*Note* This scheduling program was not designed by folks who do a lot with APA Style and unfortunately it defaults to listing authors in alphabetical order. We cannot fix this for this online schedule, but the author orders are posted in the order submitted in the printed program available via pdf here.
Feminist and multicultural perspectives in training and supervision can serve women of color graduate students in their professional identity development and promote their success in graduate programs. Presenters will facilitate a collaborative discussion with participants around approaches that can improve the training experiences of women of color while also strengthening systemic commitment to cultural competency.
Feminist multicultural therapists assert that contextual factors, such as oppression and discrimination, contribute to psychological distress, limit access to resources and information, and isolate individuals from sustaining communities (e.g., Brown, 2010). They suggest that participation in social justice activism contributes to psychological wellbeing, such as increased empowerment, social connectedness, and resilience (e.g., Arczynski, 2014; Worell & Remer, 2003). Activism is also a way people may nurture and care for themselves as well as others in their community(s) while reducing oppression, harassment, and marginalization. Hagen (2013) demonstrated that individuals with diverse circumstances, with varied social identities, and from various social contexts may prefer different types of social justice activism. Further, the different activisms people reported preferring and engaging in held different socio-cultural-political meaning and relevance based on their beliefs, values, and experiences of oppression and privilege (Hagen, 2013). The purpose of this structured discussion is to cultivate participants’ empowerment to create positive social change in their varied communities. We will encourage a broad conceptualization of activism in order to include behaviors and strategies on micro, meso/community, and macro levels. We will give attention and sensitivity to different socio-cultural perspectives on oppression, power, and privilege. First, we focus on discussing specific concerns and experiences of oppression and marginalization relevant to participants’ communities (e.g., home, work, churches, families, friend networks). Then, we anticipate dialoguing about specific social justice activisms that participants presently engage in or have interest in doing in order to target oppression observed in participants’ local and national communities. Last, we will encourage participants to brainstorm strategies for collaborating with other people to increase social support; challenge discrimination, and increase access to opportunities, information, and resources. In this structured discussion, we will address challenges and benefits associated with engaging in activism.
The purpose of this structured discussion is to address the issue of sexual exploitation and trafficking among young women in the Bay Area, and explore potential ideas for creating opportunities for healing, restorative justice, and social change that meet this population’s unique needs. “Every day of the year, thousands of America’s children are coerced into performing sex for hire. Some of these children are brutally beaten and raped into submission. Others are literally stolen off the streets, then isolated, drugged, and starved until they become “willing” participants” (California Child Welfare Council (CCWC), 2013, p.5). The presenter will discuss her experience working with these young women and the therapeutic benefits she has observed when incorporating art therapy with the feminist approach and survivor-informed practices to facilitate empowerment and healthy expression. According to Riley (1990), art therapy is helpful with adolescents because the problem becomes externalized within the art image, which shows that the problem is the problem and not the client (p. 249). This discussion will focus on the systems of oppression related to the victims and survivors of sex trafficking in response to race, gender, age, socio-economic status, and psychological resources. Victims whom are forced into captivity and continually abused after previously being abused, induce more harm and trauma to the body, mind, and soul (Herman, 1997, p. 18). Many of them return back to the streets because specialized services are not in place and majority of victims do not have supportive families to return to (CCW, 2013). Participants will explore ideas of community-based interventions and incorporating art as part of the healing process. The goal of this structured discussion is to collaborate with women in the field of psychology and explore therapeutic practices that will aid this unique population in restorative justice, healing, and community change.
During the past few decades, criminal justice policies have led to a dramatic increase in women behind bars (Willmott & van Olphen, 2005). Many women enter prison from a position of disadvantage and marginalization (Corston, 2007) due to past trauma, disempowerment, and poverty. Incarcerated women need mental health care which takes into account these interconnected environmental factors (Moloney & Moller, 2009). Instead, they often receive programming based on gender-based stereotypes (Chesney-Lind, 2003; Morash, Haarr, & Rucker, 1994) or on an adapted version of programming developed for men. Feminist therapy offers a way of helping incarcerated women deal with both past and current issues that are tailored to women. In addition, incarcerated men may also benefit from services grounded in a feminist model. Based on feminist tenets such as resistance, diversity, mutuality, and empowerment, it takes into account the unique needs of individuals in a social and political context (Marcus-Mendoza, 2004). Although feminist therapy can help incarcerated persons live and grow in a healthy manner, it can be difficult for professionals and graduate students alike to practice feminist therapy in correctional settings and to negotiate conflicts between the theory and the correctional system. Faculty, students, and alumni from Wright State University School of Professional Psychology propose hosting a structured discussion to explore the use of feminist therapy with incarcerated persons and how we can help psychology trainees to work from this model. We invite the audience to participate in our discussion about how we can better assist trainees to use feminist therapy within this setting by exploring the following challenges: educating corrections staff of effectiveness of feminist therapy; developing egalitarian therapeutic relationships; examining and resisting harmful social structures; advocating for gender-specific and/or trauma informed programming; exploring biases that impact clinical work; and advising students through the graduate training process (e.g., internship).
Depth psychological theories, which honor the reality of the unconscious, often hold the reputation of an individualistic psychology, one in which the external realities of oppression may be overlooked in favor of one’s inner landscape (Altman, 2004; Layton, 2009; Watkins, 2000) This dialogue endeavors to challenge the binaried reputation and highlight the unique position a depth perspective holds; one of psyche in the world, where dreams and images co-mingle with the distinctive external realities of daily living particular to each person. Feminist psychological theories provide a framework for encountering privilege, marginalization, and the socially constructed differences that make up the world we share (Butler, 1990). By fostering a dialogue in which the tension between self and other is deconstructed we will enable a subsequent exploration of intersectionality as a point of convergence and elaboration for feminist depth practices. Through the exploration of historical to present day activism within depth psychological practices participants will discover ways in which social justice was an integral component of the early approaches to psychoanalysis and played a formative role in the shaping of psychological theories such as Freudian, Jungian, and Adlerian as well as contributed to contemporary theories within humanistic and feminist theoretical approaches (Layton, 2000; Watkins, 2000). Additionally, a critical exploration of the ways in which depth psychologists have turned away from the realities of injustice in favor of the sanctified consulting room will be addressed. This relevant critique will serve to foster intentionality and the valuing of differences by creating community that is meaningful and edifying for all beings. The dialogue will culminate in a collaborative envisioning of the ways in which depth psychologists can engage more deeply in tending to the healing of both the individual patient as well as this dynamic shared world. References Altman, N. (2004). History repeat itself in transference: Countertransference. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 14(6). Butler , J. (1990), Gender trouble, feminist theory, and psychoanalytic discourse. In: Feminism/Postmodernism, (Ed.). L. J. Nicholson. New York, London: Routledge, pp. 324-340. Layton, L. (2000). Identity, and sexuality: Discourses of fragmentation. In Rudnytsky, P.,Gordon, A. Psychoanalyses/Feminisms. New York, NY: State University of New York Press. Layton, L. (2009). Who’s responsible? Our mutual implication in each other’s suffering. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 19:105–120. doi:10.1080/10481880902779695. Watkins, M. (2000). Depth psychology and the liberation of being. In R. Brooke (Ed.), Pathways into the Jungian World: Phenomenology and Analytical Psychology. London: Routledge.
For over 100 years, from Freud’s couch to the 1960’s, gender related inequality was the norm both inside and outside the therapists’ office. Though disparities are present in various forms today, we owe a debt to the feminist therapy pioneers of the 1970’s who through radical action, moved the mental health establishment, from within and without, to consider women as fully human. As we move into the current manifestation of feminism and work for justice, it seems imperative to pause to consider how these “second wave” pioneers gave us the beginnings of feminist therapy. These women, starting from the earliest stages of the movement, gave us consciousness raising, the notion of the egalitarian therapy, female empowerment, the groundswell of women into clinical psychology programs, and many other positive changes. They impacted systems such as criminal justice, divorce, domestic violence, education, medicine and banking to name but a few. We are honored to have Dr. Oliva Espin, Professor Emerita of San Diego State University and the California School of Professional Psychology, and one of our foremost pioneers, to join us in this discussion. It is to honor and record the achievements of these innovators that we are creating a special edition of Women and Therapy: Pioneers. We are looking to have a conversation about and with women who were practicing feminist therapy in the early 1970’s. We are hoping to have some of the pioneers, in addition to Dr. Espin, attend, as well as those who worked with or were influenced by their writings, teaching or supervision. We are hoping to take this conversation forward to develop criteria for defining a pioneer, and forming a list. We will also be recruiting interviewers/writers, preferably early-career, who would be interested in writing an article with or about a pioneer.
The proposed discussion will address the evolving state of Feminist Psychology. The discussion will specifically look at the audiences in which feminism is reaching, the fear of feminism/feminist label, and a discussion on ways to utilize feminist theory/identity in a less threatening way. Facilitators will draw on relevant research and personal experiences as self-identifying feminists to guide participants in discussion. Feminism originated out of political and social movements starting in the early 20th century. During the 1970’s feminism was brought into the world of academia, when the first Women Studies department was found at San Diego State College (Charleswell, 2014). Thus, academic feminism is rooted in the women’s liberation movement. Yet, when we discuss feminism today, academic feminism is often considered the only type of feminism. Feminism tends to be discussed solely in academic spheres and within pro-feminists groups. In addition, feminism has often ignored the lived experiences of lesbian, bisexual, queer, trans*, and women of color (Elliot, 2010; Mertz, 2002). The creation of Queer Feminism and Womanism attempted to address these issues, yet today these theories remain a separate entity of feminism. The word itself, “Feminism,” continues to be highly stigmatized within our society. In recent studies it was found that many women agree with what feminist theory stands for but will not self-identify as feminist (Duncan, 2010). Lisa Marie Hogeland states, “We do young women no service if we suggest to them that feminism itself is safe. It is not. It is not easy to question and stand opposed to your culture, to be critical of institutions, behaviors, and discourses” (Hogeland, 1994, p. 725). Thus, the proposed discussion will highlight the following questions. How can we move feminist conversations outside “insider” groups and to the general public? How can we as professionals centralize race and racism in our approach to the liberation of women, queer, and trans people? How do we spread awareness and education that moves past common stereotypes about feminism, a way that does not falsely label feminism as “safe” but in a way that is more welcoming?