Does "feminist" plus "therapist" equal "feminist therapist"? An empirical investigation of the link between self-labeling and behaviors

This research examined the therapy behaviors self-identified feminist thera pists engaged in. Practicing therapists (N = 101) were asked to endorse var ious feminist self-labels and to indicate how often they engaged in a varie ty of feminist las assessed by the Feminist Therapy Behaviors-Revised [FTB- R] scale; and other therapy behaviors with both women and men clients. The following results were found. First, incrementally specific feminist self-l abeling by therapists improved the prediction of therapy behaviors reflecti ng the notion that the personal is political. Second, the most strongly ide ntified feminist therapists were distinguished from other therapists by the ir attention to issues of oppression (e.g., sexism, racism, heterosexism) a nd socialization. Third, therapists reported engaging in FTB-R behaviors wi th men clients almost as much as with women clients, And finally, FTB-R and other therapy behaviors emerged as distinct, both in terms of the underlyi ng structure of therapists' responses and in terms of the links to feminist self-labeling.