ТОП просматриваемых книг сайта:
Counseling the Contemporary Woman. Suzanne Degges-White
Читать онлайн.Название Counseling the Contemporary Woman
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781538123621
Автор произведения Suzanne Degges-White
Жанр Управление, подбор персонала
Издательство Ingram
Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (1977). Barriers to effective cross-cultural counseling. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 24, 420–29. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.24.5.420
Sue, D. W., & Sue D. (2013). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2014). Current population survey: 1961 to 2018 annual social and economic supplements. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/visualizations/2018/demo/p60-263/figure2.pdf
Vardeman-Winter, J. (2017). The framing of women and health disparities: A critical look at race, gender, and class from the perspectives of grassroots health communicators. Health Communication, 32, 629–38. doi:10.1080/10410236.2016.1160318
Watts-Jones, T. (2010). Location of self: Opening the door to dialogue on intersectionality in the therapy process. Family Process, 49, 405–20. doi:10.1111/j.1545-5300.2010.01330.x
White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to therapeutic ends. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.
Chapter 2
Integrating Feminist Therapy into Counseling Practice
Suzanne Degges-White
The history of feminist theory stretches back to the late 1800s, when women first began organizing and staging protests as they fought for the right to vote (Hannam, 2012). In fact, it might surprise some readers to realize that women in the United States have only held the right to vote since 1920. Feminism, like most social movements, rolled through on “waves,” and the first wave was tied to women’s fight for the right to vote. The next wave arrived in the 1960s, when women, as a group, began to recognize that the circumscription of their lives (which defined their life roles and options primarily as wives and mothers) was due, in part, to traditional gender role expectations and the limits imposed by their gender in a patriarchal society.
This dawning awareness of the structurally embedded inequities between genders led women to engage in grassroots efforts to communicate and confront these gender-enforced limitations. Thus, the “Women’s Movement,” as most of us know it, was born. Women began to organize and participate in consciousness-raising groups that provided participants opportunities to develop a sense of sisterhood and connection with other like-minded women. These groups uncovered feelings of unrest and distress that women previously had no place to acknowledge or express. A collective sense of shared identity developed, and groups coalesced to address and pursue equality between the genders, appropriate medical and psychological care for women, and safe spaces for women who were victims of male aggression or control.
In essence, feminist theory was developed as a response to the culturally accepted gender roles and gender rules that unfairly privileged men (Israeli & Santor, 2000). A patriarchal society possesses power to limit the aspirations, not just the achievements, of women. Feminists recognized that these rules and roles were actually forms of oppression and that women were disempowered and silenced by the fact of their gender. The most elemental goal that drove feminist activities in the second wave was the empowerment of all women through raised awareness and advocacy.
Today, the third wave of feminism is described as one that maintains a focus on gender role socialization but encompasses a widened lens that addresses the presence of multiple oppressions that are faced by diverse women and other marginalized groups. The lens also includes the roles of power and privilege and the fight for social justice (Enns & Byars-Winston, 2010). Feminist therapists aim to empower their clients and facilitate client movement toward self-differentiation and the self-determination of their goals and, ultimately, their lives (Wooley, 1995) regardless of the roadblocks they face from a patriarchal society. Feminist therapists also work to demystify the therapeutic process to allow their clients to understand and collaborate in facilitation of their healing journeys.
Feminist Thought Meets Feminist Therapy
Therapy informed by feminist theory is shaped and enacted from the perspective of the clinician rather than by a set of specific techniques that are applied (Brown, 2018). Feminist therapists firmly believe that gender role socialization is a primary force that negatively affects the healthy development of women. Feminist therapists recognize that a client’s truth is undeniably the client’s “truth.” Feminist therapists also recognize that it is the patriarchal culture and its unjust practices that give rise to the issues that bring clients into their offices. For instance, Israeli and Santor (2000) noted that a woman’s depressed mood may be a very normal reaction to a world in which patriarchy favors men in such a way that women feel helpless and hopeless and doubt their self-worth. Thus, feminist-oriented therapists recognized the need for a theory that creates a therapeutic environment in which the client can be empowered and actively participate in their own care. The basic definition of feminist therapy embraces this idea. Laura S. Brown (1994, pp. 21–22) defined feminist therapy in the following way:
The practice of therapy informed by feminist political philosophies and analysis, grounded in multicultural feminist scholarship on the psychology of women and gender, which 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.
This specific definition was developed approximately a quarter of a century ago, but the heart of the definition is still relevant for clients today. While third-wave feminism has broadened the construct by including specific focus on inclusion and intersectionality, the basic belief that “the personal is political” is still very much at the core of feminist philosophy. This underscores the belief that what are traditionally considered to be “women’s issues” are broader and more culturally embedded and external than they may first appear. In fact, feminist theory has often been used with marginalized groups and minority groups in addition to women due to the collaborative nature of the theory.
Feminist counseling theory has been developed to more fully invite the collaboration and expertness of clients into the counseling process (Worell & Remer, 2003). Lenore E. A. Walker (1990) described feminist therapy as being supported by six basic tenets; over time, these tenets have been fleshed out and expanded by additional feminist writers (Corey, 2015). Following is a synopsis of the current status of these six beliefs:
1 The personal is political, and those things that happen “out there” in society that limit women’s opportunities, well-being, or survival are also happening “in her(e)” as well. A woman’s individual experience is a glimpse into the experiences of all women facing the same monolithic cultural obstacle.
2 Social action is necessary to promote social change, which is seen as the surest route to ensuring that women’s lives also change. Feminist therapists move beyond their offices to engage in advocacy for their clients in order to enhance the climate of their communities and the globe. Therapists facilitate their clients’ understandings of the privileges that they may possess and the oppressions they may experience. Without awareness and advocacy, change cannot be realized.
3 The voices of the marginalized and the oppressed are valued and the ways of “knowing” that are different from the standard, androcentric scientific method are also valued and heard. The experiences of all people are to be honored rather than viewed as deviant or suspect. A person’s truth is her truth.
4 Relationships between therapists and clients must be egalitarian. This relationship serves as a model in which women take personal responsibility and exhibit assertiveness in getting their needs met. There exists authenticity, mutuality, and respect between counselor and client. When clients present for care, an inherent power difference exists between the helpee and the helper. Feminist practitioners acknowledge the power differential, explore it with the client, and seek ways to minimize it.
5 Feminist therapy eschews the medical model of diagnosis and treatment as feminist practitioners believe