Feminist Therapy

Concepts

Feminist therapy focuses on the importance of understanding and acknowledging the psychological oppression of women and the constraints imposed by sociopolitical status to which women have been relegated.

Therapy is viewed as a partnership between equals, incorporates strategies from many other therapeutic models, and seeks to understand the forces of social, political, and cultural change that damage and constrain girls and women, as well as boys and men.

Principles of Feminist Therapy

1. The personal is political in that problems originate in a political and social context.
2. Commitment to social change in additional to individual change.
3. Women's and girl's voices and ways of knowing are valued and their experiences are honored.
4. The counseling relationship is egalitarian in which the client is the expert in their own life and power is shared between the client and therapist.
5. Focus on strengths and a reformulated definition of psychological distress with attention placed on communication rather that a disease model of mental illness.
6. All types of oppression are recognized.

Key Figures in Feminist Therapy

Jean Baker Miller, MD

Carolyn Zerbe Enns, PhD

Olivia M. Espin, PhD

Laura Brown, PhD

Goals of Therapy

• To EMPOWER all people to create a world of equality that is reflected on individual, interpersonal, institutional, national, and global levels.
• Viewing oneself as an active agent on behalf of themselves and on behalf of others.
• Valuing and affirming diversity
• Striving for change rather than adjustment
• Equality
• Balancing independence and interdependence
• Social change
• Self nurturance
• Transformation for both the individual and society as a whole.

Techniques

• EMPOWERMENT of the client
• Self disclosure
• Gender-role analysis
• Gender-role intervention
• Power analysis
• Bibliotherapy
• Assertiveness training 
• Reframing
• Relabeling
• Social action
• Group work

  

References:
 Corey, Gerald (2012). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. 9th ed.
      Belmont,California: Brooks/Cole. (pp. 361-387).