ABSTRACT
The feminist approach to clinical social work is best described as a philosophy of psychotherapeutic intervention or as a stance or clinical lens used to guide practice. In that sense it is a metaparadigm. Drawing from a wide variety of traditions, clinical social workers who are feminist in their practice may assess and intervene from a variety of theoretical orientations and use any number of treatment modalities (e.g., individual, couple, group, advocacy, therapeutic case management). In fact, those calling themselves feminist clinicians have published from widely diverse theoretical orientations, including cognitive-behavioral (Mancoske, Standifer, & Cauley, 1994), psychodynamic (Chodorow, 1978; Eichenbaum & Orbach, 1983; Gould, 1981; Jordan & Surrey, 1986), psychosocial (Ruderman, 1986), task centered (Worell & Remer, 1992), family systems (Ault-Riche, 1986; Luepnitz, 1988; Robbins, 1983), constructivist (Neimeyer, 1993), and transpersonal (Cowley, 1993). Although feminist clinical social work encompasses a diversity of treatment interventions, there are core principles and an important body of theory that guide practice. Feminist theory (or the feminist way of seeing the world) has been greatly influenced by certain scholars and historical events that gave rise to feminist orientations to the psychotherapeutic process. This chapter discusses the historical backdrop of feminist clinical practice and the core theoretical constructs of practice as well as the phases of intervention, aspects of the therapeutic process, limitations of the model, and issues in its efficacy.
