1. Development of Feminist Theories and Therapeutic Interventions
Feminist Psychology
Development of Feminist Theories and Therapeutic Interventions
By W. McIntosh & G. Green

2. Statistics US Bureau of Census (2000)
Number Females USA- 143,000,000
Number of Males USA- 138,000,000

3. Statistics US Bureau of Census (2000)

4. The Emergence of Feminist Psychology
Feminist psychology grew out of the influence of the women’s movement of the late 1960’s.  It originated as a backlash against the traditional assumptions of male dominated theory, research and practices, especially in psychoanalytic theory. 

5. Emergence
Freud’s theories, such as “ penis envy” and hysteria, which were gender-biased and based on developmental studies of men, were particularly distasteful to supporters of the feminist movement. 

6. Emergence
Feminist Psychology was found by women who had become aware of the pressures of patriarchy, sexism and male chauvinism that therapy and counseling were not exempt from these pressures.

7. Emergence
Women discovered that they were put down in a number of subtle ways, and that all sorts of expectations about the female role and how it should be played were built in to the therapy process. Therefore, they started to set up their own therapy centers and their own network of therapists. In this way, a feminist therapy started to come into being.

8. Emergence
The feminist psychology movement was a grassroots one, and therefore, no one particular theorist can be named as primarily responsible for its development.

9. Raison d'être
1. Traditionally accepted psychological theories and practices regarding mental health standards based on gender were harmful to women.

10. Raison d'être
2. Women were labeled of as mentally ill for political reasons (punishing women for not adhering to expected roles)  Women tended to be diagnosed as “mentally ill” when they didn’t conform to male stereotypes and protested the sexism of psychotherapy and psychotherapists

11. Raison d'être
3.The womanless state of psychology and its development (including women being shut out and women’s work being underreported), and
4. The desire to report women’s experiences from a woman’s perspective. 

12. Feminist Therapy
Examines sociological as well as psychological factors
Helps people understand the impact of gender roles and power differences in society
A. Sex: biological difference
B. Gender: socially determined thoughts, beliefs and attitudes about men and women

13. Theories of Personality
Hare-Mustin and Maracek(1973) - two biases in the approach to gender
Alpha bias - separating men and women into two categories - danger is in treating women as different and therefore inferior
Beta bias -  treating women and men as identical and ignoring real differences

14. Theory Development
Three distinct phases of development for feminist psychology have emerged, beginning in the 1970’s. 

15. Phase 1
The first phase was characterized by borrowing therapeutic techniques that fit into the feminist philosophy, with the goal to “empower all women by strengthening individual women.” 

16. Phase 2
The second phase is marked by the inclusion of feminism into more psychological theories where feminists attempted to keep the parts of psychological theories that were sensible and that worked, but tried to eliminate the sexist elements that were present

17. Phase 3
The final and ongoing phase consists of trying to develop a complete theory that explains the common experiences of women and their difficulties arising from living in a society where they are devalued.  Such a theory would also integrate the impact of social oppression based on ethnicity, race and culture.

18. Principles of Feminist Therapy
The personal is political
The counseling relationship is egalitarian
Women’s experiences are honored
Definitions of distress and "mental illness" are reformulated
There is an integrated analysis of oppression

19. Key Concepts of Feminist Therapy
Problems are viewed in a sociopolitical and cultural context
The client knows what is best for her life and is the expert on her own life

20. Key Concepts
Emphasis is on educating clients about the therapy process
Traditional ways of assessing psychological health are challenged
It is assumed that individual change will best occur through social change
Clients are encouraged to take social action

21. Developmental Issues

22. Childhood Preference for boy babies over girl babies
Pressure to learn gender stereotypes during elementary school years

23. Adolescence
Development of secondary sex characteristics can be very difficult for girls even more than boys
Breast development
Focus on thinness

24. Adolescence Females valued for appearance rather than achievement
Teen pregnancy issues
Encouragement of independence in boys and nurturance  and helplessness in girls

25. Adulthood Mothering Decisions about work and childcare
Women are more likely to be blamed for children's problems
Work
Women working outside the home often also do all or most of housework - “The Second Shift”

26. Midlife issues Menopause Devaluation of older women Violence
Rape, Incest, Domestic abuse
Child abuse

27. 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

28. Goals of Feminist Therapy
To become personally empowered
Symptom removal
Self-esteem
Quality of interpersonal relationships

29. Goals of Feminist Therapy
Body image and sensuality
Attention to diversity
Political awareness and social action

30. Four Philosophic Approaches to Feminist Therapy

31. 1. Liberal Feminism Focus
Helping individual women overcome the limits and constraints of their
socialization patterns
Major goals
Equality

32. 1. Liberal Feminism Personal empowerment of individual women Dignity
Self-fulfillment
Equality

33. Intervention Techniques using the Liberal Feminism Approach
Gender-role analysis and intervention
To help clients understand the impact of gender-role expectations in their lives
Provides clients with insight into the ways social issues affect their problems

34. Intervention Techniques using the Liberal Feminism Approach
Power analysis and power intervention
Emphasis on the power differences between men and women in society
Clients helped to recognize different kinds of power they possess and how they and others exercise power

35. Intervention Techniques using the Liberal Feminism Approach
Bibliotherapy- Reading assignments that address issues such as
A. Coping skills • Gender inequality
B. Gender-role stereotypes • Ways sexism is promoted

36. 2. Cultural Feminism Focus
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

37. 2. Cultural Feminism
So that society becomes more nurturing, cooperative, and relational
Major Goal
The infusion of society with values based on cooperation

38. Intervention Techniques using the Cultural Feminism Approach
Power differential • Society's obsession between women and men with thinness
Self-disclosure

39. Intervention Techniques using the Cultural Feminism Approach
To help equalize the therapeutic relationship and provide modeling for the client
Values, beliefs about society, and therapeutic interventions discussed

40. 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

41. 3. Radical Feminism Major goals Transform gender relationships
Transform societal institutions
Increase women’s sexual and procreative self-determination.

42. Intervention Techniques using the Radical Feminism Approach
Assertiveness training
Women become aware of their interpersonal rights transcends stereotypical sex roles
Changes negative beliefs
Implement changes in their daily lives
Reframing

43. Intervention Techniques using the Radical Feminism Approach
Changes the frame of reference for looking at an individual's behavior
Shifting from an intrapersonal to an interpersonal definition of a client’s problem

44. 4. Socialist Feminism Focus Goal of societal change
Emphasis on multiple oppressions
Believe solutions to society’s problems must include consideration of:
1. Class

45. 4. Socialist Feminism 2. Race 3. Other forms of discrimination
Major Goal
To transform social relationships and institutions

46. Intervention Techniques using the Socialist Feminism Approach
Relabeling
Changes the label or evaluation applied to the client's behavioral characteristics
Re-focusing- a shift from a negative to a positive evaluation

47. Three themes often come up in feminist therapy - anger, self-nurturance and autonomy.
1.Women often turn their anger inwards, and may need a good deal of encouragement to direct it where it really belongs.
2. Women are taught to nurture others, but may not be good at nurturing themselves

48. Con’t
3. Women are taught cooperation and find networking very easy, but may need a lot of help to see out through their own eyes and ask "what do I need myself"? This question tends to arouse much anxiety and even guilt, and a feminist approach is necessary if women are to feel that these reactions are unnecessary. Group support very often supplements individual therapy.

49. Sometimes certain stages can be recognized:
(1) Increasing self-awareness
(2) Acceptance of self-awareness
(3) Strengthening of self-acceptance

50. Con’t (4) Developing the power to act
(5) Recognizing societal restraints
(6) Accepting or combating societal restraints
(7) Acceptance of self and other women

51. Two Models of Therapy

52. Lenore E. A. Walker A
"A feminist Therapist Views The Case" from "Women as Therapists" ( Cantor, 1990), provides an overview of the guiding principles of feminist therapy, indicating that there are six tenets of feminist-therapy theory:

53. 1. Egalitarian Relationships:
1) Egalitarian relationships between clients and therapists serve as a model for women to take personal responsibility to develop egalitarian relationships with others instead of the more traditional passive, dependent female role.

54. Con’t
While it is excepted that the therapist knows more in terms of psychology, the client knows herself better. That knowledge is as critical as the therapist's skills in developing a successful therapeutic relationship.

55. 2. Power
Women are taught to gain and use power in relationships, and the possible consequences of their actions.

56. 3. Enhancement of women’s strengths
  So much of traditional therapy focused on a woman’s shortcomings and weaknesses that feminist therapists teach women to look for their own strengths and use them effectively. The feminist therapist focuses on the enhancement of women's strengths rather than remediation of their weaknesses.

57. 4. Non-pathology-oriented and non-victim blaming
  In this framework, the medical model is rejected and women’s problems are seen as coping mechanisms and viewed in their social context.

58. 5. Education
Women are taught to recognize their cognitions that are detrimental, and encouraged to educate themselves as to the plight of all women.

59. 6. Acceptance and Validation of Feelings
Feminist therapists value self-disclosure and attempt to remove the we-they barrier of traditional therapeutic relationships. Feminist therapists accept and validate their clients’ feelings.

60. Con’t
They are also more self-disclosing than other therapists thus removing the we-they barrier between  therapists and their clients. This limited reciprocity is a feminist goal that is believed to enhance the relationship.

61. Models of Therapy B
In A New Approach to Women and Therapy" (1983), Miriam Greenspan explores the impact of "traditional" and "growth" therapies on women as well as describes "feminist" therapy in action

62. Task 1
That the therapist's most essential tool is herself as a person.

63. Task 2
That it is essential therapy be demystified from the beginning in order for clients to achieve a sense of their own power in therapy. Therapy must be geared to helping the client see that she must be her own rescuer - that the power she longs for is not in someone else but in herself.

64. Task 3
That rules of the therapeutic relationship should be overtly stated and mutually agreed upon. The client and therapist explore their expectations of one another together and jointly come to an agreement of what each person's role and responsibilities will be.

65. Task 4
That within every symptom, no matter how painful or problematic, there exists a strength.

66. Issues
One of the main issues in feminist therapy is a woman's relation to work (a) doing well at a job does not have to be a masculine act and (b) the ability to make choices, and to sustain these choices.

67. Bibliography Feminist Psychology
Anderson, G. & Hill, M. (1997) eds. Children's Rights, Therapists' Responsibilities. Haworth Press, 1997.
Burman, E. (1997). Deconstructing Feminist Psychology. NY: Sage.
Burr, V. (1998). Gender and Social Psychology. NY: Routledge.
Wilkinson, S. & Kitzinger, C. (1993). eds. Heterosexuality: A Feminism and Psychology Reader. NY: Sage.