Feminist perspective is necessary for both women and men

I often hear from female clients: I want to feel competent and valued. This feeling of inadequacy and worthlessness is directly related to the culture and environment we live in. A woman who grows up in a social environment that makes her feel worthless and in a secondary position cannot establish a healthy relationship, and this distorted system is passed on to the next generations through children. I would like to tell you a little bit about feminist therapy in this post, in the hope that it will raise awareness on this issue.

Most of the clients who come for psychological counseling are women. In fact, most of the master level psychotherapy practitioners are women. Therefore, it is clear that there is a need for a theory stemming from women's thinking systems and experiences. Many therapeutic approaches, especially psychoanalysis, have been created by the Western white man.

Here, feminist therapists have challenged male assumptions about the characteristics of a mentally ill person and asked some important questions: Why are women diagnosed with depression more often than men? Can theories developed by white men from Western culture meet the needs of female clients in counseling? What about women of different races? Or that of women faced with suppression and devaluation?

The feminist perspective is important in that it offers a unique approach to understanding the roles that both women and men socialize to accept. Because, according to feminist therapy, to understand a person (whether male or female), it is necessary to consider the social and cultural factors that contribute to that person's problems. Feminist therapy does not have a single founder, it was created as a result of the joint efforts of many people. Names such as Jean Baker Miller, Carolyn Zerbe Enns, Olivia Espin and Laura Brown have made significant contributions to feminist therapy.

There are two basic concepts in feminist therapy. The first of these is the psychological pressure of women, and the other is the limitations created by the sociopolitical status they are demoted. Accordingly, the dominant culture supports the submissive and altruistic behavior of women. According to feminist therapy, counseling / psychotherapy is irresistibly culturally dependent. The beginning of the therapy is based on women's movements in the 1960s. This is a time when women raise their voices together to express their dissatisfaction with the limiting nature of traditional female roles. In the 1980s, efforts to define feminist therapy as an entity in itself are increasing, and individual therapy becomes the most common form of feminist therapy.

Feminist therapists emphasize that gender role expectations deeply affect a person's identity from birth and are deeply rooted in the adult personality. Gender politics, especially in western societies, cause us to see ourselves as boys and girls, women and men throughout our lives. Girls are typically cute, sensitive and well-behaved, while boys are strong, resilient and brave.

Principles of feminist psychology

Some feminist therapists put forward principles that underpin the practice of feminist therapy. These principles are interrelated and intertwined.

The individual is political.

The individual problems of the client have social and political roots. Identifying the external sources of problems usually brings with it anger, and anger can be transformed into the energy of action to make change happen. If the environment is an important pathological resource in the lives of women and men, individual change is possible and the harmful characteristics of the environment should be changed. The aim is to develop a different perspective of social organization that frees both women and men from the constraints imposed by gender role expectations.

Personal and social identity are linked.

The best understanding of clients is possible by understanding their sociocultural environment. Framing clients' problems in a cultural context leads to empowerment, which is only possible with social change. The main goal is to intervene in a way that will bring about change in our dysfunctional sociopolitical environment.

The concepts of stress and "mental health" have been reformulated.

Feminist therapy rejects the "illness model" of mental illness. Psychological stress is not an illness, but a form of communication about unfair systems. Suffering is not a deficiency or defect, but resistance and the ability and willingness to live.

The feminist therapist performs an analysis of suppression in an integrated way.

Feminist therapists point out that both women and men are affected by being brought up in a culture that gives different privileges to the genders. Men who learn that vulnerability is a weakness may have difficulty expressing their emotions both during and outside of the therapeutic relationship. Women who learn to give up on their own wishes to care for their family may find it difficult to describe and value their expectations from therapy. Feminist therapy opposes not only oppression of women, but any form of social oppression.

Psychological counseling process is based on the principle of equal relationship.

According to feminist therapy, clients are experts in themselves and their lives. Therapeutic relationship is a collaborative process in which clients are seen as active participants in redefining themselves. It is necessary to develop methods to share power with clients and solve the mystery of therapy because feminist therapists believe that all relationships must strive for equality, or even better, reciprocity (a true relationship between the client and the counselor).

Women's perspective is valuable.

Women's perspectives are extremely important in understanding the difficulties they face.

Feminist therapists have harshly criticized the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) classification system. Many feminist therapists today do not or reluctantly use diagnostic definitions. Because, according to them, using diagnostic definitions is severely limiting. They attribute the limitation of diagnosing to the following reasons:

Diagnostic definitions focus on the individual's symptoms, not the social factors that cause dysfunctional behavior.

-These definitions and classifications are largely a means of suppression as part of a system developed by white male psychiatrists.

-Especially personality disorders support gender role stereotypes and encourage compliance with status quo norms.

-Diagnostic descriptions may reflect the inappropriate use of power in the therapeutic relationship.

-Diagnosis leads to excessive emphasis on individual solutions rather than social change.

Diagnosing someone has the potential to reduce people's respect for that person.

For all these reasons, feminist therapy says that many symptoms are not evidence of pathology (disease, disorder), they are some kind of coping or survival strategy. Under every symptom, no matter how dysfunctional and challenging it may seem, there is an effort to survive. Diagnosing a dysfunctional living strategy with a "disease" not only labels the person but also seals the problem. It is getting harder to unravel something that has been sealed. Here, the non-diagnostic perspective of feminist therapy is very important for the well-being of both the individual and the society.