Feminist Therapy

Founded By:

Jean Baker Miller, MD (1928-2006)



Carolyn Zerbe Enns

Other Founders: Olivia M. Espin, PhD and Laura S. Brown, PhD

Key Concepts:

*"Liberal feminists focus on helping individual women overcome the limits and constraints of traditional gender-role socialization patterns" (Corey p. 364).
*"Cultural feminists believe oppression stems from society's devaluation of women's strengths, values, and roles" (Corey p. 365).
*"Radical feminists focus on the oppression of women that is embedded in patriarchy and seek to change society through activism and equalizing power" (Corey p. 365).
*"Social feminists share with radical feminists the goal of societal change. Their emphasis differs, however, in that they focus on multiple oppressions and believe solutions to society's problems must include considerations of class, race, sexual orientation, economics, nationality, and history" (Corey p. 365).
*"Postmodern feminists provide a model for critiquing other traditional and feminist approaches, addressing the issue of what constitutes reality and proposing multiple truths as opposed to a single truth" (Corey p. 366).
*"Global international feminists take a worldwide perspective and seek to understand the ways in which racism, sexism, economics, and classism affect women in different countries" (Corey p. 366).
*Androcentric- Uses male-oriented constructs to make conclusions about human nature.
*Gendercentric- Proposes two seperate paths of development for men and women
*Heterosexist- Views heterosexuality as normative and devalues homo or bisexuality
*Deterministic- Personality and behavior are fixed early in development
*Intrapsychic orientation- Atttributes behavior to internal causes, often blames the victim
*"Gender-fair approaches explain differences in the behavior of women and men in terms of socialization processes rather than on the basis of our 'innate' natures, thus avoiding stereotypes in social roles and interpersonal behavior" (Corey p. 367).
*Flexible-multicultural perspective- Uses strategies that apply equally to people regardless of age, race, gender, etc.
*Interactionist view- Specific concepts about thinking, feeling, and behaving that account for contextual and environmental factors.
*Life-span perspective- Human development is lifelong and does not occur only during early childhood.
*Relational-cultural theory- Role of relationships and connections in lives of women.
*Principles of Feminist Theory:
     -Personal is political
     -Commitment to social change
     -Female voices and ways of knowing are valued and experiences honored
     -Counseling relationship is egalitarian
     -Focus on strengths and reformulated definition of psychological distress
     -All types of oppression are recognized

Therapeutic Goals:

*Client becomes aware of thier own gender-role socialization process
*Client identifies their internalized messages and replaces them with more self-enhancing beliefs
*Client learns the negative effects on themselves from sexist and oprressive societal beliefs and practices
*Client acquires skills to change their environment
*Clients restructure institutions to rid them of discriminatory practices
*Clients develop a wide range of freely chosen behaviors
*Clients evaluate how social factors impact their lives
*Clients develop a sense of personal and social power
*Clients recognize the power of relationships and connections
*Clients trust their own experience and intuition

 

Techniques:

*Empowerment- Enables clients to see themselves as active agents on behalf of themselves.
*Self-disclosure- Used to equalize the client-therapist relationship.
*Gender-role analysis- Explores the impact of gender-role expectations on the client's well-being.
*Gender-role intervention- Therapist places concern in the context of society's role expectations for women.
*Power analysis- Range of methods aimed at clients gaining understanding of how unequal access to power influences their reality.
*Bibliotherapy- Self-help books
*Assertiveness training
*Reframing and relabeling- Reframing=shift from blaming victim; Relabeling=changes label or evaluation applied to behavioral characteristic
*Social action- Social activism
*Group work

References

Corey, G. (2013). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.

harvardsquarelibrary.org "Jean Miller"

people.cornellcollege.edu "Carolyn Enns"

stbcedartown.org "Feminist"

djavanriversilva.wordpress.com "Fight Patriarchy"