Funhouse Mirror Reflections: Resisting Internalized Sexism in Family Therapy and Building A Women-Affirming Practice

ABSTRACT

Despite increasingly nuanced conversations about women’s issues in family therapy, discussion about internalized oppression in women remains limited. Without addressing internalized sexism within our clients and ourselves as therapists, the growth that women clients experience in therapy and society will remain limited by sexist dominant discourses. In this paper, we have explored the effects of four dimensions of internalized sexism on the therapy process, discussed the metaphor of the funhouse mirror in family therapy, and provided questions that therapists can use to assess for the ways in which their own lives may be influenced by internalized oppressive discourses. Finally, we offer suggestions for building a woman-affirming practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexism
• internalized oppression
• feminism
• self-of-the-therapist

Acknowledgments

I, Maria Bermudez, would like to acknowledge Dr. Elizabeth Sharp at Texas Tech University for being a driving force in my development as a feminist scholar and for our discussions related to internalized sexism, over 15 years ago.