How can you provide effective, meaningful therapy to couples with whom you have little or nothing in common? Couples Therapy: Feminist Perspectives addresses some of the inadequacies, omissions, and assumptions in traditional couples therapy to help you face the issues of race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation in helping couples today. In this book, you'll uncover perspectives that are grounded in an appreciation of cultural context, the effects of privilege, and the centrality of a respectful stance on the part of the therapist. Anyone seeking to do informed and responsive work with couples in distress will find it a useful and valuable compilation. Couples Therapy: Feminist Perspectives describes a variety of feminist approaches to couples therapy--giving you a sense of the range of feminist practice in this area and illustrating approaches you can integrate into your work with couples. Specific topics you'll explore include: cultural considerations in couples therapy narrative approaches to couples therapy dilemmas in working with heterosexual couples working with lesbian couples the particular issues of interracial couples the African-American lesbian couple empathy and mutuality in therapy with couples Whether you're an experienced psychologist, social worker, marriage and family counselor, or therapist or a student of family and couples therapy, Couples Therapy: Feminist Perspectives will help you prepare to respond effectively to a more diverse clientele.
Jewish women of all ages and backgrounds come together in Celebrating the Lives of Jewish Women to explore and rejoice in what they have in common--their heritage. They reveal in striking personal stories how their Jewishness has shaped their identities and informed their experiences in innumerable, meaningful ways. Survivors, witnesses, defenders, innovators, and healers, these women question, celebrate, and transmit Jewish and feminist values in hopes that they might bridge the differences among Jewish women. They invite both Jewish and non-Jewish readers to share in their discussions and stories that convey and celebrate the multiplicity of Jewish backgrounds, attitudes, and issues. In Celebrating the Lives of Jewish Women, you will read about cultural, religious, and gender choices, conversion to Judaism, family patterns, Jewish immigrant experiences, the complexities of Jewish secular identities, antisemitism, sexism, and domestic violence in the Jewish community. As the pages unfold in this wonderful book of personal odysseys, the colorful patterns of Jewish women’s lives are laid before you. You will find much cause for rejoicing, as the authors weave together their compelling and unique stories about: midlife Bat mitzvah preparations the transmission of Jewish values by Sephardi and Ashkenazi grandmothers traditional Sephardi customs the sorrow and healing involved in coping with the Holocaust a lesbian’s fascination with Kafka the external and internal obstacles Jewish women encounter in their efforts to study Jewish topics and participate in Jewish ritual becoming a Reconstructionist rabbi the difficulties and benefits of being the teenaged daughter of a rabbi A harmonious chorus of individual voices, Celebrating the Lives of Jewish Women will delight and inspire Jewish and non-Jewish readers alike. It reminds each of us how diverse and distinctive Jewish women’s lives are, as well as how united they can be under the wonderful fold of Judaism. This book will be of great interest to all women, as well as to rabbis, Jewish community leaders and professionals, mental health workers, and those in Jewish studies, women’s studies, and multicultural studies.
While most women’s studies texts function “topically” as “readings” for courses and general use, Women’s Work: A Survey of Scholarship By and About Women takes a broad spectrum of women’s disciplines--psychological, artistic, religious, and philosophical--and gives you a diverse, interdisciplinary view of this important and ever-expanding field of study in one accessible volume. You’ll see that women are leading the world into the twenty-first century in such areas as education, business, health, and science. You’ll also find your appreciation for the current developments in women’s studies increase as you see how far-reaching and multifaceted this crucial discipline really is. Women’s Work avoids the compilations of topical readings that tend to bog down typical women’s studies courses and explores the different disciplines that continue to make this field central to the development of the academic world community. You’ll find your perspective on women’s studies expand and take on new meaning as you delve into these and other areas: feminist approaches to research the lack of women in science and feminist critiques of science women and health psychology and discussions on sex differences, sex similarities, and gender roles communication differences between men and women women in literature, art history, and metaphysics Judeo-Christian religions and goddess religions This comprehensive compendium has something for everyone interested in the massive contribution that women have made--and will continue to make--in all areas of human development. All readers, especially women’s studies scholars, professors, students, and informed members of the general public looking for an excellent, up-to-date resource concerning the general direction of feminist disciplines today, will definitely want a copy of Women’s Work.
Here is a unique collection of personal memoirs from feminist therapists which provides a revealing look at their professional training experiences. This superb volume offers a rare glimpse at the struggles of these women, both as therapists and feminists, as they continue to develop professionally while maintaining their own identities. These candid accounts clearly recount the realities of professional training for the feminist therapist as a combination of painful memories, active struggle, impromptu friendship, and humor. The stories comprising this extraordinary volume cover several decades, ranging from the experiences of therapists trained in the 1930s to those of women currently undergoing therapy training. Share the trials and triumphs of these seventeen women who faced professional, personal, and ethical challenges during their professional therapy training. Read about the variety of experiences in the heterogeneous group of feminist therapists who describe the circumstances of their training including the account of mother and daughter therapists who compare their training of the 1930s and the 1970s; that of one woman who entered graduate school in the 1950s and was prohibited from specializing solely in research; one woman whose teaching was sabotaged by the “old boy” network; one woman’s experience of coming out as a lesbian in medical school during a psychiatric residency program; one therapist’s double minority status as female and Japanese-American; a Black student’s confrontation with the alienation and invisibility of her presence in an all-white classroom; and a first-year graduate student who describes her transition from a women’s studies undergraduate focus to a traditional male-dominated research institution. Students and instructors in clinical psychology, counseling, and social work will find the accounts in Professional Training for Feminist Therapists: Personal Memoirs a valuable resource for exploring the experiences of women in professional training for feminist therapy. Established therapists will value this work for the clarity and insight that comes from reflection, as will women who undergo professional training in future generations.
Currently, there are over 15 million legally designated refugees all over the world and it is documented that 75 percent of those refugees are women, yet most of the existent literature does not focus on this group as women. Most of the literature focuses on political, economic, and social issues with very little reference to the mental health implications of the refugees’experiences as women. Refugee Women and Their Mental Health begins to fill this paucity of information on female refugees’experiences. A book of immediate interest, Refugee Women and Their Mental Health focuses on understanding the plight of women refugees around the world, with an emphasis on mental health. The book adds successful and innovative treatment and recovery models for these women survivors. Some of the chapters are written by women who are therapists/psychologists now and who have been refugees themselves. This adds additional insight into the plight and resulting mental health problems of refugee women. The chapters cover a vast range of topics: torture and sexual abuse as refugees/victims of state violence elderly women refugees immigration law and women refugees first-person narratives the transformation of identity successful creative treatment programs It becomes clear that women refugees from all over the world under different political events and circumstances share common values and have similar mental health needs. Refugee Women and Their Mental Health explores processes of recovery from the traumas experienced by these women and offers a variety of models for the application of feminist theory to the plight of women refugees. Experienced therapists of women and those in training to be therapists will want to read this book. The topics of refugee women rarely comes up in training programs, so the information in this book is vital for therapists, policy makers, and other service providers and professors of psychology of women, immigration and social work issues, and women and mental health issues.
Here is a useful and illustrative guide for those interested in the impact of feminist scholarship on traditional academic disciplines. This important book explores the changes that have taken place in the academic world as a result of feminist approaches to scholarship, including issues of staffing, organization, administration, recruitment, stude
If you’re a long-time veteran of feminist therapy or someone just starting out, you’ll find a helpful, reliable list of “dos” and “don’ts” in Learning from Our Mistakes: Difficulties and Failures in Feminist Therapy. Frank and honest in tone, makeup, and style, this one-of-a-kind publication looks at the failures and roadblocks that have hampered feminist therapists in the past so you can learn from their misfortunes and avoid them in your own professional endeavors. In Learning from Our Mistakes, you’ll come face-to-face with classic difficult cases, and you’ll see from a feminist perspective how therapists used various treatments to deal with these seemingly insurmountable challenges. You’ll find that these and other topics will help you in navigating the difficult situations that arise in your personal practice: the pros and cons of terminating with a client who has an eroticized transference differences between therapists and clients in terms of race, ethnicity, and age problems encountered by rural therapists in small communities using a translator in therapy when the therapist and client don’t speak the same language feelings of anger in therapy many other “log jams” in the therapeutic processIt’s no mistake that Learning from Our Mistakes is full of what works and what doesn’t. In it, three veteran discussants give you the tools necessary to overcome the uncertainties and inadequacies that plague therapists. You’ll come away understanding the many ways failure is embedded in both the theory and practice of psychotherapy. Ultimately, you’ll find that mistakes are really only failure narratives waiting to be used, shaped, and turned toward the positive experiences of both client and therapist.
Here is an enlightening new volume that presents an integration of anti-fat-oppressive attitudes into the work of feminist therapy. Overcoming Fear of Fat is unique among professional work in the area of women and fat in that it does not approach size as the problem; rather it approaches prejudice against fat as the problem. Although for nearly a decade, fat activists have been raising the issues that are confronted in this book, therapists, including feminist therapists, have been colluding with their clients in pathologizing fat, celebrating weight loss, and failing to adequately challenge cultural stereotypes of attractiveness for women, instead of empowering clients and encouraging them to take on expert authority about their own experiences. The contributors, including therapists and fat activists, aim to disconnect the issues of food intake and eating disorders from those of weight. They share personal and professional experiences of challenging fat oppression, offer strategies for therapists to rid themselves and their clients of fat oppressive attitudes, and most importantly, they confront long-held cultural myths that fat is unhealthy, and that fat women are physically unfit and are in hiding from their sexuality or personal power. A practical and informative resource for therapists, especially those who work with fat women or who themselves struggle with issues of feeling critical of their own body size, Overcoming Fear of Fat will also be a valuable guide for fat women who wish to feel supported in their struggle for self-worth and respect.
Discover the diverse ways aging women attempt to deal with the universal challenges of loss, sickness, and death along with the problems of being old women in a society that values women mainly as sexual partners or producers of children. Old women are often seen as poor, powerless, and pitiful in our sexist and youth-oriented society. The truth is that women age much more successfully than do men and they are increasingly in the majority as our population ages. These truths and others are presented in Faces of Women and Aging--a collection written by women, a number of whom are themselves older women who bring their unique life experiences and personalities to the topic. This uplifting book emphasizes that middle and old age are merely stages of growth and development, not just seasons of loss and decline as the end approaches. A wealth of topics are covered in Faces of Women and Aging that broaden the reader’s awareness of the problems of women and aging including: how to maintain self-esteem in the face of sexism, ageism, and severe illness the problems of being single or divorced in the later years the problems of maintaining a good body image for older women in a society which values the young and the beautiful the additional difficulties of minority women, specifically lesbians and native American women increased dependency brought on by illness and loss of partners Faces of Women and Aging combines personal narratives that serve as reminders of the human beings behind statistics and case studies with theoretical observations which help therapists assist older women cope with the daily hardships as well as the more catastrophic problems of aging.
Wilderness Therapy for Women offers women risktaking adventure activities in the outdoors as an alternative to traditional therapy. The contributing authors illustrate the empowerment, confidence, and self-esteem women can derive from adventure and experiential activities. This is the first book of its kind devoted to the symbolic value of wilderness accomplishments to women’s mental health. Wilderness Therapy for Women unites women with nature and each other by lifting the social constraints surrounding women in adventure pursuits. It offers women a new method of healing while developing an appreciation for the uniqueness of the environment. Daring experiences in the outdoors rekindles a sense of strength and a respect for the provider of that strength. A therapeutic experience from the outdoors provides women with an awareness of their capabilities to strengthen and preserve themselves and their surroundings. This book is divided into four parts: Theoretical Perspectives, Wilderness Therapy in Action, Special Populations, and Personal Narratives. Readers will find many topics of interest including: Body image and wilderness therapy The therapeutic value of the wilderness Ethical considerations of experiential therapy Ropes courses for women All-women’s river trips Special populations: rape and incest survivors, welfare mothers, and mid-life women. Intended as a guide book, Wilderness Therapy for Women is ideal for mental health professionals who are either practicing wilderness therapy or merely inquisitive about it. Outfitters and professional outdoor leaders will benefit from chapters on theory, applications, and special populations. Outdoor program administrators and educators who must remain on the cutting edge of their industry will also profit from this book.
Despite the gains of the women’s movement, women are still judged by what they look like--and men, by what they do. Fat--A Fate Worse Than Death? offers hardy resistance to the narrow, random, and irrational appearance standards set for American women through an approach that is personal, eclectic, courageous, and funny. If you are interested in giving up your diet, throwing out your scales, and concentrating on who you are on a deeper level, this book will show you how to accept, appreciate, and even love your body! Using statistics, research, anecdotes, and personal experiences, Fat--A Fate Worse Than Death? explores how appearance standards have built a prison for women. With the book’s helpful advice, reading suggestions, and list of more than 100 ways to fight looksism, sexism, ageism, and racism, you will learn to express your rights and needs, regardless of your shape or size, and tear down those prison walls. Designed to transcend the boundaries between the personal and the political, Fat--A Fate Worse Than Death? discusses: examples of how weight and size constitute the last socially accepted prejudice the national “War on Fat” counteracting societal influences that support weight preoccupation connection between appearance standards for older women and large women nurturing your body resisting male-defined standards of beauty for women the myth of diets and dieting how the body resists weight loss how women are disempowered by concentration on weight and appearance how concentrating on appearance leaves real-life issues unaddressed how feeling bad about yourself can turn you into a willing consumer Feminists, faculty and students of women’s studies programs, aging women, women of radical politics, and other concerned women and men will find that Fat--A Fate Worse Than Death? states explicitly how women are kept powerless by subscribing to cultural and social edicts on physical appearance. Don’t live silently in a society that degrades and discounts women because of their physical stature and don‘t let obsession with thinness keep you passive, docile, and unable to give your energy to things that really need your passion and intelligence. Read this book and learn to not only value yourself for who you are, but also to counteract American culture’s equality-denying prejudices and practices.
How can you provide effective, meaningful therapy to couples with whom you have little or nothing in common? Couples Therapy: Feminist Perspectives addresses some of the inadequacies, omissions, and assumptions in traditional couples therapy to help you face the issues of race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation in helping couples today. In this book, you'll uncover perspectives that are grounded in an appreciation of cultural context, the effects of privilege, and the centrality of a respectful stance on the part of the therapist. Anyone seeking to do informed and responsive work with couples in distress will find it a useful and valuable compilation.Couples Therapy: Feminist Perspectives describes a variety of feminist approaches to couples therapy--giving you a sense of the range of feminist practice in this area and illustrating approaches you can integrate into your work with couples. Specific topics you'll explore include: cultural considerations in couples therapy narrative approaches to couples therapy dilemmas in working with heterosexual couples working with lesbian couples the particular issues of interracial couples the African-American lesbian couple empathy and mutuality in therapy with couples Whether you're an experienced psychologist, social worker, marriage and family counselor, or therapist or a student of family and couples therapy, Couples Therapy: Feminist Perspectives will help you prepare to respond effectively to a more diverse clientele.
Wilderness Therapy for Women offers women risktaking adventure activities in the outdoors as an alternative to traditional therapy. The contributing authors illustrate the empowerment, confidence, and self-esteem women can derive from adventure and experiential activities. This is the first book of its kind devoted to the symbolic value of wilderness accomplishments to women’s mental health. Wilderness Therapy for Women unites women with nature and each other by lifting the social constraints surrounding women in adventure pursuits. It offers women a new method of healing while developing an appreciation for the uniqueness of the environment. Daring experiences in the outdoors rekindles a sense of strength and a respect for the provider of that strength. A therapeutic experience from the outdoors provides women with an awareness of their capabilities to strengthen and preserve themselves and their surroundings. This book is divided into four parts: Theoretical Perspectives, Wilderness Therapy in Action, Special Populations, and Personal Narratives. Readers will find many topics of interest including: Body image and wilderness therapy The therapeutic value of the wilderness Ethical considerations of experiential therapy Ropes courses for women All-women’s river trips Special populations: rape and incest survivors, welfare mothers, and mid-life women. Intended as a guide book, Wilderness Therapy for Women is ideal for mental health professionals who are either practicing wilderness therapy or merely inquisitive about it. Outfitters and professional outdoor leaders will benefit from chapters on theory, applications, and special populations. Outdoor program administrators and educators who must remain on the cutting edge of their industry will also profit from this book.
Discover the diverse ways aging women attempt to deal with the universal challenges of loss, sickness, and death along with the problems of being old women in a society that values women mainly as sexual partners or producers of children. Old women are often seen as poor, powerless, and pitiful in our sexist and youth-oriented society. The truth is that women age much more successfully than do men and they are increasingly in the majority as our population ages. These truths and others are presented in Faces of Women and Aging--a collection written by women, a number of whom are themselves older women who bring their unique life experiences and personalities to the topic. This uplifting book emphasizes that middle and old age are merely stages of growth and development, not just seasons of loss and decline as the end approaches. A wealth of topics are covered in Faces of Women and Aging that broaden the reader’s awareness of the problems of women and aging including: how to maintain self-esteem in the face of sexism, ageism, and severe illness the problems of being single or divorced in the later years the problems of maintaining a good body image for older women in a society which values the young and the beautiful the additional difficulties of minority women, specifically lesbians and native American women increased dependency brought on by illness and loss of partners Faces of Women and Aging combines personal narratives that serve as reminders of the human beings behind statistics and case studies with theoretical observations which help therapists assist older women cope with the daily hardships as well as the more catastrophic problems of aging.
Through the voices of twenty-one women, Karen Way presents the most objective, complete, and compassionate picture of what anorexia nervosa is about and, more importantly, of the complex individual variables and obstacles in the journey to recovery. From the premise that anorexia nervosa is an addiction--an obsession controlling all aspects of an individual’s life--and that complete recovery is possible by finding meaning in life, this enlightening book contrasts sharply to other books written on the subject by clinicians and theorists which merely speculate on the nature and etiology of anorexia nervosa. Anorexia Nervosa and Recovery lets the reader hear the personal struggles of women who have fought this powerful disease. They describe how anorexia controlled their lives and how, once they overcame their obsessions with food, weight, and thinness, they were able to lead fulfilling lives. This illuminating book encourages and inspires women who are in the throes of anorexia nervosa. They will recognize the emptiness in the voices and the descriptions of daily life. Therapists and clinicians who treat anorexic women will find intriguing chapters on events which trigger anorexia and what anorexics will do to maintain their strategies for coping. Concerned friends and family and others interested in understanding this controlling disease will be enlightened from this important and helpful book.
Menopause, Me and You will help you put menopause in proper perspective--as a normal and natural developmental process in the lives of women, not as a disorder or state that causes disease. This informative book gives you self-monitoring tools for collecting information and monitoring changes in your body during menopause. These tools will also help you understand the dynamics of the change process. A guideline as to how to best use this information when interacting with care providers--especially those who view menopause as a disorder to be treated--is also included. Menopause, Me and You is filled with information-gathering tools, scientific facts, and stories from the true “experts” on menopause--the women themselves who have experienced or are experiencing menopause. In chapter after chapter, you’ll gain valuable information for viewing menopause from a woman-centered perspective. Specifically, the book includes: detailed information on conception and fertilization, reconceptualizing these events from a woman-centered, feminist perspective a description and reconceptualization of the menstrual cycle and menstruation, providing the knowledge base--the physiological, endrocrinological, and biochemical mechanisms that regulate the menstrual cycle and menstruation--to understand menopause as the closure of menstrual life and not the end of life a journey into the steroid hormone target cell--shows, at a scientific level, that women were genetically programmed to end the production of reproductive hormones a description and clarification of some of the terms used to describe menopause common menopausal changes and diseases attributed to being estrogen-deficient tools for gathering information, for “discovering knowledge,” about yourself--a menstrual calendar card, hot flash body diagrams, a basal body temperature record, a body composition record, a menstrual bleeding scale, and factors to consider when choosing a care provider The women who share their experiences in Menopause, Me and You represent women at various stages of menopause. They describe for you what they are feeling as well as what it means to be a mid-life woman at the closure of reproductive life; they celebrate the end of menstruation but curse the changes--including mood swings, hot flashes, and vaginal/bleeding changes--they are experiencing. These changes are normal and expected, however, and need to be understood in that context. They are not symptoms of disease or an excuse for care providers to instantly prescribe hormones or drugs. With the information in Menopause, Me and You, women nearing or experiencing menopause, health care providers, such as nurses, health educators, and physicians, and counselors will better understand how women view this transition and come to accept it as another normal, necessary, and beautiful process in the lives of women.
For many women, the advice “Use a condom!” is not enough to help protect them from HIV infection. As Women and AIDS reveals, “negotiating” safer sex practices is a very complex issue for women who are involved in relationships where they do not enjoy physical, social, or economic equality. The book’s authors maintain that the key to curbing the spread of HIV and to caring for those already infected--is communication. Women and AIDS is the first volume to address HIV/AIDS and women from a communication perspective. This helpful guidebook addresses how women might achieve safer sexual and drug injection practices with partners, but it also explores women’s negotiation of the health care system as patients, medical research subjects, and caregivers. It challenges traditional assumptions about the relationship between care providers and patients and the meaning of patient compliance and raises important questions about gender, race, and class that are exacerbated by the epidemic. Designed to ground interventions in the realities of women’s lives, Women and AIDS discusses what women can do to get around communication and health care obstacles. To this end, you will learn about: using the media for HIV-related social action and to promote women’s views of HIV and sexuality prison health care for HIV-positive women cultural constructions of sex and drug sharing in a variety of communities long-term changes that will empower women delivering an HIV-positive diagnosis to patients gender roles and caregiving the language we use to talk about “Third World” women and “Asian AIDS” women AIDS filmmakers/videographers For the benefit of AIDS activists, health care providers, and counselors, Women and AIDS discusses women and their communication and awareness from virtually every angle. This book analyzes situations where communication breaks down--from the woman who can’t openly discuss safe sex with her partner, to the drunk college student who “hooks up,” to the doctor who gives an HIV-positive diagnosis without compassion--and offers communication solutions. This will help women avoid such risks, establish communication and safety in their lives, and construct meaningful roles in relationship to HIV/AIDS.
Here is an enlightening new volume that presents an integration of anti-fat-oppressive attitudes into the work of feminist therapy. Overcoming Fear of Fat is unique among professional work in the area of women and fat in that it does not approach size as the problem; rather it approaches prejudice against fat as the problem. Although for nearly a decade, fat activists have been raising the issues that are confronted in this book, therapists, including feminist therapists, have been colluding with their clients in pathologizing fat, celebrating weight loss, and failing to adequately challenge cultural stereotypes of attractiveness for women, instead of empowering clients and encouraging them to take on expert authority about their own experiences. The contributors, including therapists and fat activists, aim to disconnect the issues of food intake and eating disorders from those of weight. They share personal and professional experiences of challenging fat oppression, offer strategies for therapists to rid themselves and their clients of fat oppressive attitudes, and most importantly, they confront long-held cultural myths that fat is unhealthy, and that fat women are physically unfit and are in hiding from their sexuality or personal power. A practical and informative resource for therapists, especially those who work with fat women or who themselves struggle with issues of feeling critical of their own body size, Overcoming Fear of Fat will also be a valuable guide for fat women who wish to feel supported in their struggle for self-worth and respect.
Jewish women of all ages and backgrounds come together in Celebrating the Lives of Jewish Women to explore and rejoice in what they have in common--their heritage. They reveal in striking personal stories how their Jewishness has shaped their identities and informed their experiences in innumerable, meaningful ways. Survivors, witnesses, defenders, innovators, and healers, these women question, celebrate, and transmit Jewish and feminist values in hopes that they might bridge the differences among Jewish women. They invite both Jewish and non-Jewish readers to share in their discussions and stories that convey and celebrate the multiplicity of Jewish backgrounds, attitudes, and issues. In Celebrating the Lives of Jewish Women, you will read about cultural, religious, and gender choices, conversion to Judaism, family patterns, Jewish immigrant experiences, the complexities of Jewish secular identities, antisemitism, sexism, and domestic violence in the Jewish community. As the pages unfold in this wonderful book of personal odysseys, the colorful patterns of Jewish women’s lives are laid before you. You will find much cause for rejoicing, as the authors weave together their compelling and unique stories about: midlife Bat mitzvah preparations the transmission of Jewish values by Sephardi and Ashkenazi grandmothers traditional Sephardi customs the sorrow and healing involved in coping with the Holocaust a lesbian’s fascination with Kafka the external and internal obstacles Jewish women encounter in their efforts to study Jewish topics and participate in Jewish ritual becoming a Reconstructionist rabbi the difficulties and benefits of being the teenaged daughter of a rabbi A harmonious chorus of individual voices, Celebrating the Lives of Jewish Women will delight and inspire Jewish and non-Jewish readers alike. It reminds each of us how diverse and distinctive Jewish women’s lives are, as well as how united they can be under the wonderful fold of Judaism. This book will be of great interest to all women, as well as to rabbis, Jewish community leaders and professionals, mental health workers, and those in Jewish studies, women’s studies, and multicultural studies.
In Women in the Antarctic, you'll discover how the world's social and scientific communities know much more about the Antarctic because of the female navy personnel, reporters, pilots, and expedition leaders who have challenged - and tamed - its icy, snowswept domain.
Through the voices of twenty-one women, Karen Way presents the most objective, complete, and compassionate picture of what anorexia nervosa is about and, more importantly, of the complex individual variables and obstacles in the journey to recovery. From the premise that anorexia nervosa is an addiction--an obsession controlling all aspects of an individual’s life--and that complete recovery is possible by finding meaning in life, this enlightening book contrasts sharply to other books written on the subject by clinicians and theorists which merely speculate on the nature and etiology of anorexia nervosa. Anorexia Nervosa and Recovery lets the reader hear the personal struggles of women who have fought this powerful disease. They describe how anorexia controlled their lives and how, once they overcame their obsessions with food, weight, and thinness, they were able to lead fulfilling lives. This illuminating book encourages and inspires women who are in the throes of anorexia nervosa. They will recognize the emptiness in the voices and the descriptions of daily life. Therapists and clinicians who treat anorexic women will find intriguing chapters on events which trigger anorexia and what anorexics will do to maintain their strategies for coping. Concerned friends and family and others interested in understanding this controlling disease will be enlightened from this important and helpful book.
This is an important anthology for therapists who want to enhance their sensitivity and effectiveness in working with lesbians. In Lesbian Therapists and Their Therapy, the authors describe how being a lesbian has affected their own therapy--as clients and as therapists--to enable other practicing lesbian therapists to work more effectively with lesbian clients. This guidebook contains personal stories from lesbian therapist's own therapy, told to help other therapists deal with lesbian clients. Lesbian Therapists and Their Therapy enlightens the reader about the special factors in making therapy with lesbian clients more successful. The contributors accomplish this by highlighting personal details from experiences they had during their own therapy. In an excellent position to critique others'therapy with lesbian clients, these lesbian therapists can help others identify and avoid the pitfalls of doing therapy with this population.The personal material contained in this collection shows, in a very powerful way, the good and not-so-good handling of the special issues that all lesbians face in today's society. Lesbian Therapists and Their Therapy is unique because it presents insight from personal stories of therapists that is not available elsewhere in book form. Among the topics and concerns covered are: therapists who are homophobic pitfalls of doing therapy with lesbian clients boundary issues between client and therapist attempts to change sexual orientation through therapy sexual abuse in therapy This book will appeal to all therapists who deal with or would like to treat lesbian clients. Lesbian Therapists and Their Therapy should also appeal to graduate students studying psychology and counseling who desire to be well-prepared for treating this population. It is a helpful collection for persons not in the counseling field who would like to learn about the problems lesbians face in therapy due to their sexual orientation.
While most women’s studies texts function “topically” as “readings” for courses and general use, Women’s Work: A Survey of Scholarship By and About Women takes a broad spectrum of women’s disciplines--psychological, artistic, religious, and philosophical--and gives you a diverse, interdisciplinary view of this important and ever-expanding field of study in one accessible volume. You’ll see that women are leading the world into the twenty-first century in such areas as education, business, health, and science. You’ll also find your appreciation for the current developments in women’s studies increase as you see how far-reaching and multifaceted this crucial discipline really is. Women’s Work avoids the compilations of topical readings that tend to bog down typical women’s studies courses and explores the different disciplines that continue to make this field central to the development of the academic world community. You’ll find your perspective on women’s studies expand and take on new meaning as you delve into these and other areas: feminist approaches to research the lack of women in science and feminist critiques of science women and health psychology and discussions on sex differences, sex similarities, and gender roles communication differences between men and women women in literature, art history, and metaphysics Judeo-Christian religions and goddess religions This comprehensive compendium has something for everyone interested in the massive contribution that women have made--and will continue to make--in all areas of human development. All readers, especially women’s studies scholars, professors, students, and informed members of the general public looking for an excellent, up-to-date resource concerning the general direction of feminist disciplines today, will definitely want a copy of Women’s Work.
Counting Costs Covers the intersections of race, class and gender and how they apply to therapy with the aim of making psychotherapy more responsive to the needs of working class and poor women.
Here is an enlightening new volume that presents an integration of anti-fat-oppressive attitudes into the work of feminist therapy. Overcoming Fear of Fat is unique among professional work in the area of women and fat in that it does not approach size as the problem; rather it approaches prejudice against fat as the problem. Although for nearly a decade, fat activists have been raising the issues that are confronted in this book, therapists, including feminist therapists, have been colluding with their clients in pathologizing fat, celebrating weight loss, and failing to adequately challenge cultural stereotypes of attractiveness for women, instead of empowering clients and encouraging them to take on expert authority about their own experiences. The contributors, including therapists and fat activists, aim to disconnect the issues of food intake and eating disorders from those of weight. They share personal and professional experiences of challenging fat oppression, offer strategies for therapists to rid themselves and their clients of fat oppressive attitudes, and most importantly, they confront long-held cultural myths that fat is unhealthy, and that fat women are physically unfit and are in hiding from their sexuality or personal power. A practical and informative resource for therapists, especially those who work with fat women or who themselves struggle with issues of feeling critical of their own body size, Overcoming Fear of Fat will also be a valuable guide for fat women who wish to feel supported in their struggle for self-worth and respect.
Currently, there are over 15 million legally designated refugees all over the world and it is documented that 75 percent of those refugees are women, yet most of the existent literature does not focus on this group as women. Most of the literature focuses on political, economic, and social issues with very little reference to the mental health implications of the refugees’experiences as women. Refugee Women and Their Mental Health begins to fill this paucity of information on female refugees’experiences. A book of immediate interest, Refugee Women and Their Mental Health focuses on understanding the plight of women refugees around the world, with an emphasis on mental health. The book adds successful and innovative treatment and recovery models for these women survivors. Some of the chapters are written by women who are therapists/psychologists now and who have been refugees themselves. This adds additional insight into the plight and resulting mental health problems of refugee women. The chapters cover a vast range of topics: torture and sexual abuse as refugees/victims of state violence elderly women refugees immigration law and women refugees first-person narratives the transformation of identity successful creative treatment programs It becomes clear that women refugees from all over the world under different political events and circumstances share common values and have similar mental health needs. Refugee Women and Their Mental Health explores processes of recovery from the traumas experienced by these women and offers a variety of models for the application of feminist theory to the plight of women refugees. Experienced therapists of women and those in training to be therapists will want to read this book. The topics of refugee women rarely comes up in training programs, so the information in this book is vital for therapists, policy makers, and other service providers and professors of psychology of women, immigration and social work issues, and women and mental health issues.
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