DIFFERENT LENSES - VARIATIONS IN CLIENTS PERCEPTION OF FAMILY-THERAPYBY RACE AND GENDER

Race and gender have been given extensive theoretical and clinical att ention in family therapy in the last decade. However; little empirical work has focused on their effect on therapy. The present study examin es the effect of clients' race and therapists' race and gender on male and female partners' assessments of an initial and subsequent family/ marital therapy session. One hundred twenty-six individuals, comprisin g 63 heterosexual adult couples, evaluated both the first and the four th therapy session using the Session Evaluation Questionnaire (Stiles, 1980). Results indicated a strong effect for race, with black females rating initial sessions more negatively than white females when seein g a white therapist. Black men, however had a more positive response t han white men to the initial session, regardless of the race of the th erapist. Over time, these differences decreased. The results suggest n ot only that race and gender may contribute to differences in partners ' perceptions of the same session, but also that these differences are not static.