Exploring client perspectives of therapy, women survivors in feminist therapy

grantor: University of TorontoThis research explored the perspectives and impact of therapy, particularly feminist therapy for women survivors of sexual abuse. The findings, which investigate the psychotherapeutic process from the standpoint of the client, are the result of primarily qualitative data collected from intensive interviews with 11 women, and questionnaire responses from 92 women. All 103 women in the research sample had been sexually abused as a child or adolescent and had experienced therapy at some point subsequent to their abuse. Ninety-nine women (96.2% of the research sample) provided information regarding their experiences of feminist therapy. Eighty-nine women (86.4%) provided information regarding experiences with traditional or non-feminist therapy. For the most part, traditional therapists denied the womens' histories of sexual abuse, failed to ask about sexual abuse or failed to incorporate such information into assessments when it was provided. Traditional therapists also tended to pathologize the effects of the sexual abuse. In contrast, most women found that in feminist therapy their histories of sexual abuse were asked about, acknowledged, discussed, and contextualized. Counter to backlash claims that feminist therapists "implant" memories of sexual abuse, 87 women (84.5%) had memories of sexual abuse prior to any experience of feminist therapy. This thesis presents a framework of feminist therapy developed from the women's standpoints. Prominent components of this framework include: Introduction/Negotiation (discussion of the therapy process, goals, expectations, etc.), Therapeutic Alliance factors, Therapist Self-Disclosure, Disclosure and Exploration of information, Client Control and Direction (of therapy), and the Social and Political Context. Results of this research, which support the importance of recognizing, validating and exploring women's histories of sexual abuse and the effects of such abuse, are discussed in terms of the implications for the recovery process. Results are also considered in relation to the literature on feminist therapy and on recovered memories, as well as the implications of this data to the process of feminist therapy theory-building.Ph.D