Feminist Therapy

Prarthita Biswas
Q5-PTY02-V058
 What is Feminism?
• Funderburk and Fukuyama (2001) defned
feminism as:
The belief that human beings are of equal
worth and that the pervading patriarchal
social structures which perpetuate a hierarchy
of dominance, based upon gender, must be
resisted and transformed toward a more
equitable system.
 What is Feminist therapy?
Feminist therapy was born in the 1960s. At that time, women
were gathering together, building awareness, and beginning to
recognize that they were being oppressed from systemic
inequality and inequity. Brown (2017) described feminist therapy
as an approach that is grounded in multicultural feminist
scholarship that “leads both therapist and client toward strategies
and solutions advancing feminist resistance, transformation and
social change in daily personal life, and in relationships with the
social, emotional and political environments.” Feminist therapy is
also diversity-oriented. Feminist knowledge comes from voices
that have been traditionally silenced or ignored. These voices
include “people of color, lesbian, gay, and bisexual people, gender
variant people, poor people, people with disabilities, immigrants,
and refugees” (retrieved, July 26, 2017, from:
http://www.drlaurabrown.com/feminist-therapy/).
 Introduction
• Feminist therapy puts gender and power at the
core of the therapeutic process. It is built on the
premise that it is essential to consider the social
and cultural context that contributes to a person’s
problems in order to understand that person
• A central concept in feminist therapy is the
psychological oppression of women and the
constraints imposed by the sociopolitical status to
which women have been relegated.
 History and Development
• Feminist therapy has developed in a grassroots
manner, responding to challenges and to the
emerging needs of women. • No single individual
can be identified as the founder of this approach,
and its history is relatively brief. • Feminist therapy
can be traced to the women’s movement of the
1960’s, a time when women began uniting their
voices to express their dissatisfaction with the
limiting and confining nature of traditional female
roles
 The feminist movement in the United States is
generally divided into four stages:
• (1) first wave feminism: striving for universal suffrage and
property rights were central;
• (2) second wave feminism: an emphasis on obtaining equal
rights for women;
• (3) third wave feminism: inclusive worldwide and
multicultural efforts to address oppression; and
• (4) fourth wave feminism: orienting toward technology, sexual
diversity, reproductive, justice, and spirituality. Many factors
contributed to the development and implementation of
feminist therapy. Early figures like Riassa Adler and Karen
Horney provided inspiration and then,
 as women became established within academic and scientifc
communities, they produced numerous groundbreaking
publications. Simultaneously, women’s consciousness-raising
groups helped move women to take action together to
improve their situations. Recently, relational-cultural therapy
(RCT) has emerged as an approach to therapy founded on
interpersonal connection instead of independence-striving.
Three primary feminist theoretical principles guide feminist
therapy in practice. These included:
(1) sex and gender powerfully affect identity;
(2) deviance comes from a dysfunctional culture, including
the idea that maleness is normative and preferred; and
(3) consciousness-raising is a part of healing and change,
including the important concept of the personal is political
 Goals of Feminist Therapy
•  To become aware of one’s gender-role
socialization process
•  To identify internalized gender-role messages
and replace them with functional beliefs
•  To acquire skills to bring about change in the
environment.
•  To develop a wide range of behaviors that are
freely chosen.  To become personally
empowered
Worell & Remar (2003) describe 6 characteristics
of traditional theories that are outdated and
contain biased elements:
•  Androcentric – used male-oriented construction to draw
conclusions about human nature.
• Gendrocentric – proposes separate development paths for
women & men.
•  Ethocentric – assumes that human development & interaction
are similar across races, culture & nation.
•  Hetrerosexis – views heterosexual orientation as normative,
same-sex as abnormal.
•  Intrapsychic – attributes behavior to interpsychi causes; often
result in blaming the victim
• .  Determinism – assumes present personality patterns &
behavior are fixed at early development stage.
 Worell & Remar (2003) describe the
constructs of feminist theory as being
•  Gender-fair - Explain diff. in behavior of women & men in
terms of socialization processes (rather than ‘true’ nature)
• Flexible-multicultural - Uses concepts/strategies that apply
equally to both individuals & groups regardless of age, race,
culture, gender, ability, class, or sexual orientation.
• Interactionist - Contains concepts specific to thinking,
feeling, & behaving dimensions of human experience &
account for contextual & environmental factors.
• Life-span-oriented - Assumes that human development is a
lifelong process & that personality patterns & behavioral
changes can occur at any time than being fixed during early
childhood
 Four Approaches to Feminist Therapy
• 1. Liberal Feminism – Focus • Helping individual women
overcome the limits and constraints of their socialization
patterns. –Major goals • Personal empowerment of individual
women • Dignity • Self - fulfilment • Equality • All the above
possible with bias-free work & social environments
• 2. Cultural Feminism – Oppression stems from society’s
devaluation of women’s strengths. – Emphasize the
differences between women and men. – Believe the solution
to oppression lies in feminization of the culture. • Society
becomes more nurturing, cooperative, and relational. – Major
goal of therapy is the infusion of society with values based on
cooperation.
 Four Approaches to Feminist Therapy(Contd.)

• 3. Radical Feminism – Focus • The oppression of women

that is embedded in patriarchy • Seek to change society
through activism • Therapy is viewed as a political
enterprise with the goal of transformation of society –
Major goals • Transform gender relationships • Transform
societal institutions • Increase women’s sexual and
procreative self- determination
• 4. Socialist Feminism – Also have goal of societal change –
Emphasis on multiple oppressions – Believe solutions to
society’s problems must include consideration of: • Class •
Race • Other forms of discrimination – Major goal of
therapy is to transform social relationships and institutions
•  Empowerment: getting the most from each session, clear
expectations, identifying goals, and working toward a contract that
will guide the process  Self-disclosure: is not just sharing
information and experiences. Also involves a certain quality of
presence the therapist brings to the sessions.
• • Gender-role Analysis: explores the impact of expectations on the
client’s well being or distress and draws upon this information to
make decision about future gender-role behaviors. •Gender-role
Intervention: placing it in context of society’s role expectations for
women. The aim is to provide insight into the ways that social issues
are affecting the problem. •Bibliotherapy: Books that address the
consequences of society’s obsession with certain issues. Can
explore and enhance therapy by reactions to what they are reading.
 Techniques and Strategies(Contd.)
• • Power Analysis and Power Intervention: becoming aware of the power difference
between men and women in society and empowering to take charge of ones self and
life. Also includes recognizing different kinds of power that clients possess or to
which they have access. • Assertiveness Training: Become aware of their
interpersonal rights, transcend stereotypical gender roles, change negative beliefs,
and implement changes in their daily lives. • Group Work: Group work alone is often
the preferred modality for some issues that women experience in out culture. Self
help groups and advocacy groups help women experience their connectedness and
unity with other women.
• • Social Action: Participation in activities can empower clients and help them see the
link between their personal experiences and the socio-political context in which they
live. • Reframing : Reframing implies a shift from “blaming the victim” to a
consideration of social factors in the environment that contribute to a client’s
problem. Shifting from an interpersonal to an interpersonal definition of a client’s
problem. • Relabeling : Relabeling is an intervention that changes the label or
evaluation applied to some behavioral characteristic. Generally, the focus is shifted
from a negative to a positive evaluation.
 The Role of Men in Feminist Therapy
• Men can be nonsexist therapists • Men can be
pro-feminist therapists when they embrace the
principles and incorporate the practices of
feminism in their work. This entails being willing
to confront sexist behavior in themselves and
others, redefining masculinity and femininity
according to other than traditional values,
working toward establishing egalitarian
relationships, and actively supporting women’s
efforts to create a just society.
 Contribution
• Feminist therapy recognizes role of oppressive
environmental forces on individuals.
•  Both feminist & multicultural therapists work
to encourage change & not adjustment to
status quo.
• Feminist perspective of understanding use of
power in relationships has applications for
understanding inequalities due to racial &
cultural factors as well.