Feminist family therapy: a client based description

Abstract

Family therapy is a relatively new field in the world of individual and group mental health services. Within the discipline, there are subgroups or evolving disciplines that have even more innovation; feminist family therapy is one of them. This section will focus on the historical roots and theoretical dimensions of feminism. This background is part of the context where feminist family therapy finds its roots. "Modern feminism, born of Enlightenment ideals of democracy and energized by American Reconstructionist passion, has existed in the United States since the 1850's" (Leupenitz, 1989, p. 4). Much of the current American feminist movement is based in the political changes that occurred in the 1960's and 1970's. Feminist theory can be described as distinctly about the world of women. Humm (1990) states, "Unique to feminist theory is its insistence on the inextricable link between theory and practice and between public and private [life]" (p. x). Feminism is a praxis theory. It is a theory that does not develop or exist only in the realm of ideas, discussion and debate. Beyond thinking, feminism is about practice and action. Another hallmark of feminist theory is its roots in the experience of women. Humm (1990) continues that feminist theory will always be the topography of voices, anchored in the lives and experience of individual women. Because of the nature of the theory, it has developed an indigenously-produced tradition of some sophistication.