Читать книгу Counseling the Contemporary Woman - Suzanne Degges-White - Страница 27

With the focus that feminist clinicians place on individuals and the client’s unique needs, it is likely not a surprise that there is not a standard catalog of techniques and interventions from which a feminist therapist draws a treatment plan. In fact, it is the relationship between therapist and client that is likely the most predictable aspect of feminist therapy. According to Brown (2018), the feminist therapist engages with the client in an egalitarian and liberatory relationship. While the structure of the practice of counseling is one in which the helper holds a different type of power than the client, it is essential for the client to be accorded the relevant power that is due. The client’s expert stance on her own experiences and life is valued, as is the clinical expertise of the therapist. This creates a robust working alliance in which the client feels heard, understood, and validated.

The client’s voice, way of knowing, and individual experiences are consciously valued and privileged by the therapist rather than privileging only the voice of those who deliver the therapy (Brown, 2018). Feminist practitioners also enter each new alliance with a willingness to explore and reexplore her own biases as she works with her clients. Brown (2018) noted the potential presence of aversive biases held by the therapist. These are the kind of biases that are seldom acknowledged or owned due to the self-criticism or shame that they may bring up for the counselor herself. An example would be a lesbian therapist who carries a bias against bisexual clients of which she, herself, is still unaware. She may acknowledge challenges she feels in relating to a female client who identifies as bisexual, but she may not appreciate the covert depth of her own bias unless she takes time to self-assess and evaluate her own feelings. Aversive biases may be the product of our own cultural upbringings or beliefs that we have accepted or developed independently. Feminist therapists must be able to openly explore their own privilege and covert attitudes in order to engage in an egalitarian and liberatory relationship with their clients.

In addition to the self-exploration that the therapist is doing outside her practice, she is also likely to incorporate self-disclosure into her work with clients (Brown, 2018). This willingness to be open, authentic, and vulnerable in the therapeutic relationship is another hallmark of feminist practice. Brown also noted that self-disclosure is not always explicit but can be accomplished through less obvious, but equally transparent, means. Therapists also bear in mind the power that they hold in having choice in what they disclose in contrast with the lack of power that clients have in terms of expected disclosure. Self-disclosure, as a technique, sets the stage for the work of therapy to be conducted.

Within the feminist paradigm, it is possible for creative clinicians to shape many interventions to fit within the feminist paradigm. Following are additional techniques that are frequently used within this framework.