Sharanya Vairam

Counselling Practice and Feminist Perspectives Introduction In order to understand the impact and implications of feminist perspectives on counselling practice, the paper shall first explore feminist ideology and practice. After this, the paper would explore the influence of this ideology on counselling practice. The various ways and areas in which feminism has influenced counselling shall be discussed. The positives and the limitations of this perspective shall also be covered. Understanding Feminism Feminism is an ideology as well as a political movement against the oppression of women on the basis of gender as well as sexuality, class, race, colour and so on (Kramarae & Treichler, 1985). It is a struggle to break down power structures and societal value systems that construct and perpetuate stereotypes, prejudices, misogyny, sexism and inequity to oppress women. Breaking down these power structures and oppression will bring about equity and justice for all genders and people of all races, classes, castes, colours and sexualities. It will free men from the shackles of societal values systems that require them to act and live in certain ways. Feminism holds that patriarchy (loosely defined as the rule of the father) is the ‘main enemy’ (Delphy, 1980) and is the main reason for the perpetuation of hierarchy and prejudices between people. It is at the core of the power structure and works in a way to ensure everyone gets some privileges and power, even the oppressed, in order to ensure the continuation of the system. Feminist Critique of Psychology Quoting Naomi Weisstein (1993, p.197), “Psychology has nothing to say about what women are really like, what they need and what they want, essentially, because psychology does not know.” Feminists have pointed out that like most disciplines, psychology too is androcentric. The founding fathers and proponents of psychology have been predominantly male ranging from Freud to Jung. The researches and theories by them has been focussed on issues typically associated with men such as aggression, violence, appreciation, etc. and women were assessed using this male standard. Therefore, the voice is predominantly male and the approaches and knowledge base of traditional psychology has an androcentric bias, which has resulted in reality being represented through a male narrative (Worell, 2000, p.185). This has led to women’s voice, perspectives and realities being underrepresented or excluded. Researches by feminists in the area of mental health have pointed out the double standards prevalent in therapy and counselling due to this androcentric bias and sexism (Worell, 2000, p.186). Gender stereotypes are heavily biased against women and treat them as anomalies of men. This has led to normalising and naturalising women’s subordination and oppression (Enns, 2000, p.608). For example, men are seen as being strong, independent, aggressive and lacking emotions while women are seen as being weak, submissive, caring and emotional. So, most therapy or counselling would focus on making women adapt the qualities of men and get rid of their ‘inherent’ deficiencies to succeed in their lives and careers. In other words, becoming more like a man or being normative would provide them with greater opportunities, help get rid of their troubles, and thereby, live a happy and fulfilling life. Therefore, the most important contribution/impact of feminist perspectives on counselling and psychology has been to expand the knowledge base of the discipline by conducting research on women and the impact of patriarchal and power structures their lives and their mental health. This inclusion of women’s voice has led to the development of the discipline. Areas which were previously overlooked were included and innovative approaches have been identified and developed to address issues faced by women. Feminist counselling has made great inroads into the areas of family, care, inter-personal violence, body image issues, sexuality and sexual intimacy, career, multiple role issues, etc. among others. Influence of Feminism on Counselling Feminists engaging in counselling and therapy have worked a great deal to get rid of sexism from counselling. Overtime, the discipline has become even more diverse and inclusive since it has also started to acknowledge and address intersectional biases caused by the intersection of different forms of oppression like gender, class, sexuality, race, ability, appearance, ethnicity and so on. This is because feminism has also embraced intersectionality overtime. This has provided visibility to women who were voiceless and has brought to the fore women’s problems that were invisiblised and normalised earlier. Counselling has come to accept that disenfranchised groups have a greater probability of mental health problems owing to the psychological distress caused by the incumbent powerlessness, marginalisation of their voices and obstacles that come with their disenfranchisement. (“Feminist Therapy”, Anon) Another way in which feminism has influenced counselling over the years has been by changing the questions asked and the resultant hypotheses framed for conducting research (Worell, 2000, p.189). Asking new questions and changing the voice of the existing questions has contributed to the wealth of knowledge for the discipline since unknown and obscure experiences and ways of life came to the fore. For example, take domestic violence: from the traditional questions of ‘what did she do to deserve the beating from her husband?’ or ‘why does she just not leave him if she has a problem with the violence?’, there has been a shift to ‘why do men engage in wife beating and/or verbal and mental abuse of their spouse?’ and ‘what are the barriers faced by the wife in leaving?’. This has enabled a shift from focusing on internal pathology of women (she must be enjoying it or she is masochist) as a reason for staying in abusive relationships to looking at external factors that keep women in these relationships such as lack of alternatives, lack of resources, fear and lack of safe spaces. Feminist psychologists have held that a problem which remain hidden and unexplored until it is named or renamed (Worell, 2000, p.189). For example, sexual harassment and sexual assault have been prevalent from times immemorial but have not been explored and documented till recently. The feminist movement has illuminated this area and has led to extensive research, framing of laws for prevention/ punishment, educating people about it and providing mental health services to victim-survivors. Earlier, women would place the onus on themselves to prevent sexual harassment and blame self if they faced it. Counselling and proper education can help them from facing long-term mental health issues. Feminism, mainly radical feminism, is rooted in the principle of ‘personal is political’, i.e., women’s personal lives and personal distress are not only the result of personal and internal conditions and problems but is informed by and deeply entrenched in the overall political, social, economic and legal structures that work to oppress and disenfranchise women (Tong, 2013). While traditional psychology engaged in research to purely understand human behaviour, feminist psychologists have actively utilised psychological research and counselling practice for social activism and advocacy for marginalised people and communities. This has positively affected areas such as abortion rights, marital rape, body image, maintenance after divorce, queer parenting, women’s reproductive and sexual health, overall health and well-being of women, sexual harassment in the workplace, etc. and thereby, influenced mainstream psychology to include advocacy and activism in its practice. Therefore, consciousness-raising among clients about their situation in the context of the external structures became essential part of feminist counselling practice. (Enns 1993: 39). For this purpose, group therapy was used. These consciousness-raising groups were organised in the form of support groups where in women/ clients could freely discuss their lives, lived experiences and find similarities in their oppression and marginalised position in society. These provided safe spaces for women facing various issues ranging from domestic violence, incest, sexual abuse, eating disorders, etc. and space could be used by clients to test if their counsellor’s suggestions work for them or any others. Feminist therapy and counselling adopts a person-centric approach and places the treatment within the social, cultural and political context (“Feminist Therapy”, Anon). The main goal of counselling is to empower the client, enable them to address their problems, build a strong sense of self and create an identity for oneself. Agency of the client is central and the client is seen as the only expert in her life matters (Bondi & Burman, 2001, p.18). The role of the therapist should only be to guide, mentor and enable them in this process of selfidentification and empowerment. Feminism has questioned the power imbalances present in the therapeutic process between the client and counsellor (Worell, 2000, p.190). It has been pointed out that power imbalances and abuse of power that women and oppressed groups face in their lives may make them sensitive to using and negotiating power in other spaces. Traditional counselling psychology looked at the client as a patient and objectified them. The therapy would include standard assessments, diagnosis and treatment plan drawn up by the counsellor. The counsellor would use diagnostic labels which meant counsellors would look at only the intrapsychic problems and symptoms, and not the context. For example, victim-survivors of domestic violence may be given direct or indirect pressure to stay or leave the relationship with the abusive spouse based on the outcome that the counsellor thinks is best for the client. In some cases, the counsellor will diagnose the victim-survivor with masochistic personality and will get her to work on getting rid of this behaviour. The issue being pathologized, she may even be prescribed anti-depressants for anxiety and depression and steps taken for ‘correcting’ her behaviour (Seeley & Plunkett, 2002). Some studies have also found that in such cases, violence and the violent behaviour of the spouse is not addressed. If therapy is planned in such a way, the safety of the victim-survivor may be compromised and the entire process may become detrimental to the mental well-being of the client. This led to the distressed person feeling powerless during and after the therapy (Seeley & Plunkett, 2002). Feminist counselling therefore, has focussed on in-depth understanding of the context of the client without judgement, labelling and victim-blaming; validating the experiences and feelings of clients and focus less on diagnosis and doing away with the symptoms. Influenced by feminist perspectives, egalitarian relationship is maintained between the counsellor and client, and objectification of the client is reduced/ avoided in mainstream counselling. Power is negotiated in the counselling process through informed consent, confidentiality is maintained, rights, responsibilities and goals are stated in counselling contracts, and alternatives to counselling are discussed (Enns, 2000, 162). This facilitates balance of power and ensures autonomy and agency of the client. This also helps in gaining the confidence of the client in the process, and enable rapport building and disclosure. As per the Division 17 Principles concerning the Counselling/ Psychotherapy of Women of the American Psychological Association in 1979, the counsellors should be cognizant of the power differentials in language as well as nonverbal communication like body language, expressions, etc. and use non-sexist language as well as reassuring non-verbal communication. This promotes greater sensitivity and is helps the client in trust building and disclosure. Boundary management between the client and counsellor is also stressed upon in feminist counselling. Touch is essentially complex issue when it comes to non-verbal communication. Touch is used for reassurance, comfort, reinforcing verbal messages, reducing anxiety, etc. in counselling. However, some clients may not be comfortable with touch, at least initially, since touch may be associated with sexualised behaviour and invasion of personal boundaries in general. This could especially be the case with victim-survivors of child sexual abuse, adult abuse, etc. ((Enns, 2000, 163) In traditional counselling, counsellors tend to maintain a distance from the clients. But feminist counselling uses self-disclosure of the counsellor as a tool in the process with discretion and where required. This helps in better understanding, trust and rapport between the counsellor and client. The counsellor’s account of surviving similar issues and their lived experiences may be motivating to the client and validates their experiences. Boundary management becomes essential here too, in order to maintain strong objectivity in the therapy process. Yet another issue in boundary management is sexual misconduct by the counsellor. This has been substantially documented in the counselling worldwide especially in traditional therapy wherein the counsellor increases dependency and sexually exploits the client to fulfil one’s desire which permeates from a sense of male entitlement. (Enns, 2000, pp.163-165) One of other major ways in which feminist perspectives have influenced counselling practice is through necessitating self-reflexivity on the part of the counsellors. This means that the counsellors must be conscious of and continuously reflect upon their actions, processes and therapy plan to ensure they are sensitive, the focus is on strengthening the client and that they are not perpetrating stereotypes or engaging in normalisation or naturalisation of oppression. This will help the therapy to refocus and re-plan therapy. Conclusion The influences of feminist perspectives on counselling practice has enabled many positive changes in therapy. While keeping the positive aspects of traditional counselling, feminist counselling has enabled the removal stereotypes and sexist attitudes from the approaches, processes and methods. Feminist counselling has helped in removing androcentric bias in traditional counselling. It has opened up new areas of research which were earlier unexplored and in developing the knowledge base of the discipline. References “Feminist Therapy” URL= Bondi, L. and Burman, E., 2001. Women and mental health: A feminist review. Feminist Review, 68(1), pp.6-33. Delphy, C., 1980. The main enemy. Feminist Issues, 1(1), pp.23-40. Enns, C.Z., 2000. Gender issues in counseling. Handbook of counseling psychology, 3, pp.601-638. Enns, C.Z., 1993. Twenty years of feminist counseling and therapy: From naming biases to implementing multifaceted practice. The Counseling Psychologist, 21(1), pp.3-87. 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