Feminist Therapy Theory and Practice : A Contemporary Perspective

The original ""Handbook of Feminist Therapy"" was published over 20 years ago, in 1985. Feminist therapy was in its youth. Since then, feminist therapy has evolved its understanding of oppression to include attention to race and ethnicity, class, disability, age, and the many other dimensions of politicized difference. Gender and sexual orientation are no longer assumed to be binary. From a primary focus on the misuse of sex as a weapon, the theory and practice of feminist therapy has become more sex-positive in general.This book shows exactly how feminist therapy has transformed itself to become remarkably richer, more complex and nuanced than it was twenty years ago. The volume is organized in a way that brings the reader through a complete overview of thinking in feminist therapy and is divided into five sections that examine: the context of feminist therapy in today's society, including allied schools of thought that share feminist therapy's tenets and the consequences of corporate ownership of therapy; the person who comes to therapy and the tension between recognizing the specific concerns and struggles of particular groups while also holding the specificity of the individual; psychotherapy through a feminist lens; how ethics and activism set feminist therapy apart from other approaches; and, the interplay between these elements and how they affect the therapists' execution of treatment.Each of these sections consists of two paired chapters, one looking at theory and the other describing the application of that theory, complete with case studies to offer the reader some variety in clients, contexts, and difficulties.