Competencies for Addressing Gender and Power in Couple Therapy: A Socio Emotional Approach

Abstract

Power imbalances between partners are intrinsic to relationship distress and intricately connected to emotional experience, couple communication processes, and socio cultural contexts such as gender. The ability to work with the power dynamics between partners is thus critical to the practice of couple therapy. However, few practical guidelines for dealing with this issue are available. The authors present seven clinical competencies regarding gender and power issues that they identified by examining their own work: (a) identify enactments of cultural discourse, (b) attune to underlying socio cultural emotion, (c) name underlying power processes, (d) facilitate relational safety, (e) foster mutual attunement, (f) create a model of equality, and (g) facilitate shared relationship responsibility. Each competency is illustrated through a case example. The competencies represent an over-arching guide to practice that may be integrated with other clinical approaches and is particularly useful for training and supervision.

From Knowing to Doing: Guidelines for Socioculturally Attuned Family Therapy

“…Task analysis research found that identifying and naming power issues are not sufficient; transforming inequitable power patterns needs therapist leadership (Williams, Galick, Knudson‐Martin, & Huenergardt, ). This is where therapists often feel stymied (Knudson‐Martin et al., ). Supporting relational equity requires being intentional about how one's interventions reinforce or disrupt societal power inequities.…”

The Primacy of Discourse in the Study of Gender in Family Therapy

“…Family relations scholars have quantitatively approached the study of (sexist) gender role attitudes, exploring their link to other constructs, such as marital satisfaction, role overload, and housework (Helms, Walls, Crouter, & McHale, 2010;Shapiro, 2014;Toomey, Updegraff, Umaña-Taylor, & Jahromi, 2015). Most family therapy scholarship on gender and gender-based power is qualitative and involves analyses of interview data involving therapists (Goodwin, Kaestle, & Piercy, 2013;Keeling & Piercy, 2007;Knudson-Martin et al, 2015;Parker, 2009) or family members (Cowdery et al, 2009;Maciel et al, 2009;Reynolds and Knudson-Martin, 2015), with some studies exploring recorded interactions between therapists and clients (Ward & Knudson-Martin, 2012).…”

Addressing Culture, Gender, and Power with Asian American Couples: Application of Socio‐Emotional Relationship Therapy

“…Socio‐Emotional Relationship Therapy (SERT) is an approach that takes this position. It begins with sociocultural attunement and works from a model of mutual support and equality that challenges the effects of societal‐based power processes (Knudson‐Martin & Huenergardt, , ; Knudson‐Martin et al., ). In this study we explore how we apply these practices in our work with North American heterosexual couples of Asian heritage.…”