This work aims to characterize the transforming encounter between six homeless people and two teachers in the city of São Paulo. This encounter would enable the psychic transformation of the people involved, promoting the awakening of the potentialities of the self, of the meaning of their lives, and contributing to the promotion of resilience. Resilience is understood as "the human capacity to cope with life's adversities, to overcome them and to become stronger or even be transformed because of them". This was associated with the notion of agape, love for one's fellow humans, articulated with the concepts of self and false self. In this longitudinal study, dwelling in the street emerged as an excluding existential situation, favoring involvements with drugs and criminality. A new configuration in the psyches of the homeless was revealed - in a transforming movement -, in contact with people who were their positive supporting points. However, they had difficulties to remain in this process without the broader support of the Civil Society and of the State.
Transforming Encounter; Resilience; Homeless People; Public Health; Social exclusion
