A continuing series of scandals and tragedies is resulting in increasing public disquiet over the practice of the ‘helping’ professions. In the author's view, this disquiet is justified on both theoretical and practical grounds. Current practice is based on a natural-scientific, medical model. This introduces a bias analogous to the inquisitorial method in law, and results in misreading the nature of the problems of the people with whom the ‘caring’ professions deal. The author proposes an existential approach based on moral science in the Socratic tradition of elenchos — of conjoint personal enquiry. The general principles informing his stance are analogous to those of due process in law. He describes his method, which he calls social phenomenological analysis, and its theoretical basis, and illustrates it showing its application to the case of a fifteen year old boy, labelled delinquent, and his family.