ABSTRACT
This chapter engages readers in the ethics of equity based practice and the role of self-of-the-therapist in socioculturally attuned family therapy. It reviews the myth of neutrality in the practice of family therapy, considers the importance of developing the contextual self-of-the-therapist, and explores the role of power in clinical practice. Contextual self-of-the-therapist encourages accountability for one’s own social location in relationship to power and privilege and for uncovering and correcting our own biases that contribute to social inequity. Larner examined issues of power and interventions in family therapy from the perspective of Derrida’s philosophy in which power is presented as both real and socially constructed. The chapter discusses dialectical tensions, offering examples of common struggles in equity based clinical practice. Equity based therapists are often in a position of reconciling tensions between encouraging clients’ personal empowerment and helping them negotiate societal constraints that limit their agency.
