No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Rigazio-DiGilio, S.A., Anderson, S.A., & Kunkler, K.P. (1995). Gender-aware supervision in marriage and family counseling and therapy: How far have we actually come? Counselor Education and Supervision, 34, 344-355.
Abstract
Uses a systemic cognitive-developmental framework to critique integration of gender issues into marriage and family counseling and therapy (MFC/T) supervision. The MFC/T field constructs its gender perspectives by oscillating between system exploration (challenging the predominant frame) and system consolidation (verifying and disseminating concepts scientifically). To develop unified theories, MFC/T supervisors need to have collaborative dialogs promoting multiple conceptualizations and approaches to gender within alternative and expanded formulations of supervision which can be operationalized and investigated. A systems enhancement orientation will occur when integrative dialogs among subgroups with permeable boundaries promote integrative dialog generating multiple perspectives which enhance each subgroup's assumptions. This will lead to system transformation, entailing reexamination of basic assumptions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... Some researchers have explored the practices of evaluation and feedback in supervisory relationships (Chung et al. 2001), others explore the implicit bias of supervisors' delivery of services (Granello 2003). Additionally, the practices of how to integrate gender differences into counselor training have been explored (Hoffman 1996;Rigazio-DiGilio et al. 1995). A further look into gender differences in supervision, shows multiple domains in which gender is addressed, such as the propensity for male supervisees to express their opinions more than females (Granello 2003), how counseling programs implement gender issues into pedagogy (Hoffman 1996), and how supervisees' gender is correlated to supervisory feedback and influence strategies (Granello et al. 1997;Hindes and Andrews 2011). ...
... How gender is examined in empirical literature influences how the field trains practitioners to address what are identified as gender issues (Hindes and Andrews 2011). Rigazio-DiGilio et al. (1995) proposed a model for gender-aware supervision training. The model considered how supervisee observation, conceptualization and intervention are impacted by gender influences. ...
... A gender-aware paradigm is classified as a systemic exploration (emotional exchange of information without scientific verification) and a systemic consolidation (broader acceptance of information that can render the paradigm immobile in its development) impasse. Rigazio-DiGilio et al. (1995) further explained that development from the exploration stage required that the supervisor be willing to address his/her own biases regarding gender. It requires the supervisor to recognize the socialization processes that occur regarding gender within him/herself and their supervisee. ...
Gender differences are defined as biological differences between sexes; however, this review explores how perceived differences may be culturally reinforced gendered behavior that occur within supervision as opposed to actual biological differences among sexes. Additionally, literature supports that gender differences in supervision are minimal, reflecting more similarities between genders. In the present review, research on gender differences and clinical supervision are examined. Further, a brief overview of language theory is presented to explore how gender differences are defined in supervision and whether they actually exist.
... Supervisors need to continue to remain open to learning more and hearing disparate voices in the context of supervision (Aducci & Baptist, 2011;Rambo & Shilts, 2002). They must recognize that supervision models are as vulnerable to gender and ethnocentric biases as are the theoretical orientations upon which they are based (Banks, 2001; see also Rigazio-DiGilio & Anderson, 1995b). SCDS does focus on a nonpathological, developmental context that takes into account unique perspectives and contextual history, allowing for the examination of different perspectives (Rigazio-DiGilio, 2000). ...
... The influence of cultural and gender differences on supervision has been of interest to researchers and practitioners for some time (Bernard & Goodyear, 2004). For example, theorists have addressed and researchers continue to study the effect of ethnicity/race (e.g., Burkard et al., 2006;Constantine, 1997) and gender (e.g., Rigazio-DiGilio, Anderson, & Kunkler, 1995;Stevens-Smith, 1995) on clinical supervision. Relatively absent from this discussion of cultural influences in supervision, however, is a focus on lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) concerns (Bernard & Goodyear, 2004). ...
Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) supervisees were interviewed regarding their experiences of LGB affirmative and nonaffirmative supervision. Supervisees were asked to describe one of each type of event (i.e., affirmative, nonaffirmative) from their past supervision. In LGB-affirmative supervision, all supervisees felt supported in their LGB-affirmative work with clients. Supervisees perceived that the affirming events also positively affected the supervision relationship, client outcomes, and themselves as supervisees. In LGB nonaffirming supervision, supervisees perceived supervisors to be biased or oppressive toward supervisees’ clients or themselves on the basis of LGB concerns or identity. From supervisees’ perspectives, the nonaffirming events negatively affected the supervision relationship, client outcomes, and supervisees. Implications for research and supervision are discussed.
The author proposes that the articles highlighted in the first part of this special series provide a healthy representation of the types of work that need to occur in any field moving toward reconstructed views of theory, research, and practice. The field of counselor supervision is in a recursive process of knowledge development. That is, the field is simultaneously active in several phases of knowledge advancement including theory-exploration, theory-testing, theory-enhancement, and theory-transformation. This development will assist counselor supervisors to synthesize multiple perspectives and options so that they can better meet the challenges of an increasingly pluralistic society.
In spite of the fact that gender issues have played an important role in many family therapy training programs, little research has been developed to explore the effects of gender and gender biases in therapists’ conceptualizations of client problems. This study explores beginning and advanced marriage and family therapy (MFT) student’s inclusion of gender in the conceptualization of a clinical case. To examine clinician’s thinking, 32 therapists (18 beginning MFT students and 14 advanced MFT students) were asked to 1) view the first 20 minutes of an intake interview conducted by a sex therapist, and 2) identify the couple’s central issues. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were used to explore constructs associated with therapists considerations and inclusion of gender and cultural issues in their conceptualizations of marital difficulties. Results revealed that trained MFT students who considered gender may have analyzed gender issues more extensively than untrained MFT students. In addition, results of qualitative analysis of participant critiques revealed subtle forms of gender and cultural biases. Discussion focuses on how these biases, some of which are linked to clinical theory, can lead to differential expectations and inequality in the treatment of men and women in couple therapy. Implications for clinical training, curriculum development, and future research are also discussed.
This article addresses issues of supervision for counselors-in-training who are moving from individual practica to systemic family sessions. Transition issues are identified and addressed. Recommendations for training in such areas as cotherapy, team approach, and basic skills applications in systemic models are offered.
Argues that counselor educators have a responsibility to address gender issues and to find ways that encourage the exploration of these issues. Discusses professional standards and their bearing on gender, proposes models and strategies for incorporating gender issues, outlines a feminist training model, and explores Gender Aware Therapy as a training model. (RJM)
It is rare to address gender issues in counseling supervision and little research has been devoted to these. This review describes supervisor and supervisee gender expectations, role disparities, supervisory relationship differences, and variations in communication styles of males and females. Specific suggestions are offered to remove gender bias from the supervision process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Gender-related power differences have been observed in supervision (i.e., M. L. Nelson and E. L. Holloway, 1990). Empowering women involves attending to women's need for connection in interactions. An interactional model for encouraging connected power in supervision is presented. Specific topics discussed include women, power, and affiliation; the interpersonal circumplex; complementarity theory; empowerment from a developmental perspective; and 9 propositions based on the theory discussed which can be empirically tested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Audiotaped supervision sessions from 40 master's level counselor trainees and 40 field placement supervisors were used in a content analytic study of the relation of supervisor and trainee gender to supervisory discourse. The Penman Classification Scheme was used to rate the middle 15 min of supervision on power and involvement dimensions. Classification cells were aggregated to yield high-power, low-power, and high-involvement categories. Transformed proportional data and kappa scores from sequential analysis were used in 2 2 × 2 (Gender × Role) multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) to compare dyad types on speaker's use of message categories and patterns of discourse between speakers. Findings indicated that male and female supervisors reinforced female trainees' high-power messages with low-power, encouraging messages significantly less often than for male trainees. Female trainees responded to supervisor low-power, encouraging messages with high-power messages significantly less often than male trainees. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Discusses the role of the supervisor based on gender issues. Issues in supervision of practitioners with a feminist perspective are explored, as well as how supervisors can assist the practitioner who has managerial aspirations. The role of supervision in dealing with stress and gender is considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Effects of supervisor and supervisee theoretical orientation on supervisees' perceptions of supervisors' models, roles, and foci were studied, as were variables influencing quality of supervision and supervisee autonomy. 84 interns from 32 nationwide training sites were surveyed. Cognitive-behavioral supervisors were perceived to be in a consultant role and to focus on skills and strategies more than were humanistic, psychodynamic, and existential supervisors, who were perceived more as using the relationship model, playing the therapist role, and focusing on conceptualization. Supervisors were not perceived to differ in their use of growth and skill development models, teacher role, and focus on the supervisee. Women were perceived as more effective supervisors than were men. Perceived effectiveness was predicted by theoretical match and similarity. Supervisee autonomy was predicted by theoretical similarity, low supervisor adherence to theory, and unmatched gender. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two recent postmodern movements, constructivism and deconstruction, challenge the idea of a single meaning of reality and suggest that meanings result from social experience. We show how these postmodern approaches can be applied to the psychology of gender. Examining gender theories from a constructivist stand-point, we note that the primary meaning of gender in psychology has been difference. The exaggeration of differences, which we call alpha bias, can be seen in approaches that focus on the contrasting experiences of men and women. The minimizing of differences, beta bias, can be seen in approaches that stress the similarity or equality of men and women. From a deconstructivist position, we examine previously hidden meanings in the discourse of therapy that reveal cultural assumptions about gender relations. Paradoxes in contemporary constructions of gender impel us to go beyond these constructions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Family therapy, while highlighting the significance of family functioning for individual experience and behavior, has in general failed to respond to the critical analyses of the family that have recently been developed, and particularly that offered by the women's movement. Consequently, it cannot investigate the possibility that “dysfunction” in families is actually socially created and maintained. Family therapy's failure to consider the broader contexts of family functioning, a failure that is facilitated by the use of systems theory as its major theoretical underpinning, results in an uncritical acceptance of the contemporary family form.
The supervision and training of women requires thinking and planning about how to address issues women bring to the training process as a result of sex-role typing. Dependent behavior and attitudes are interactional problems that need to be overcome in a training process that leads to competency and creativity for therapists. Strategic supervision can benefit women by increasing their self-reliance, sense of personal authority, and competence.
This paper discusses the social constructions of gender and the problematic effects of these constructions-masculine/feminie-on intimate attachments. It summarizes the aspect of feminist scholarship which revised the traditional developmental paradigm to include a psychology of women and cites recent infant research which re-describes development as a process of increasingly complex forms of relatedness rather than as a progression from attachment to separation. The authors are influenced by the school of feminist revisionism which argues on behalf of the integration of male and female attributes in each person. Two clinical techniques are suggested-“gender questions” and the “gender mantra”-which identify the contradictions inherent in the social construction of gender and encourage alternative constructions that more adequately represent men's and women's actual psychological experience.
Feminism has had a profound effect on contemporary culture and on thinking in most academic fields, including psychoanalysis. Interestingly, until very recently it had made virtually no impact on the theory and practice of family therapy. This paper proposes an explanation for this peculiar phenomenon and argues that family therapy has been considerably handicapped by its insularity from the feminist critique.
Utilizing feminist scholarship in psychoanalysis, history, and sociology, the paper analyzes the structural contradictions in family life that family therapists have essentially ignored and then outlines their clinical implications. Key points in the discussion include the argument that systems theory is an inadequate explanatory matrix from which to build a theory of the family, that the archetypal “family case” of the overinvolved mother and peripheral father is best understood, not as a clinical problem, but as the product of a historical process two hundred years in the making, and that power relations between men and women in families function in terms of paradoxical, incongruous hierarchies that reflect the complex interpenetration between the structure of family relations and the world of work. This conceptual model then provides the basis for an analysis and critique of sexual politics as they emerge in the prototypical clinical situation.
It is suggested that, in theory and practice, family systems approaches to wife battering contain biases against women. Following a selective review of family systems literature on wife battering, systemic formulations of husband-to-wife violence are critically examined. Possible contraindications of conjoint therapy with battered women and abusive men are discussed.
A methodology for assessing the therapeutic behavior of trainees is described, and results of a pilot study are presented. Findings suggest that female therapists are likely at the outset to be less confident, directive, and interpretive and more inclined to conform to stereotypic feminine traits of passivity, warmth, and nurturance; males displayed no such clear pattern, and used both active and passive styles in therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
Effects of supervisor and supervisee theoretical orientation on supervisees' perceptions of supervisors' models, roles, and foci were studied, as were variables influencing quality of supervision and supervisee autonomy. Interns (N = 84) from 32 nationwide training sites were surveyed. Cognitive-behavioral supervisors were perceived to be in a consultant role and to focus on skills and strategies more than were humanistic, psychodynamic, and existential supervisors, who were perceived more as using the relationship model, playing the therapist role, and focusing on conceptualization. Supervisors were not perceived to differ in their use of growth and skill development models, teacher role, and focus on the supervisee. Women were perceived as more effective supervisors than were men. Perceived effectiveness was predicted by theoretical match and similarity. Supervisee autonomy was predicted by theoretical similarity, low supervisor adherence to theory, and unmatched gender.
Scitation is the online home of leading journals and conference proceedings from AIP Publishing and AIP Member Societies
This comprehensive book, ideal as a basic text in family therapy and women's studies, addresses the question of how women experience family life from a variety of perspectives. It covers gender issues in family therapy theory, practice, and training; women in context (ethnicity and life cycle issues, marriage, motherhood, sisterhood, women alone, lesbian couples), and such special issues as work, addiction, and mental illness.
The aim of systemic, integrative ftrameworks is to empower therapists to draw across mariage andfamily therapy models to select the most appropriate treatment strategies for any family. The therapy model presented here provides an organizing set of dimensions and strategies for the continuous assessment offamily functioning throughout the therapeutic process. 7hese assessment data are used to assist in the coconstruction of developmentally appropriate, culturally sensitive treatment plans that guide the selection of interventions from different marimage and family therapy perspectives.
This paper reports on the development and psychometric properties of an instrument for identifying feminist family therapy skills. Family therapy sessions of 60 therapists in a variety of settings were rated using the Feminist Family Therapist Behavior Checklist. The checklist was found to discriminate between self-reported feminists and nonfem-inists, between men and women, and between expert categorizations of feminist and nonfeminist therapy sessions. Additional validity and reliability data are reported. Potential uses of this checklist are discussed for clinicians, educators and researchers.
This article reports on the results of a national survey of AAMFT Approved Supervisors. The respondents (N=550) answered questions regarding areas of concentration during supervision, specific techniques employed, professional goals and priorities, and theoretical models used in supervision. Results are compared with a previous survey conducted in 1976 (Everett, 1980). Although audiotapes of trainees' sessions were the most frequently utilized method of supervision, the most effective method was thought to be live supervision with immediate feedback. The most frequently used theoretical models were structural, strategic, and communications/humanistic; and the most frequent concentrations of supervision were focused on identifying family structures, interrupting attempted solutions, and alleviating the presenting problem.
Despite the fact that many systems theorists strive to pay primary attention to the rules of an individual's context, the family literature tends to examine family dysfunction as if it unfolds in isolation from the broader patriarchal system in which the family is embedded. Viewed from this perspective, the author argues that Family Systems Theory is not contextual enough, and that much can be gained from beginning to seriously explore the circular interrelatedness of patriachal society and the functioning of particular families.
Within the past decade, the field of marriage and family therapy has mushroomed. As a new and emerging professional specialization, marriage and family therapy is subject to control struggles as well as the proliferation of training modalities. This monograph, written for counselor education faculty, students, and family therapists, provides literature on select areas of marriage and family therapy (i.e., systems issues; training and supervision; and alternative family lifestyles) as they pertain to counselor education. The section on systems issues explores four aspects of program implementation: curricula and program development; accreditation requirements for the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) and the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT); integration of marriage and family therapy into counselor education; and gender issues of family systems therapists. The section on training and supervision focuses on clinical training in family psychology and supervision from four perspectives: collegial process; a review of current practice; supervisee's perspective on live supervision; and the reflections of a supervisor. The alternative family lifestyles section addresses the training of divorce counselors and single parent family counseling. A list of references follows each article. (BL)
A shift has been occuring in the supervision literature from problem-oriented and school-specific approaches, to developmental perspectives. While valuable work has been accomplished, we need to move toward linking developmental theory more directly to the supervisory process and toward conceptualizations of learning that transcend universal, stage-specifc notions of development. The cognitive-developmental model proposed here represents a holistic, coconstructive approach that clarifies developmental processes as these occur in the immediacy of supervision. It is based on the assumption that supervisee growth is an idiosyncratic journey toward cognitive complexity. This paper will define the model and present specific methods to access and assess supervisee cognitive styles and to tailor supervisee environment to enhance and extend these styles.
Argues that mental health counselors (MHCs) working within an ecosystemic context need a cogent theory of human and systemic development to guide assessment and treatment planning. Developmental counseling and therapy (DCT) and systemic cognitive-developmental therapy (SCDT) represent integrative models that unify individual, family, and network treatment within a co-constructive-developmental framework. DCT and SCDT theory and practice are described and illustrated. According to DCT and SCDT, individual and family development occur within a social and cultural environment. The MHC must consider the wider life space of the individual or family seeking assistance. DCT and SCDT strategies are based on the assertion that the therapeutic environment must adapt to clients in a way that promotes horizontal and vertical development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
this chapter is a comprehensive critical analysis of the family-therapy training and supervision literature / considers these developments to arrive at a contemporary assessment of family-therapy training and supervision (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In their new book, Cal D. Stoltenberg and Ursula Delworth present a comprehensive guide to supervising counselors and therapists in training. The method they offer is based on four levels of development through which entry-level counselors become seasoned professionals. Stoltenberg and Delworth draw on extensive research and experience to (1) explain the needs and characteristics of trainees at each level; (2) outline procedures for assessing trainees in eight areas of growth, including interpersonal skills, treatment goals, and client evaluation; and (3) recommend how and when supervisors may intervene to help trainees handle sessions with clients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In feminist literature "voice" is a metaphor for self-definition (E. Ellsworth, 1989). The care voice expresses concerns about loving and being loved (L. M. Brown and C. Gilligan, 1990). The justice voice reflects a vision of equality, reciprocity, and fairness between persons (Brown and Gilligan, 1990). The authors discuss how supervisors of therapists can improve their understanding of gender-related communication problems and preferences by listening for the voices of care and justice in counseling supervision. A supervisory interaction between a female practicum student and a male supervisor is presented to illustrate how the voices of care and justice can conflict in counseling supervision. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Argues that, in their claim that the differential use of the voices of care and justice is gender related, D. Twohey and J. Volker (see record
1993-35169-001) do not offer empirical support for this relationship. Bernstein suggests that an alternative explanation of the supervisory impasse has to do with coping styles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
20 female and 36 male supervisors from 7 counseling center training programs rated the utility of responses reflecting each of 3 power bases (referent, expert, and legitimate) in enhancing the professional development of a female trainee. Results indicate that men preferred the referent power base more than women did, and Ss with little experience preferred the referent power base more than more experienced Ss. Ss who focused on trainee self-awareness preferred the expert power base more than Ss who focused on trainees' conceptualization skills. No significant differences were found in preferences for the legitimate power base. Results are discussed in terms of differences between counseling and supervisory relationships and the characteristics of each power base. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This ground-breaking book offers an accessible and practical presentation of a new model for both teaching and conducting therapy. It is the first book to translate developmental theory into therapy practice: Ivey shows how to use the cognitive-developmental psychological concepts promulgated by Erikson, Piaget, and others (including Jay Haley and John Bowlby) in day-to-day counseling sessions, with step-by-step action plans for directly relating developmental theory to clinical and counseling practice, integrating cross cultural ideas into the model as well. Focusing on a model of health rather than pathology, Ivey encourages readers to relate their own personal experiences to the reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This paper reports on a 10-year replication of Everett's (1980) survey of Approved Supervisors of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT). Significant differences were found between today's supervisors and supervision, including an increase in female supervisors, a shift toward a systemic theoretical orientation, greater concentration of supervisors in formal training settings, a great increase in the use of video recordings, a decline in the popularity of personal psychotherapy as part of training, a greater inclination of supervisors to identify themselves as Marital and Family Therapists (MFTs) regardless of original education, and others. The Approved Supervisor system appears to be fulfilling AAMFT organizational goals; other results will be reported elsewhere.
Many authors on the subject of marriage and family therapy supervision point to the fact that the quality of relationship between supervisor and supervisee is crucial to the process. However, little has been written about the nature of this relationship. This article identifies key elements in the relationship and introduces a theoretical framework for understanding those elements based on the principles of ethical relationships proposed by Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy and Nell Noddings.
Family therapy's neglect of social context as a factor in its continuing distortion of women's issues has led feminist critics to wonder if systems-based psychotherapy truly serves women. Rather than heralding the demise of family therapy, however, the feminist critique is here taken to open up concerns central to the epistemological discussion underway in the field. At first, these have to do with the functions of “punctuation,”“boundary” and “closure” in systemic epistemology. Later, the central question becomes that of the place given to context in systems epistemology generally, as well as family therapy in particular. Several implications of a more lively interest in context for family therapy's work are explored. These are discussed with respect to women's issues, clinical epistemology, and the challenge to raise novel questions in family therapy.
This study compared the questionnaire responses of 71 faculty and 231 students from 12 university and 10 institute, AAMFT-accredited and non-accredited family therapy training programs. The findings about the preferred type of training program, criteria for program selection, expected student experiences, program policies and interprogram cooperation suggested key differences between universities and institutes as well as important similarities. Non-accredited institutes emerged ashaving significant value differences from other programs in the study. The results also highlighted some of the major issues critical to the continued development of family therapy training.
Whereas family therapists have become increasingly aware of gender as a central organizing principle in how we think about families, few methods have been presented to help trainees and clinicians articulate how to adress gender. Four experiential exercises (including gender survival messages, gender framed circular questions, and process observation sheets) that can be used in training and adapted for use with clients are described. What we have learned about gender from our families of origin, the larger culture, and in the construction of family therapy models can be examined with these activities.
This paper examines the political processes inherent in Functional Family Therapy (FFT). It argues that this model of family therapy takes a covert political stance which reinforces traditional gender roles in both family and therapist. Of particular interest are FFT's affirmation of existing interpersonal functions in the family, as well as suggested therapist use of self. The implications of this stance are discussed, as well as recommendations for change.
A major critical issue in marriage and family therapy today is the professionalization of the discipline. Thus the focus on training individuals for a career in marriage and family therapy necessitates the revisitation of the debate over personal growth versus skill development. The trend toward training the person of the therapist, however, would suggest that the field is moving toward the integration of self awareness and skill in the therapeutic system. With the popularization of training the person of the therapist comes other issues, challenges, and dilemmas for the field, including the crucial issue of training gender and culturally sensitive therapists. The potential for creating dual relationships when training the person of the therapist is both a dilemma and a challenge.
While gender has taken its place as a fundamental construct in family therapy theory, little has been written about gender in family therapy supervision. This paper attempts to redefine gender as it pertains to families, family therapy, and family therapy supervision; call attention to aspects of gender as they apply to training in family therapy and family therapy supervision; and suggest ways that family therapy supervisors can sensitize themselves to issues of gender so that they can be more effective in supervision.
This article reviews literature related to family therapy supervision which appeared in major journals between 1980 and August, 1985. The authors conclude that the level of theoretical inquiry and research regarding family therapy supervision has not kept pace with broader developments in theory and practice in the field. A selected review of clinical supervision literature from allied disciplines is included to provide an impetus for the family therapy field.
The categories provided by the language of our culture give us a meaning-making framework that guides our perception of the world. This paper views the process of categorizing people from a constructivist perspective. It argues that many categories such as race, nationality, homosexuality, and gender are arbitrary social constructions created to fill some human purpose based on sociopolitical rather than biological or natural considerations. Similarity among people may arise from a history of being in the same category rather than being the basis for categorization. Whereas people are attached to categories that shape their identity and unite with other persons from similar categories to fight for their rights, they should also envisage the possibility of revising these arbitrary categories.
Although family therapy recognizes the importance of the social context as a determiner of behavior, family therapists have not examined the consequences of traditional socialization practices that primarily disadvantage women. The unquestioned reinforcement of stereotyped sex roles takes place in much of family therapy. A feminist therapy orientation that considers the consequences of stereotyped sex roles and the statuses prescribed by society for females and males should be part of family therapy practice. This paper describes the ways in which family therapists who are aware of their own biases and those of the family can change sexist patterns through applying feminist principles to such areas as the contract, shifting tasks in the family, communication, generational boundaries, relabeling deviance, modeling, and therapeutic alliances.
A survey of the role of gender in family therapy training programs was conducted by the Women's Task Force of the American Family Therapy Association (AFTA) in order to determine the extent to which gender issues were included in the curriculum. Questionnaires were sent to 285 programs in the U.S., Canada, and overseas. Only 19% (n = 55) of the original sample participated, with the East Coast representing the largest proportion of respondents. Findings revealed that the three most frequently addressed gender issues are: 1) the impact of cultural and economic conditions on single, female-headed families; 2) gender issues associated with wife abuse; and 3) an examination of the implications of the therapist's gender in therapy interventions. Only 27 programs identify with a feminist model or have a clearly defined sense of gender awareness. A significant finding associated with the introduction of feminist content was the difficulty of integrating gender issues with major theoretical models. Trainee resistance and lack of faculty awareness were also considered obstacles to including gender in program curriculum.
Social networks as the unit of tntervention Family therapy: Theory and practice (pp. 220-232) Teaching an integrated model of family therapy: Women as students. women as supervisors Women. feminism and family therapy (pp. 175-192) The politics of functional family therapy: A feminist critique
- C Attneave
- M Ault-Rtche
Attneave, C. (1976). Social networks as the unit of tntervention. In P. J. Guerin [Ed.), Family therapy: Theory and practice (pp. 220-232). New York: Gardner Press. Ault-Rtche, M. (1988). Teaching an integrated model of family therapy: Women as students. women as supervisors. In L. Bravennan (Ed.). Women. feminism and family therapy (pp. 175-192). New York: Haworth. Avis. J. M. (1985). The politics of functional family therapy: A feminist critique. JoumalofMarital and Family 1herapy. 11. 127-138.
Women's ways of knowing: 1he development ofself, voice. and mind Fundamentals ofclinical supervision. Needham Heights Promoting gender equity in counselor supervision: Challenges and opportunities. Counselor Education and Supervision
- M F Belenky
- bullet
- B M Clinchy
- N @bullet Goldberger
- bullet
- J M Tarule
Belenky. M. F.@BULLET Clinchy, B. M.@BULLET Goldberger. N.@BULLET & Tarule, J. M. (1986). Women's ways of knowing: 1he development ofself, voice. and mind. New York: Basic Books. Bernard. J.. & Goodyear. R. (1992). Fundamentals ofclinical supervision. Needham Heights. MA: Allyn & Bacon. Bernstein. B. L. (1993). Promoting gender equity in counselor supervision: Challenges and opportunities. Counselor Education and Supervision. 32. 198-202.
The meaning ofdifference: Gender theory, postmodernlsm, and psychology
- Counselor Education
- Supervision
- R T Junemustin
COUNSELOR EDUCATION AND SUPERVISiON / JUNE 1995 / VOL. 34 Hare-Mustin, R. T. (1988). The meaning ofdifference: Gender theory, postmodernlsm, and psychology. American Psyclwlogist, 43, 455-464.
Developmental therapy: Theory into practice
- A Ivey
Ivey, A. (1986). Developmental therapy: Theory into practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.