Feminist therapy

Domain III · Humanistic, existential & experiential · 1970

What it is

Feminist therapy is a philosophy and framework for practice, not a single manualised therapy. It started in the early 1970s within the women's movement. Its roots were consciousness-raising groups and critiques of sexist diagnosis, such as Chesler's Women and Madness (1972). It has no single…

Format

• Session count and format. None is prescribed. Feminist therapy runs as brief, focused work or as long-term therapy. Formats include individual, group (support, skills or consciousness-raising groups), couple and family work. Phases overlap. Gender and power analysis keep returning whenever new…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Version followed: the core feminist-therapy technique set (gender-role analysis, power analysis, social identity analysis, demystification and egalitarian consent, reframing and relabeling, self-disclosure, assertiveness training, bibliotherapy, group work, social action). These techniques appear in Empowerment Feminist Therapy (Worell & Remer, 2003, 2nd ed.), in Evans, Kincade & Seem (2011) and in Brown (2018, 2nd…
• What it is. Feminist therapy is a philosophy and framework for practice, not a single manualised therapy. It started in the early 1970s within the women's movement. Its roots were consciousness-raising groups and critiques of sexist diagnosis, such as Chesler's Women and Madness (1972). It has no single founder and no official treatment manual. Practitioners bring their own techniques, from CBT, psychodynamic,…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Assuming that being a woman or a feminist makes you free of bias.
• Relabeling serious harm-to-others behaviour away. Relabeling is not excusing.
• Referral as a way of getting rid of her. Services that are not culturally or LGBTQ+ safe.
• Ignoring real adversity or real risk for the sake of positivity, which APA Guideline 1 cautions against.
• Challenging accurate perceptions of injustice as "cognitive distortions". This is a key feminist critique.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.