Transforming psychological practice with women: An introduction.

Abstract

There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of books on diversity urging psychologists and others to become more knowledgeable and sensitive to diverse populations of people. So why read yet another book on diversity? How is this book different, and how will it help psychologists in practice, be it clinical, research, or teaching? Our aim here is ambitious. We believe psychology and its practitioners need to understand, appreciate, and put into practice the complexities of working with groups of women and girls who embody and live with multiple layers of diverse identities. And this situation is far more common than one would first anticipate in working with women. As but one example, a clinician can explore a layer of identity with a Latina woman and find a Puerto Rican, bisexual mother who has decided her Latina identity takes precedence over her gender and openly embraces that identity, but hides her sexual orientation. In this book, our authors tackle the complexities of working with women and girls who live at the "borders," negotiatingCopyright American Psychological Association. Not for further distribution. rice, enns, and nuttmultiple identities related to race, ethnicity, class, geography, sexual orientation, and disability. It is not an easy task to help these clients not only to understand their complex path, but also to choose the right interventions, assessments, and resources. This book is chock full of helpful perspectives, techniques, and case studies for psychologists and practitioners who want to be more effective and knowledgeable about working with diverse groups of women. Further, we believe if these issues and knowledge base are centralized in psychological practice, there will be a real transformation on how we understand, conceptualize, and treat diverse groups of women and girls.Transformation has been a central goal within the psychology of women for many years (Crawford & Marecek, 1989). As early as 1968, Weisstein (1993) declared that "psychology has nothing to say" (p. 197) about women's experiences. She criticized psychologists for ignoring the social context of women's lives and relying on speculative theories that were not supported by evidence. Twenty years after Weisstein's famous speech, Crawford and Marecek (1989) defined the goal of transformation as requiring self-reflective attitudes and changing the norms, practices, and content of psychology.This book represents an effort to further this transformation in a variety of ways. Diversity and empowerment, two words that are highlighted in the subtitle of this book, are sometimes identified as buzzwords that have been overused or have limited meaning. We use these words deliberately and purposefully. By using the word diversity, we aim to underline the importance of all women's experiences. Diversity involves centralizing the experiences, strengths, and struggles of women of color and from other marginalized groups, drawing our attention to the social-ecological context and complexities of their lives. This book uses an intersectional...