A Feminist Approach to Family Therapy

Abstract

Although family therapy recognizes the importance of the social context as a determiner of behavior, family therapists have not examined the consequences of traditional socialization practices that primarily disadvantage women. The unquestioned reinforcement of stereotyped sex roles takes place in much of family therapy. A feminist therapy orientation that considers the consequences of stereotyped sex roles and the statuses prescribed by society for females and males should be part of family therapy practice. This paper describes the ways in which family therapists who are aware of their own biases and those of the family can change sexist patterns through applying feminist principles to such areas as the contract, shifting tasks in the family, communication, generational boundaries, relabeling deviance, modeling, and therapeutic alliances.

Engaging men in family therapy: does the gender of the therapist make a difference?

“…Both Goldner (1985) and Hare-Mustin (1978), in their early critiques of family therapy, pointed out that the therapist often sees the man in the family as less competent than the woman in negotiating the therapeutic relationship. The man's relative helplessness in this situation is often compensated for by the implicit yet powerful message of 'if I am not protected here, I'm not coming back' (Goldner, 1985: 40).…”

An Exploration of Feminist Family Therapists' Resistance to and Collusion with Oppression

“…stated that feminist theorizing proliferated in the late 1980s when Marianne Walters, Betty Carter, Peggy Papp, and Olga Silverstein formed The Women's Project. These pioneers are credited with elevating gender after Hare-Mustin (1978) first "broke the silence" of gender-based power injustices by acknowledging that social context shaped behavior and that systems of power were further disadvantaging women .…”

Loose ends

“…The degree to which family therapists tend to think of the shift towards a more collaborative stance as a constructivist development may be the same to which the field is not quite willing to recognize the vigorous impact of feminism's critique of cybernetics (e.g. Bograd, 1984;Hare-Mustin, 1978).…”