Feminist Therapy

Abstract

SUMMARY Feminist therapy is a compelling framework to use with women who are survivors of domestic violence due to its focus on power and oppression in women's lives. However, feminist frameworks have been criticized for their lack of attention to the experiences of diverse groups of women, a shortcoming that multicultural frameworks have attempted to address. Very little scholarship exists on the use of feminist therapy with South Asian women, and with Asian American women in general, particularly on its use with domestic violence survivors. The work that does exist suggests that Asian values are in contrast with the principles of feminist therapy for a variety of reasons. Using interviews with practitioners who work with battered South Asian women, this paper suggests that practitioners enact feminist and multicultural principles in their work, by their attention to sociocultural context, their focus on women's empowerment and voicing women's lived experiences, and their consideration of the dynamics of the therapeutic relationship. They hold patriarchy in its complexity accountable for domestic violence in the community. Although the term "feminist" was rarely used, in contrast to work that suggests that Asian women would not identify with self-based models of therapy, practitioners articulated that women do benefit from insight-based therapy, and attempted to work against cultural stereotypes that they often see functionally used to evade addressing trauma and grief.