Theory and Practice
FEMINIST THEORY
This is from a workshop by Judith Myers Avis. There are 18 principles to Feminist theory that describe the therapist's role in helping the client.
1. Therapy is recognized as a political, non-neutral process in which the therapist cannot avoid expressing and acting on her own values and beliefs.
2. Women and their problems are understood in sociocultural context, with gender socialization, power inequities, patriarchal rules, and limited options and resources seen as primarily responsible for the development and maintenance of difficulties in women's lives.
3. Symptoms are recognized as a healthy indication that something in the woman's life is unhealthy for her. They are also seen as a healthy side-effect of the role tranisition and change.
4. Women's important reproductive, nurturing and physical work in families, and in society, is recognized and valued.
5. Emphasis is placed on reducing hierarchy in the therapeutic relationship so as to avoid reenacting the cultural hierarchies which have robbed women of their power. To this end, the therapeutic process is demystified and contracts are used to establish the rules and goals of therapy.
6. Diagnostic tests and labels are avoided since they tend to be biased against women, increase the power and "expertise" of the therapist, and decrease the power and authority of the client.
7. A nonpathologizing approach emphasizes the client's strengths and avoids the interpretations of "resistance".
8. The women client is viewed as competent and as the best expert and authority on herself. The therapist does not assume or communicate that she is an expert on the client's life.
9. Women's experience, perceptions and ideas are validated.
10. The client is assumed to be responsible for her own life and for making choices for herself. Therapy focuses on helping her to claim her personal power and to acquire whatever information and new perspectives she may need in order to make informed choices.
11. It is assumed that since women are usually socialized to focus on others' needs rather than their own, they are often totally out of touch both with their own needs and with their knowledge of themselves. One of the first goals of therapy, then, is to help a woman develop a relationship with herself and begin to listen to and articulate her own needs.
12. Women are helped to examine the connection between the personal and the political and to understand their problems inthe context of their socialization and position as women. Gender role analysis is used to help women become aware of and evaluate the costs and benefits of their socialized beliefs, attitudes and behaviours.
13. The therapist uses self disclosure to emphasize the commonality of women's experience, to model self-validation, and to decrease hierarchy.
14. A woman's anger is acknowledged, affirmed and mobilized and is seen as a positive force in her life and in therapy. It is also recognized as an important and natural aspect of developing awareness of one's own oppression.
15. A client is helped to distinguish between that for which she is not responsible and that for which, as an adult, she must take responsibility.
16. Skill building may be used to enable women to learn skills which their socialization has prevented; for example, assertiveness, self defence, sexual self stimulation.
17. Emphasis is placed on supporting and facilitating women's relationships with other women. Groups are often used to break down women's isolation, develop connections and trust with other women, enable a shared helping process, and dilute the power of the therapist.
18. The therapist recognizes herself as a wounded healer and ensures that she attends to her own needs and takes responsibility for doing her own healing work.
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