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Feminist Therapy

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Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology
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Introduction

Feminist therapy is a significant critical approach to therapy practice and theory. A synthesis of women’s consciousness and therapy which was developed to help distressed women and individuals and to expand traditional therapeutic practices to actively consider the effects of external factors such as sexism, power and control, and their sociopolitical reality. Feminist therapy includes (1) critical and careful questioning of assumptions that inform the therapeutic approach and the central ideas of personality, illness, and normative standards that fall under the rubric of mental health; (2) giving voice to the ways that major theorists and limited evidence are used to hegemonically define and dominate therapy’s meaning; (3) boldly engaging in self and client dialogue in ways that examine the sociohistorical, cultural-economic, and the gender-ethnic context brought into that conversation; and (4) confronting and countering the elements of power and dominance embedded in...

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Correspondence to Mary Ballou .

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Ballou, M., Sanchez, W. (2014). Feminist Therapy. In: Teo, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_530

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_530

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5582-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5583-7

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