Feminist Therapy

Multiple Diversities and Oppressions

Feminist therapy acknowledges multiple aspects of human diversity that are likely to affect clients' personal well-being, including but not limited to, sex, heritage, race, class, age, physical ability, religion, and sexual orientation. While each of these aspects alone may create personal difficulties for an individual within society, most individuals suffer from multiple oppressions. In large part, providing didactic experiences that illuminate these inequities provides the framework for the therapeutic process. Additionally, feminist therapists remain aware of the complexity of human diversity and of how their own personal attributes and differences from the client may be affecting the process of healing.

The Therapeutic Relationship

Although feminist therapists strive to achieve equality in their therapeutic relationships and to empower their clients, they are continuously aware of the intrinsic power differential, especially early in therapy, that exists in the therapeutic relationship. Throughout the therapeutic process, there is a continuous focus on equalizing the client-therapist relationship and on avoiding taking responsibility for or coercing the client. The intent of this focus is to work collaboratively with clients, who are considered experts relative to their experiences, to achieve goals that are meaningful to them. A strong emphasis is placed on consciousness raising, which assists clients in understanding the context of their psychological distress. Within this relationship, therapists are far more likely to be self-disclosing, especially in relation to their own experiences of oppression and empowerment, than in most formal schools of psychological thought.

Social Change

Practitioners of feminist therapy are active in efforts to bring about change that equalizes social and personal power. Because feminism is multifaceted, the focus of such change efforts may vary greatly; however, personal investment in altering power differentials is considered of primary importance for the therapist and, eventually, for the client. Advocacy requires continuous awareness of both positive outcomes and unanticipated negative consequences of efforts to equalize power and promote justice.

Developmental Issues

While feminist therapy has no formal theory of development, it does view society's construction of what is right and good as having considerable impact on individual identity development. For example, Chowdrow has suggested that girls develop through connection with their primary caregiver, usually a woman, while boys avoid this connection in favor of autonomy. Girls are expected to adhere to common gender role stereotypes, including nurturance (playing with dolls), sensitivity, and cooperativeness. Boys, conversely, are expected to be sturdy, power seeking, and self-determining. Society, in various forms, stresses similar messages in relation to a plethora of other personal attributes.

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