1st Edition

Learning from Our Mistakes Difficulties and Failures in Feminist Therapy

By Esther D Rothblum, Marcia Hill Copyright 1998
    136 Pages
    by Routledge

    138 Pages
    by Routledge

    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 process

      It’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.

    Contents Introduction: Concerning Failure
    •  A Case of Eroticized Transference
    • One Case, Many Conversations: Toward Multiplicities
    • Self-Disclosure as an Approach for Teaching Ethical Decisionmaking
    • Triangulated Therapy: Cross-Cultural Counseling
    •  Managing Anxiety: The Client’s and Mine
    •  The Client Revisited: A Second Look at a Near Failure
    •  Where, Oh Where, Has the Therapeutic Alliance Gone?: Disquieting Log-Jams in the Therapeutic Relationship
    • Meanings and Implications of Failure in Therapy
    •  Index
    • Reference Notes Included

    Biography

    Marcia Hill, Esther D. Rothblum