Feminist therapy: A qualitative examination of the practitioner's perspective

This study was undertaken to investigate feminist therapeutic practice from the practitioner's perspective. The initial goals of this study were to explore practitioner perspectives on feminism and power and their impact upon feminist practice. Additionally, the researcher sought to discover how practitioners found congruence between their feminist-informed values and therapeutic practice and if, in the course of practicing as a feminist, ethical dilemmas arose. Based on a sample of eight women who identified themselves as feminist practitioners, the researcher used semi-structured open-ended interviews to investigate the participants' beliefs, values and perspectives on clinical practice. From the application of a generic qualitative analysis to the interview transcripts, five themes, twenty categories, and eighty-six sub-categories emerged. The five major themes reflected perspectives on feminism, power, feminist therapeutic practice, congruence between feminist-informed beliefs/values and therapeutic practice and ethical dilemmas. When offered, participants' strategies and/or suggestions for working through ethical dilemmas were recorded and have been presented where applicable.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Social Work (MSW)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Social Work

Year dc:date

1995

Author dc:creator

• Scott de Jong, Kathleen Marianne

Contributors dc:contributor

• Martha Keniston Laurence
• Nick Coady
• Richard Walsh-Bowers

• Clinical and Medical Social Work
• Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
• Mental and Social Health

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/141

OAI record oai:identifier

https://scholars.wlu.ca/do/oai/?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_etdms&identifier=oai%3Ascholars.wlu.ca%3Aetd-1140