutionalization of insanity in the places where it keeps operating without being questioned.
therapeutic accompaniment; shelter; psychiatric reform; amplified clinic; institutionalization