What Is Feminist Therapy?

Feminist therapy is a school of thought that involves looking more broadly at society and how oppression may be affecting your life.

January 17, 2025 · 8 min · 1493 words · Frank Long

Table of Contents

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsWhat Is Feminist Therapy?Types of Feminist TherapyTechniquesWhat Feminist Therapy Can Help WithBenefits of Feminist TherapyEffectivenessThings to ConsiderHow to Get Started

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

What Is Feminist Therapy?

Types of Feminist Therapy

Techniques

What Feminist Therapy Can Help With

Benefits of Feminist Therapy

Effectiveness

Things to Consider

How to Get Started

Close

Feminist therapy is a type ofpsychotherapyspecializing in gender and examining the stressors that women experience due to biases, discrimination, and other areas that may affect one’s mental health.

It was developed in the 1960s in response to the previously male-dominated field of psychology so that women could have a therapeutic environment free from themisogynyand sexism common in the field.

Though it acknowledges societal causes and issues at play, feminist therapy holds individuals accountable for their own decisions and problems. Since this therapy began in the 60s, it has evolved to include work with all genders.

There are four primary schools of thought in feminist therapy:

Gilligan’s Theory of Moral Development

Since feminist therapy is not a manualized or operationalized form of therapy, there is no strict set of techniques that must be used.

Additionally, while other therapies may be considered more directive (where the therapist takes the lead), a core tenet of feminist therapy is creating an egalitarian relationship between you and the therapist.

This means that you are the expert of your own life, not the therapist.

You and your therapist will explore your intersectional identities and how they are showing up in the therapy room, which may help you see how you interact in similar situations outside of your therapy sessions.

Some techniques feminist therapists may use include:

Is Looking on the Bright Side Actually Good for Your Mental Health?

While feminist therapy can help with anything—and attempts to be non-pathologizing—it may help with the following conditions and issues:

The Best Online Trauma Therapy, Tried and Tested

Since feminist therapy is not just concerned with diagnosis (it also actively eschews diagnosis as a tool of the systems that oppress women and other marginalized groups), the advantages of this kind of therapy look a little different than those of other types of therapies.

The idea of pathology is moved from being located in individuals to being located in social environments.

Instead, benefits are slightly less clear or measurable than, say, a lessening of symptoms in depression treatment. Some of the benefits include empowerment, enlightenment, and feelings of independence and assertiveness.

Although feminist therapy has been around since the 1960s, there is little research done on how effective it is. This is primarily because, as a treatment that doesn’t follow a specific protocol, it is difficult to measure it uniformly.

Before trying this kind of therapy, here are few things you may want to consider.

Intersectionality

Though this is slowly changing now, one criticism of feminist therapy has been its lack of intersectionality, or recognizing the roles that multiple overlapping identities such as gender, sexuality, race, class, and religion, for example, may affect us.

Implicit Biases

No matter how hard we work on ourselves, we all haveimplicit biasesto some degree—attitudes towards people or groups of people that we don’t even realize we have. Many people have associations with the words feminist or feminism that may turn them off from this kind of therapy.

Less Structured

Additionally, feminist therapy is not as well-defined as other therapies, so it has a less defined framework when compared to different types of therapies.

If you’re used to a more structured therapy likecognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), you will find feminist therapy very different. However, many also welcome this more unstructured, post-modern therapy.

If you’ve decided to give feminist therapy a try, here are few things you can do to begin your journey.

Get Help NowWe’ve tried, tested, and written unbiased reviews of thebest online therapy programsincluding Talkspace, BetterHelp, and ReGain. Find out which option is the best for you.

Get Help Now

We’ve tried, tested, and written unbiased reviews of thebest online therapy programsincluding Talkspace, BetterHelp, and ReGain. Find out which option is the best for you.

How to Find a Feminist Therapist

There is no formal certification or association for feminist therapists, so your best bet is to use an online directory such asInclusive Therapistsand filter for feminist therapists or search for those who are feminist-allied. Additionally, you can always search for “feminist therapy” in your location.

What Will the First Appointment Be Like?

The first appointment with a feminist therapist may actually look a little different in some ways than other first appointments. While the therapist will still ask you questions about your background and what brought you to therapy, you will also discuss how the patriarchy or dominant culture groups have affected your life.

Additionally, you will work with the therapist to create an egalitarian relationship between the two of you as a model for your relationships outside of therapy.

Questions to Ask

You might want to put some more thought into the four types of feminist therapy outlined earlier in this article as you are searching for a therapist. Do you want to examine change on the individual level or societal level? Once you’ve answered that question, it will help you narrow down your search.

Modern Femininity: Why Being Untraditional Is So Stressful

7 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Conlin SE. Feminist therapy:A brief integrative review of theory, empirical support, and call for new directions.Women’s Studies International Forum. 2017;62:78-82.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2017.04.002Brown, L. S. (2004). Feminist paradigms of trauma treatment.Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 41(4), 464–471.https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-3204.41.4.464Feminist therapy with severe mental illness and complex … (n.d.-a). https://digitalcommons.du.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1341&context=capstone_mastersHill, M., & Rothblum, E. D. (Eds.). (1996).Classism and feminist therapy: Counting costs.Harrington Park Press/Haworth Press.American Psychological Association. (n.d.).Apa Dictionary of Psychology. American Psychological Association. https://dictionary.apa.org/feminist-therapyRice C, Riley S, LaMarre A, Bailey KA.What a body can do: Rethinking body functionality through a feminist materialist disability lens. Body Image. 2021 Sep;38:95-105. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.03.014. Epub 2021 Apr 8. PMID: 33839649.Frew J, Spiegler MD, eds. Contemporary Psychotherapies for a Diverse World. 1st rev. ed. Routledge; 2013.

7 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Conlin SE. Feminist therapy:A brief integrative review of theory, empirical support, and call for new directions.Women’s Studies International Forum. 2017;62:78-82.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2017.04.002Brown, L. S. (2004). Feminist paradigms of trauma treatment.Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 41(4), 464–471.https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-3204.41.4.464Feminist therapy with severe mental illness and complex … (n.d.-a). https://digitalcommons.du.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1341&context=capstone_mastersHill, M., & Rothblum, E. D. (Eds.). (1996).Classism and feminist therapy: Counting costs.Harrington Park Press/Haworth Press.American Psychological Association. (n.d.).Apa Dictionary of Psychology. American Psychological Association. https://dictionary.apa.org/feminist-therapyRice C, Riley S, LaMarre A, Bailey KA.What a body can do: Rethinking body functionality through a feminist materialist disability lens. Body Image. 2021 Sep;38:95-105. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.03.014. Epub 2021 Apr 8. PMID: 33839649.Frew J, Spiegler MD, eds. Contemporary Psychotherapies for a Diverse World. 1st rev. ed. Routledge; 2013.

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Conlin SE. Feminist therapy:A brief integrative review of theory, empirical support, and call for new directions.Women’s Studies International Forum. 2017;62:78-82.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2017.04.002Brown, L. S. (2004). Feminist paradigms of trauma treatment.Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 41(4), 464–471.https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-3204.41.4.464Feminist therapy with severe mental illness and complex … (n.d.-a). https://digitalcommons.du.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1341&context=capstone_mastersHill, M., & Rothblum, E. D. (Eds.). (1996).Classism and feminist therapy: Counting costs.Harrington Park Press/Haworth Press.American Psychological Association. (n.d.).Apa Dictionary of Psychology. American Psychological Association. https://dictionary.apa.org/feminist-therapyRice C, Riley S, LaMarre A, Bailey KA.What a body can do: Rethinking body functionality through a feminist materialist disability lens. Body Image. 2021 Sep;38:95-105. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.03.014. Epub 2021 Apr 8. PMID: 33839649.Frew J, Spiegler MD, eds. Contemporary Psychotherapies for a Diverse World. 1st rev. ed. Routledge; 2013.

Conlin SE. Feminist therapy:A brief integrative review of theory, empirical support, and call for new directions.Women’s Studies International Forum. 2017;62:78-82.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2017.04.002

Brown, L. S. (2004). Feminist paradigms of trauma treatment.Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 41(4), 464–471.https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-3204.41.4.464

Feminist therapy with severe mental illness and complex … (n.d.-a). https://digitalcommons.du.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1341&context=capstone_masters

Hill, M., & Rothblum, E. D. (Eds.). (1996).Classism and feminist therapy: Counting costs.Harrington Park Press/Haworth Press.

American Psychological Association. (n.d.).Apa Dictionary of Psychology. American Psychological Association. https://dictionary.apa.org/feminist-therapy

Rice C, Riley S, LaMarre A, Bailey KA.What a body can do: Rethinking body functionality through a feminist materialist disability lens. Body Image. 2021 Sep;38:95-105. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.03.014. Epub 2021 Apr 8. PMID: 33839649.

Frew J, Spiegler MD, eds. Contemporary Psychotherapies for a Diverse World. 1st rev. ed. Routledge; 2013.

Hannah Owens, LMSW

Meet Our Review Board

Share Feedback

Was this page helpful?Thanks for your feedback!What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

Was this page helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!

What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

What is your feedback?