Feminist Therapy

Themes• The personal is political

– Problems originate in a political and social context• Commitment to social change

– Not only help clients but society change as well• Clients voices and ways of knowing are valued and their experiences are honored

– Increase silenced voices of women, etc.– Value ones emotions, intuition, and experience

• Egalitarian counseling relationship– No power imbalance

• Focus on strengths and reformulated definition of psychological distress– Distress is not looked at as a disease but as a coping mechanism

• All types of oppression are recognized– Social and political inequities have a negative effect on all people

Process• Become aware of their own gender-role socialization process• Identify their internalized messages and replace them with more self-enhancing

beliefs• Understand how sexist and oppressive societal beliefs and practices influence

them in negative ways• Acquire skills to bring about change in the environment• Restructure institutions to rid them of discriminatory practices• Develop a wide range of behaviors that are freely chosen• Evaluate the impact of social forces on their lives• Develop a sense of personal and social power• Recognize the power of relationships and connectedness• Trust their own experience and their intuition

Process• Therapist work to:

– Equalize power base in the therapeutic relationship– Focus on clients power and ability to make decisions– Self disclose

Process• Gender-role analysis

– Examine messages about expected behavior• Gender-role intervention

– Examine how social expectations effect problems they are experiencing• Power analysis and power intervention

– Difference in power between men and women in society• Assertiveness training• Reframing and relabeling

– See behaviors as coping skills rather than diagnoses• Bibliotherapy and Scriptotherapy• Social Action