Explore the obstacles and challenges involved in bringing feminist values and techniques into mainstream therapy Feminist therapy has been challenging mainstream therapy thinking and practice for the past thirty years. The Foundation and Future of Feminist Therapy is the first book to provide a summary and compilation of that history. It describes the work of the major contributors, early and recent, and gives a terrific overview of the rich and radical development of feminist therapy from a variety of perspectives. The Foundation and Future of Feminist Therapy honors the work of women such as Laura Brown, Iris Fodor, Miriam Greenspan, Hannah Lerman, and Lenore Walker, who developed, and who continue to develop, feminist therapy theory and practice. This book breaks new ground by envisioning a feminist-informed future in the areas of therapy practice, the education of therapists, and community. It also provides an unflinching look at the challenges and threats to developing that future and offers suggestions for action. The Foundation and Future of Feminist Therapy includes the work of past and present contributors to feminist theory on topics such as: the complex intertwining of gender and other oppressions the impact of race and ethnicity the effects of sexual orientation, age, class, disability, and refugee and immigrant status discussions about violence against women feminist theory from a wide range of perspectives, from relational-cultural to multicultural theory perspectives on trauma the discussions at a conference that imagined a future informed by feminist principles and much more! For those interested in feminist therapy theory, The Foundation and Future of Feminist Therapy is an excellent starting point, and many references are provided for readers who want to pursue specific topics further. This book will interest practicing therapists at all levels, including psychologists, counselors, and social workers. It is also appropriate as a textbook for women's studies, psychology of women, counseling, psychology, and social work classes.

Explore the obstacles and challenges involved in bringing feminist values and techniques into mainstream therapy Feminist therapy has been challenging mainstream therapy thinking and practice for the past thirty years. The Foundation and Future of Feminist Therapy is the first book to provide a summary and compilation of that history. It describes the work of the major contributors, early and recent, and gives a terrific overview of the rich and radical development of feminist therapy from a variety of perspectives. The Foundation and Future of Feminist Therapy honors the work of women such as Laura Brown, Iris Fodor, Miriam Greenspan, Hannah Lerman, and Lenore Walker, who developed, and who continue to develop, feminist therapy theory and practice. This book breaks new ground by envisioning a feminist-informed future in the areas of therapy practice, the education of therapists, and community. It also provides an unflinching look at the challenges and threats to developing that future and offers suggestions for action. The Foundation and Future of Feminist Therapy includes the work of past and present contributors to feminist theory on topics such as: the complex intertwining of gender and other oppressions the impact of race and ethnicity the effects of sexual orientation, age, class, disability, and refugee and immigrant status discussions about violence against women feminist theory from a wide range of perspectives, from relational-cultural to multicultural theory perspectives on trauma the discussions at a conference that imagined a future informed by feminist principles and much more! For those interested in feminist therapy theory, The Foundation and Future of Feminist Therapy is an excellent starting point, and many references are provided for readers who want to pursue specific topics further. This book will interest practicing therapists at all levels, including psychologists, counselors, and social workers. It is also appropriate as a textbook for women's studies, psychology of women, counseling, psychology, and social work classes.

This book examines a variety of psychological intervention strategies used in counseling and therapy to bring about change. It is a handbook of strategies which reviews major forms of interventions, reviews research evidence of effectiveness, and challenges existing theoretical boundaries. In contrast to existing handbooks, Ballou offers interventions identified by their goal of change, rather than by a particular theoretical orientation or the kind of difficulty the client is undergoing. Each chapter describes a strategy, presents clear instruction for its use, and considers appropriate and inappropriate uses for the strategy. Each chapter also addresses the research evidence underlying claims of effectiveness. Edited by an academic and practitioner of counseling psychology, the book seeks to address the needs of both professionals in the field and students and scholars in the academic community.

This volume, synthesizing over 20 years of feminist thinking, presents original critiques of mainstream psychological theories and lays the groundwork for the development of a context-based, feminist psychological theory. Reappraising personality theories, Part I of the volume examines the limitations that underlie traditional views of human nature as well as the consequences of not taking into account the effects of contextual and structural forces upon human development. The initial chapters utilize feminist analyses of gender, context, and structure to assess the adequacy of the metaphysic in traditional personality theories' assumptions. Following chapters examine the impact and limits of empiricism as the dominant model of knowledge generation within cognitive-behavioral theories; identify Jung's biases, which are integral to his use of rationalism as an epistemic method; and demonstrate the class and culture biases implicit in personality theories. In essence, the limits and dangers of single-use epistemological approaches are illuminated, and fundamental considerations--What is reality and by whom is it defined?--are posed. Part II focuses on traditional views of psychopathology, and provides feminist critiques of its models and conceptualizations. These chapters address current mainstream models of several large categories of psychopathology--depression, schizophrenia, agoraphobia, personality disorders, and trauma--and present feminist revisions for differently understanding these sets of observed behaviors. Eschewing the notion that psychopathology simply constitutes inner distress, chapters argue that in some cases certain forms of distress may be highly adaptive means of coping with intolerable situations and, in fact, may be appropriate responses to external reality. A common theme demonstrated in these chapters is that by describing distress as a highly individualized phenomenon, and ignoring the context and complexity of these entities, mainstream models are overly narrow in focus. Questioning the very foundations of our ideas about psychopathology, the authors argue for building new models that define distress in a more complex, contextual manner.