Anne Ehrlich

Feminist psychotherapy is based on the assumption that women in this world have specific life experiences that must be taken into account therapeutically. In conventional psychotherapies, suffering is often individualized; the social context of a male-dominated, capitalist and racist culture and its real influence on the psychological state is often ignored by the people who live and grow up in this culture. The consequence is constant confrontation by the feeling that "something is wrong with us" when we are overwhelmed, have crises, or develop "symptoms". Feminist psychotherapy extends knowledge about the functioning of the human psyche to include knowledge about social contexts, which feminist analysis has been providing for decades with a sharp eye. This double theoretical anchoring leads to a particularly broad view of women and their differing lives. A benevolent and strengthening view of oneself is enabled by the recognition of survival strategies, resistance, strength and the knowledge of our individual and collective abilities of growth.