Feminist Therapy

Author(s): pat webbink

Source: Off Our Backs , november 1983, Vol. 13, No. 10, Latin American Feminists Meet
(november 1983), p. 19
Published by: off our backs, inc.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25794145

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 _struggle

side the counseling room, such as

IN SPITE OF IT ALL
getting a job. The goal of mental
hospital personnel should be one
of moving the clients or patients
(again, a regrettable label) into
functioning roles in society. I un
derstand that the psychiatric hospi
tal staff in Havana encourages pa
tients to leave the hospital on a
permanent basis. Various neighbor
hood groups in the city take in some
of the patients in order to help
them function again in society. The
goal, obviously, is to break the sick
and dependent patterns of the hospi
tal experience by beginning to incor
porate new and healthy attitudes and
behaviors--something I have done in
the past five years.
I feel as though I have won a
big battle, one that was extremely
difficult. It required strength,
courage, and the willingness to take
many risks. Very few people in this
society, whether so-called profes
sionals in the mental health field
or the general public, understand
this struggle. As a consequence,
this fight has been a lonely one.
It should not be.
by ruth reidy
tion of feminist therapy. We wished
to create a therapeutic process that
would address the special healing
needs of women in a patriarchal en
vironment. This was quite a chall
enge, considering we had no profes
sional models to follow.
Happily, feminist thinkers in
psychology began to publish criti
.ques of sexist psychological theory
and practice. Although our initial
reactions to such exposes made many
of us want to turn away totally from
traditional theory and practice,
others of us found embedded in the
sexism a few techniques which are
indeed helpful in psychotherapy with
women.
By 1973, what had been strange
to the professional community and
even odder to the public now had a
name--feminist therapy. People were
talking about it. We began receiving
requests from universities, women's
groups, clinics, and professional
conventions to give lectures and
workshops.
styles and stylists
Many feminist therapists empha behavior and may sometimes be more
sized the role that society played
in their clients' personal lives.
Some believed that political aware
about and questioning of conserva and music and centering--to me have
tive or traditional methods, 7) proved the most successful for enhanc
supporting the principles and prac ing positive change. Guided imagery a
tice of feminism in the local women's and music was developed by Helen Bonn
community, 8) being committed to and is much gentler, more loving
having therapy available to all wo and accepting than many other tech
men and thus open to a sliding fee niques. Centering is the culmina
schedule, 9) engaging in self-dis tion of my work in integrating
closure when appropriate and being different therapeutic methods. It
willing to give information that mobilizes a person's strengths and
will demystify the therapeutic proc helps one to overcome the negative,
ess. even destructive, things that can
A feminist approach also happen
views in life by means of a per
individuals as whole humanspective beings gained through the study
a complex of mind, body, and ofspirit.
nature and peaceful reflection.
An intellectual formulation that One stops emphasizing details and
does not connect with the person's is more aware of the overriding
body and feelings is not as challenges effec of life, death, and love.
tive as one that does. And therapy
that concentrates solely on the
pleasure and happiness of the client,
transcendence
without addressing political reality, Centering can be briefer and
is no more adequate than therapy far more direct than some of the
that offers only an abbreviated long-term
po therapies and may encour
litical analysis without emotional age a transcendence of some of the
support. client's concentration on past
While none of us can afford to traumas. Sometimes centering occurs
spend ten years masticating our un spontaneously during a period of
conscious, we do need to acknowledge
that the unconscious affects our
severe crisis, when one is forced
to mobilize inner strength in order
to survive. It may come with gaining
in control of us than our conscious a modified perspective on one's life,
minds. Beyond support and crisis as often happens when we are travel
ing, moving, or leaving home. Mere
intervention, good therapy requires

Feminist
ness was prerequisite to living in
a sexist world, and those who were
social change activists as well as
therapists practiced as a means of
a re-identification with the client's ly the thought of leaving the people
former, perhaps more helpless, self. and things that are vital to one's
existence can cause a centered state
Beyond patching up present problems,
good therapy reaches deeper to dis Relaxation is an important fo

Therapy
In the late 1960s and early
1970s, some of us in the therapeutic
community were strongly affected by
the Women's Liberation Movement.
The feminist insight that women's
personal problems were related to
political injustice placed our
theory and practice of therapy in a
new light. We saw that many of the
psychological theories we had ac
cepted about women merely reflected
the sexist biases of their creators
and obscured any clear vision of
women's potential.
The Women's Liberation Movement
provided an exciting injection of
new ideas, growth, and support to
many women therapists. We became
feminists as part of our own person
al development and began the evolu
financing their own political in cus in the centering process. By
volvement. These therapists would cover the roots of unwanted patterns
of behavior. The client can then mentally and psychologically slowing
try to involve their clients in down, the client becomes more aware
movement activities also. begin to feel integrated, without
rejecting or denying her past. of herself and those around her and
Some of the "radical" thera can balance her own needs with the
pists used a quick clue-'em-in-and needs of others. She can be asked
get-em'-out approach, as if a little not throwing out the baby to imagine what it's like to feel
consciousness-raising and woman-to centered and what it's like to be
woman support would cure all ills. In my own practice, I have used
techniques from bioenergetics, off-center. When she can take her
Feminist therapy, too new and self in and out of a centered state
varied to exist as an established Reichian and Gestalt therapies,
guided imagery and music, and even during a therapy session she can
method, was whatever the therapist then achieve centering whenever she
had to offer. And as it became fash the more intellectual approaches,
such as rational-emotive and cog needs to mobilize her strength and
ionable to be a feminist, people think clearly.
began calling themselves feminist nitive therapies, and some behavior
al and conservative psychoanalytic Other approaches to foster an
therapists who obviously did not have emotional and cognitive understand
strong political convictions. techniques. Although the conserva
tive approaches may not appeal to ing of the problems may precede
basics me professionally or personally,
they are sometimes safer and more
centering, which comes into play
when the former techniques have
Some basics to a feminist useful in treating clients for taken the client as far as they can.
approach to therapy, in my opinion, depression, phobia, or crisis. The more I work with the centering
are : 1 Respecting and valuing the These therapies are different process the more I am convinced of
client and her lifestyle and promot means of breaking through personal its importance for all of us--in our
ing a feeling of equality, 2) encourdefenses, either through the body work and in our daily lives.
aging independence and.empowerment or through the imagination. Each of Therapists take on a large
in the client, 3) refusing to prom them can be effective but they do responsibility. To rigidly follow
ise a quick cure, 4) helping the not reflect a feminist awareness; feminist ideals may at times be a
client to leave therapy feeling indeed, some of them are sexist and grave error. For example, although
stronger than before, 5) being re homophobic, reflecting the social the therapist's self-disclosure can
luctant to prescribe or recommend conditioning of the men who devel be helpful, it could create anxiety
drugs, 6) using a variety of innovaoped them. The trick for the femin and fear in a client who is confused
tive techniques while being informedist therapist is to take the best about personal boundaries. It is al

p
of what each has to offer and to
use it as a feminist--that is, to
be wary of using it in a way that
would promote a hierarchal, patriar
chal, or patronizing relationship
with the client.
Two approaches--guided imagery
ways important for a therapist to
weigh therapeutic options and con
sult someone else if her thinking
is clouded by her own emotional
needs. It is also important for
us as therapists to always be working
on our centering so that we have some
balance, peace, and love in our own

^ I _ A
lives and can share that with our
clients.
by pat webbink
Pat Webbink is a Bethesday Maryland
based feminist psychologist who works
in the Washington metropolitan area.
tvi _

! \ 10 (continued on page 23)

pff our/back-s/novembrer 1983/page 19

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