Empowerment-any process whereby those lacking, comparatively, in power become or are helped to become more powerful.The acquisition of power thought appropriate to them as citizens,consumers or service users. There are both personal and political dimensions to the concept. Empowerment implies a kind of 'power deficit' theory, very much in the same territory as the social exclusion paradigm. Empowerment can refer to, for example, self-help, to community action, to an involvement in a political process but also to any transactions between a service user and a social worker or helping professional.In relation to the latter 'micro' definition, empowerment means that service users can become more powerful as a result of engaging with helping professionals in particular ways in attemps to solve their problems.