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Clinical Practice, Counseling, and Feminist Therapy 259

childhood experiences of sexual abuse (Thompson, 1995). As
Thompson points out, gender is implicated in a multiplicity
of ways in women’s eating problems.
Clinical researchers and practitioners have a unique van-
tage point for examining the corrosive effects of intimate
violence—wife beating, coercive sexual relations, sexual
abuse—on women and girls (Walker, 1999). Violence against
women is a concrete manifestation of the unequal power
relations between men and women, as well as a crucial mech-
anism of social control. Feminist theorists have probed the
intricate connections between love, attachment, and violence
and examined the cultural imperatives of masculinity and
femininity (Goldner, 1999; McLean, Carey, & White, 1996).
They also have offered accounts of the multiple ways that
women experience, interpret, and react to male violence in
their lives (Haaken, 1998; Lamb, 1996, 1999). Feminist ther-
apists have pioneered treatment programs for women who
have experienced negative effects of intimate violence, sex-
ual abuse, and rape; for couples seeking to break patterns of
violence in their relationships; and for abusive men and boys
(e.g., Courtois, 1996; Goldner, Penn, Sheinberg, & Walker,
1990; Herman, 1992).
Many problems that heterosexual couples bring to treat-
ment involve power disparities (Hare-Mustin, 1991). Power
disparities include the lopsided distribution of household and
family work and leisure time and the implicit privileging of
men’s points of view, needs, and interests. There is a long
line of feminist research concerning women’s domestic
arrangements and depression, agoraphobia, and other clinical
disorders (e.g., Radloff, 1975). From a feminist perspective,
family life is embedded within the larger society, not a pri-
vate domain set apart from it. Thus, feminists who are family
therapists have called attention to problems within families
resulting from such societal factors as women’s diminished
earning power, the simultaneous idealization and blaming of
mothers, the lack of facilities and support for caring for chil-
dren or for frail or sick family members, and the stigma faced
by families without men, such as female-headed households
and lesbian families (Goodrich, 1991).

Diversity and Cultural Difference

Gender is not the only axis of social hierarchy. To be a woman
may involve subordination, but all women are not subordi-
nated equally or in the same way. Racism, ethnic prejudice,
heterosexism, and homophobia affect clients’ experiences and
contribute to the problems that bring them to therapy. Feminist
researchers have begun to compile a knowledge base that en-
compasses the diversity of women’s experiences across cul-
tural and class backgrounds (e.g., Chin, 2000; Comas-Diaz,

1987; Espín, 1997; Greene, White, Whitten, & Jackson,

2000). The goal of this work is not to describe the psychology

(let alone, the psychopathology) of “the” Hispanic woman,

“the” African American teenager, or “the” lesbian. Rather it is

to comprehend the experiences of women with varying rela-

tions to privilege in society (Hurtado, 1989): the problems

they bring to therapy, the strengths and resources available to

them, and the barriers confronting them.

Valuing Women’s Ways of Being

InToward a New Psychology of Women,Jean Baker Miller

(1976) addressed women’s experiences of subordination in

the intimate setting of marriage and family life. Although

her observations were limited mainly to white, middle-class,

heterosexual women, she argued that women in general

were endowed with special capacities for intuition, empathy,

and relatedness, as well as a propensity for nurturing and

caring for others. Miller celebrated these universal feminine

characteristics as “closer to psychological essentials” and

“therefore, the bases of a more advanced form of living”

(p. 27). Subsequently, others put forward a variety of related

claims about women’s experience and personality. The

prime example is a model of women’s development origi-

nally called the self-in-relation model and now named the

relational/cultural model (Jordan, Kaplan, Miller, Stiver, &

Surrey, 1991). The model holds that childhood experiences,

particularly mother–daughter interactions, give rise to a

uniquely feminine psychology, one that is sustained by

and seeks out emotional connections. Although some schol-

ars have raised doubts about the model (Marecek, 2001;

Westkott, 1989), the self-in-relation model has been a popu-

lar framework for many feminist-identified therapists and

counselors.

Collaboration and Power Sharing in Therapy

Attention to the power relations between therapists and

clients has been a distinctive feature of feminist therapy.

Feminist therapists were among the first to disseminate mate-

rials to clients and potential clients informing them about the

nature of therapy, how to go about selecting a therapist, and

their rights as consumers. Feminist therapists have experi-

mented with a variety of other ways to put the therapy

relationship on a more equal footing. One is the practice of

self-disclosure, for example, the disclosure that the therapist

has struggled with issues akin to those the client faces. Other

disclosures may show clients that their therapists are ordinary

and fallible human beings. There are both ethical and theo-

retical considerations that govern the use of self-disclosure;