Feminist family therapy

Domain V · Systemic, relational, group & community · Hare-Mustin, Marianne Walters, Betty Carter · 1977 · Philadelphia, USA

What it is

Feminist family therapy is a perspective applied to systemic family and couple therapy, not a separate school with its own phases. It puts gender and power at the centre of assessment, intervention and training, alongside whatever systemic method the therapist already uses (structural, strategic,…

Format

• No phase model is published in the sources. Hare-Mustin (1978) gives a set of intervention areas, not stages. Walters taught that therapy is "how you think" rather than a set of steps. The sequence below is my own arrangement of Hare-Mustin's components, offered so a clinician can start using the…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• What it is. Feminist family therapy is a perspective applied to systemic family and couple therapy, not a separate school with its own phases. It puts gender and power at the centre of assessment, intervention and training, alongside whatever systemic method the therapist already uses (structural, strategic, Bowenian, narrative). It began in the late 1970s as a critique of mainstream family therapy. Hare-Mustin's…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• 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

• Defensiveness. Working: you catch biases before they shape interventions.
• Jargon. Working: family members can explain the approach in their own words.
• Idealisation of the therapist. Working: clients take the initiative rather than deferring to you.
• Your own discomfort moving into advocacy. Working: concrete resources are obtained and stress drops.
• The female partner translating for him; don't let her do it. Working: he names feelings without prompting.

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.