Issues of Diversity, Essay Example

Keeling (2007) presents a feminist analysis of some of the challenges that face a female therapist working with heterosexual couples using feminist-informed therapy. Feminist-informed therapy utilizes considerations of gender and power, attempting to recognize and highlight the challenges for a female therapist in engaging with male clients. In particular, Keeling explains, a significant pitfall here is that the therapist may end up enabling or contributing to male gender privilege in the couple’s relationship (pp. 43-45). It is necessary for the therapist to enter into a therapeutic alliance with male and female clients both, but from the perspective of feminist therapy they must do so in a way that does not take the form of accommodating male gender privilege. This line, the author explains, can be particularly difficult for female therapists to find with male clients. For one thing, men tend to be more difficult than women to engage in therapy. For another, women therapists may often find themselves replicating gender-stereotypical patterns in their attempts to reach their male clients, which may cross the line into accommodation. Still another challenge is that women therapists often have a harder time being taken seriously by male clients (pp. 43-46).

I agree that while the therapist can and should attempt to engage male clients by relating to them, connecting with them, this must not cross the line. Therapists need to be mindful of their own thinking on issues of gender and power, and they need to be quick to recognize power differentials (Keeling, 2007, pp. 49-53). Therapists must also take care to not establish a split alliance, allying with either the same-gendered or opposite-gendered partner: I thought this was an especially important example of avoiding bias in this article, and I didn’t notice any bias overall. I believe that addressing power differentials and gender privilege in relationships can help clients to see how those patterns of behavior are harmful to their partners. Thus, such an awareness can readily enhance my work with couples and families.

References

Keeling, M.L. (2007). A female therapist’s dilemma: Alliance versus accommodation in feminist-informed couple therapy. Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, 19(4), pp. 43-70.