MAKING THERAPY FEMINIST - A PRACTICE SURVEY

The authors wished to gather information about the ways in which exper ienced feminist therapists are integrating the principles of feminist therapy into their practice. Two areas of interest were examined: the application of specific therapy techniques and the ongoing background dialogue of therapy, A survey asking two open-ended questions regardin g these areas was mailed to members of the Feminist Therapy Institute. Responses were organized into categories based on feminist therapy pr inciples for which there was consensus in the literature and as descri bed in the Feminist Therapy Code of Ethics. Results showed strong supp ort for a variety of ways on which feminist therapists enact these pri nciples, with particular attention given by respondents to power in th e structure and relationship of therapy. Respondents also described cr eative ways in which they had modified cognitive-behavioral, hypnosis, and other therapy techniques in order to make them more compatible wi th feminist principles.