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Silence surrounds the issue of lesbian battering. Lesbian victims of partner abuse are even less likely than are their heterosexual counterparts to seek help in shelters or from counselors because of the overlay of homophobia that exists both in the battered women's movement and among mental health professionals. In addition, many lesbian and many lesbian-supportive therapists hold an idealized and unrealistic picture of the nature of lesbian relationships, leading them to deny the existence of buttering among lesbian couples. The nature, severity, and prevalence of abuse in lesbian relationships is addressed; current counseling and treatment models dealing with battering relationships are analyzed; and a counselor advocacy model for working with lesbian partner abuse, drawing from the experience of activists in the battered women's movement and our clinical experience, is suggested.

During its first decade of practice and scholarship, feminist therapy was rich with political analysis. As feminist therapy has become more professionalized, political analysis has been de-emphasized (Morrow & Hawxhurst, 1998). Multicultural counseling has focused on the importance of building cross-cultural relationships and examining issues related to counselor and client identity development, as well as engaging clients in understanding the context and cultural variables surrounding their lives and the problems they bring to counseling. However, engaging clients in analyzing the sociopolitical forces impacting their lives has been a nebulous activity, left to the counselor or therapist to figure out on her or his own. This chapter addresses points of convergence and paradoxes surrounding the integration of feminist and multicultural perspectives, including issues of inclusion. We also define feminist multicultural counseling (FMC) as an integrative approach to counseling and therapy. Next, we address the implementation of FMC, including the underlying components. Finally, we offer a process-oriented empowerment model for use in FMC.

This article discusses considerations for integrating spirituality into feminist multicultural counseling (FMC) with diverse lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ) women clients. First, the authors describe the historical conflict between LBQ women and conservative religions and explain how hierarchical, patriarchal assumptions and values of conservative religions may have a negative effect on wellbeing and empowerment. Second, the authors describe the positive influences of affirming religions and spiritualities on LBQ women's resilience within oppressive sociocultural contexts. Third, the authors explore the relevance of FMC when integrating spirituality into counseling with LBQ women. Fourth, the authors provide an overview of a model of FMC framework for integrating spirituality into FMC. Finally, we provide a client vignette example. KEYWORDS bisexual, feminist multicultural counseling, lesbian, LGB, queer, spirituality, women In recent years, counselors and psychologists have begun to examine the inclusion and integration of clients' spiritual preferences into the processes of counseling and psychotherapy (A notable gap in this literature pertains to counseling with lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ) women. This article discusses critical considerations for integrating spirituality into feminist multicultural counseling (FMC) with diverse LBQ women clients. First, we describe the historical conflict between conservative religions and spiritualities as they affect LBQ women and explain how hierarchical, patriarchal assumptions and values of conservative religions may have a negative effect on these women's overall psychological well-being and empowerment. Second, we describe the potentially positive influences of affirming religions and spiritualities on LBQ women's ability to cope with oppressive sociocultural contexts. Third, we explore the relevance of FMC when integrating spirituality into counseling practice with LBQ women. Fourth, we provide an overview of a model of FMC counseling as a framework for integrating spirituality into FMC. Next, we provide a client vignette example to illustrate spiritually integrative FMC counseling. Finally, we discuss the implications of this model for LBQ women and make recommendations for practice.