*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.
One of the noteworthy accomplishments of Feminist Therapy (FT) has been to highlight issues of power in the therapeutic relationship. Brown (n.d.) described FT as "a politically informed model that always observes human experience within the framework of societal and cultural realities, and the dynamics of power informing those realities." Historically, this perspective was essential as the therapist was a White, heterosexual, man and the client was a White woman. While White women continue to be the majority of therapy clients, the field of psychology is becoming more diverse. Minority students are increasingly recruited for psychology programs to become professors, therapists, and counselors. These students often bring a keen awareness and first-hand knowledge of issues of power to the counseling relationship. Many minority students experience "-isms" (e.g. racism, sexism) in their personal lives and training programs. As new therapists, they are often told that they have power, especially over the client, and cautioned about its misuse. However, when their clients, often white and female, engage in behaviors that recreate "-isms", minority therapists are often left feeling powerless and helpless. These difficulties are further exacerbated by supervisors who are unprepared to respond to supervisees’ experiences. They may blame/invalidate students for unsuccessful therapeutic work or not know how to help the therapist respond to the client. In this session we will share perspectives from supervisees and a supervisor on how “isms” impact the therapeutic process and the relationship. It is hoped that through engaging in this dialog, students and supervisors alike may learn strategies of empowerment in an inherently dis-empowering situation. Part of this process involves deconstructing the hurtful interaction taking place in the room between therapist and client. An equally important part of the process involves restorative justice, the act of healing these wounds in a safe, responsive supervisor-supervisee relationship.
Media coverage of Michael Brown’s murder and Ferguson protests have brought into the national spotlight issues that have affected communities of color, particularly black communities, for decades. Although various activist organizations have joined in solidarity with this movement (Bosman, 2014), mainstream media attention is waning and the U.S. government has taken a passive approach (Horwitz & Kindy, 2014; Trott, 2014). As students in counseling psychology, we have found ourselves wondering what the role of psychologists (and future psychologists) can and should be in this movement. Within our own graduate program, a discussion group has evolved out of these events, but deciding how to take action beyond discussion has proven more difficult to accomplish. Racial justice is long overdue--over 150 years since the abolition of slavery, and we are still waiting. Considering the conference theme, we seek to explore what restorative justice might look like in in the case of communities like Ferguson. In areas with a long history of institutional power being used to exploit and oppress, where might the community even begin to restore justice? How can psychologists be most helpful to the social movements already in progress to combat these injustices? What about graduate students? Certainly, research on white privilege and racial prejudice has been one major contribution of the field and should not be discounted. For example, Eberhardt, Goff, Purdie and Davies (2004) found that white males processed weapon imagery faster when primed with black male faces compared to the no-prime control and processed these same images slower when primed with white faces compared to the no-prime control. Although published in 2004, the research remains pertinent today and has clear implications for legislation surrounding events like Michael Brown’s murder. But what is our responsibility to more immediate action when innocent people are dying?
Many of us have been trained as change agents in psychology. Women of Color of diverse Asian ethnicities raised at the intersections of gender and ethnic socialization have challenged dominant discourses of the quiet, subservient Asian female worker bee (Okubo, 2013). This panel of women of Japanese, Korean and Filipina descent, trained as counseling psychologists early and mid-career academics but working in non-counseling graduate programs as faculty members and in senior administration will facilitate a discussion on issues related to race, gender, power and privilege and strategies to leverage privileges we have to disrupt oppressive practices in the academia. Counseling Psychologists have unique training that allow us to be aware of power, privilege, and oppression at individual, cultural, institutional, and societal levels, and we are equipped to facilitating dialogues and concerted effort to instigating positive, meaningful changes. By critically examining our positionalities and missed opportunities from the past, we would like to engage with the discussion attendees to generate action plans as social change agents. We would like to facilitate the structured discussion using the following questions: How can we leverage our positionalities to be more effective allies considering our interactionality of privileged and marginalized identities? What have been the missed opportunities? How are we unwittingly serving as what Kivel calls the buffer class between the 1% and the lowest earning 80%? By identifying such instances and learning from them, we aim to facilitate discussion of how we can instigate meaningful changes as social change agents.
More than ever, our work as Non-Government Organizations at the United Nations is valuable. We have been consulted on UN policies and practices, encouraged to network with UN agencies, and included in some programme matters. in this session, we would like to highlight some of those activities.
This structured discussion will explore how we as mental health professionals can utilize feminist and multicultural psychology to engage clients in awareness of gender role socialization in ways that increase clients’ empowerment and promote restorative justice, particularly in the face of violence. Drawing on clinical experience and relevant literature, facilitators will consider ideas for effective therapeutic intervention and potential avenues for enhancing clinical training. Gender roles are the behaviors that individuals perform based on socially constructed expectations about what constitutes masculinity and femininity (Mahalik, Cournoyer, DeFranc, Cherry, & Napolitano, 1998). Recent literature on the topic emphasizes the effects of socialization that lead to adoption of gender roles and addresses the need to redefine power-based constructions of gender (Enns, 2004; Jones, 2003). Research has also begun to acknowledge the differences in gender roles across race and ethnicity (Crawford & Unger, 2004; Miville, 2013). In some cultures, unquestioned adaptation of prescribed gender roles, especially when they have power-based sociopolitical implications, can affect a person’s physical and mental wellbeing (Miville, Bratini, Corpus, Diaz, 2013). Using therapy to address such dynamics, clients may be better able to develop a fuller sense of themselves as gendered beings, which in turn may foster greater psychological health (Miville, Bratini, Corpus, & Diaz, 2013). In working with clients from a feminist perspective, special attention should be placed on the impact of gender role identity on physical and emotional violence, which requires therapists to explore clients’ beliefs related to masculinity and femininity (Sokoloff & Dupont, 2005). Special attention should be placed on how a female client’s gender role identity may impact her experience and understanding of physical and emotional violence (Crenshaw, 1991). In addition, when working through experiences of violence in therapy, an examination of gender role expectations may provide female clients with a deeper understanding of such experiences. It may also facilitate an opening to explore novel ways of developing restorative empowerment as clients heal from violence-related experiences. Per recent feminist literature, as instances of violence around the world increase, it becomes ever more imperative that the racial, ethnic, and gendered differences of such experiences are addressed (Crawford & Unger, 2004). It is therefore vital for therapists to gain an awareness of the influence of gender socialization on their clients’ lives and frame the context of therapy from this lens (Steigerwald & Forrest, 2004). Therapists should also evaluate how their own gender-based beliefs may contribute to their conceptualizations of the issues presented by their clients (Steigerwald & Forrest, 2004).
What is wrong with the current response to gender violence? How should that response be different? To answer these questions, the Re-Imagining multimediaproject will be launched as part of Media for Change’s (MfC, mediaforchange.org) series, Changing the Conversation. MfC is a new non-profit and open-access online resource founded by documentary filmmaker Sanjeev Chatterjee to recognize and support the work of activists in using media for social change. Toward this end, Re-Imagining emerged from interviews on and around the 2014 conference CONVERGE: Re-imagining the Movement to End Gender Violence (http://www.law.miami.edu/academics/converge/index.php?op=0), where Arrested Justice author Beth Richie raised the same questions in her keynote address. Re-Imagining introduces the public to the ways in which the dominant response to domestic violence and sexual assault are criminal law centered, the dominant responses have failed to address structural inequalities, and the system intersectionality of the criminal justice system, welfare system, and child welfare system has had a negative impact (Dorothy Roberts, 2012) on women of color. In the multimedia content, leading scholars and activists Dorothy Roberts, Mimi Kim, Leigh Goodmark, Beth Richie, Joan Pennell, Donna Coker, and others speak to these problems and suggest alternative community responses, including Transformative Justice and Restorative Justice. The next iteration of Re-Imagining will likely include on-site videos with organizations involved in alternative responses to gender violence, including Transformative and Restorative Justice. The site will ultimately link to many other websites recognizing interlocking oppressions and working to diminish the carceral state. At the AWP Conference, we hope to dialogue with feminist psychologists about our evolving tool for sparking critical conversations and actions. Our goal is a general shift from dominant, crime-centered, gender violence responses, towards strengthening community-based strategies and alternatives.
As evolutionary psychologist have discerned, physical beauty has always been shown preference throughout history and across cultures. Nonetheless, that which defines beauty has adapted itself to ever-changing contexts and times. In the 21st century, beauty ideals and standards are being continually reshaped, altered and spread by innovations in technology. Photoshop-contrived images of beauty, youth and thinness are created by the Western European and American fashion industries and variously disseminated not only by beauty and fashion magazines but also by internet websites which connect the fashion capitals of the world to every corner of the globe. Since the advent of research conducted on the impact of mass media and the marketing on the standards and ideals of beauty, thinness, youthfulness and physical attractiveness as well as its correlates from body dissatisfaction to body dysmorphia, the gamut of cosmetic interventions continue to rise. Thus despite the collective efforts of psychological, psychiatry and medical organizations to shape and disseminate policies and educative interventions to support prevention and stem this deleterious trend has been limited. Consequently, it appears that the enticements of physical self-improvement, the retaining of one’s youth in perpetuity and expectations of heightened self-esteem and greater happiness appear to be insurmountable.
Revenge porn is when individuals post sexually explicit photos and videos of their exes online to websites, such as “MyEx,” whose tagline is “Get Revenge.” Revenge porn has gained attention in light of the recent leak of nude photos of celebrity women. However, celebrities are in a very different position than typical victims of revenge porn, as celebrities not only have better financial resources to take legal action but may gain a new level of fame. The popularity of celebrity nudes being “leaked” may influence the growing trend of revenge porn, as individuals may believe that it is more socially acceptable to share sexually explicit material of their ex. Sexting can progress into revenge porn. Sext messages are sexually suggestive messages sent through cellular phones or over the internet, and include semi-nude or nude photos and videos of an individual (Winkleman, 2014). When individuals within intimate relationships share sexually explicit content with each other, when the relationship ends, if one individual feels like seeking revenge s/he may in turn use the sexually explicit material to post as revenge porn. Many victims of revenge porn do not know that their private photos and/or videos have been uploaded unless notified by an outside party. On many revenge porn sites people are often directed to the victim’s social media pages, home address, phone number, and even their family and friends’ social media profiles. Often the perpetrator encourages others to share and post links everywhere on the web in an attempt to get the pictures of the person to be viewed when someone performs a Google search of the victim’s name. The purpose of this discussion is to address the impact this trend could have on the psychology of women and how feminist psychologists and activists can support victims and press for legal sanctions against posters.
A significant portion of time during predoctoral internship is dedicated to clinical work and ensuring that we are providing adequate services to empower clients to facilitate and enable positive change in their lives. One aspect often not given sufficient attention is how counselors-in-training can cultivate their own personal empowerment to advocate for their own training needs. How can one apply a feminist approach to one’s training within a hierarchical structure? More specifically, how can one advocate for oneself in a way that respectfully adheres to one’s work policies? According to Page and Czuba (1999), empowerment is a multidimensional process that facilitates one to obtain a sense of control over their lives. It is obtained by having the autonomy to act on issues that are defined and perceived as important. Research has suggested work environments that facilitate employee empowerment tend to have a higher employee performance and satisfaction, as well as a decrease in dysfunctional collegial relationships (Vecchio, Justin, & Pearce, 2010). Given that predoctoral interns tend to be at the ‘bottom of the totem pole’ in terms of power within the work environment due to their trainee status, is it possible to navigate power differentials and cultivate a voice that fits the needs of the trainee as well as compliments the needs of the work environment? The analysis of this topic seeks to explore how feminist aspects of empowerment such as creativity, authenticity, and advocacy can be cultivated as a trainee. This discussion will explore obstacles to feeling empowered in a training program, as well as seek solutions toward advocating for oneself on both an individual level as well as within the changing system of University Counseling Centers. Social justice considerations will also be explored and examined. References Page, N., & Czuba, C. E. (1999). Empowerment: What is it. Journal of extension, 37(5), 1-5. Vecchio, R. P., Justin, J. E., & Pearce, C. L. (2010). Empowering leadership: An examination of mediating mechanisms within a hierarchical structure. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(3), 530-542.
Given the growing number of women of color in clinical, teaching, administration and leadership positions in higher education, it is imperative to explore how women of color may be perceived and treated in these roles. We plan to facilitate a discussion that addresses (a) the navigation of maintaining and asserting one’s multifaceted identity in the workplace in the midst of assumed identities and stereotypes based on physical appearance, (b) the intersection between cultural identities and (c) workplace dynamics and positions of power. This structured discussion targets the growing number of women of color in institutions of higher education. The increase in women of color in these positions has presented university environments with novel multicultural challenges and opportunities. The conversation will provide a forum for participants to discuss multicultural and social justice issues experienced across different settings and contexts in higher education as well as opportunity to learn and share strategies to address challenging and distressing experiences. The facilitators will have pre-designed questions and 1-2 vignettes to stimulate a critical dialogue. We will provide insights from our experiences as women of color with other intersecting identities, and encourage participants to self-reflect and share their experiences, as well. We hope that this structured discussion will be conducive to greater understanding, awareness and personal reflection.