The Gender Discourse in Therapy Questionnaire: A Tool for Training in Feminist-Informed Therapy

Abstract

Although accredited Marriage and Family Therapy programs require training in gender issues, therapists in training settings may still have difficulty identifying the influences of gender discourse on clients' lives and on therapeutic practices. The Gender Discourse in Therapy Questionnaire was developed as a tool for observational and textual analysis of therapy processes in conversations about gender and gender-related power. It has been used in exploratory process research, and here was used by four therapists in a Marriage and Family Therapy doctoral program to determine its usefulness as a clinical training aid. Each of the four therapists responded to the questionnaire with regard to a recent therapy session. In addition, therapists provided feedback regarding the questionnaire's usefulness as a training tool. Therapists' responses to the questionnaire and their reflections on its usefulness indicate that the instrument helped to identify gender discourse that had previously gone unnoticed and fostered ideas for improving explorations of gender in therapy.

KEYWORDS:

• family therapy training
• feminist family therapy
• gender
• research
• survey
• text analysis
• process research
• reflexive training
• feminist research
• gendered power
• psychotherapy