Campbell, Ambre (2015) Feminist Therapy: Ethnomethodological Analysis. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
What occurs in feminist therapy has been a central topic in the feminist therapy literature for many years (Bruns & Kaschak, 2010). However, most research to date has focussed on identifying instances of principle-informed practice but has been unable to explain what happens practically in a feminist therapy session. Additionally, how feminist therapy might best be studied has not been extensively questioned and methodological interest has not progressed much past contrasting the merits of qualitative and quantitative approaches for examining general feminist therapy practices (see Bruns & Kaschak, 2010 for a review). To better understand the real nature of feminist therapy, the present study endeavours to raise awareness of this concern and contains exploratory work testing an alternative method of analysis using an ethnomethodology approach to show what happens in feminist therapy, and so to be able to distinguish it from generic good therapy by getting to “know the thing that we are trying to explain” (Asch, 1952/ 1987, p. 65). The ethnomethodology approach asks what more is there to know about feminist therapy that is so familiar and ordinary, and that researchers rely upon to conduct their studies and produce their results (cf., Garfinkel, 1996) that formal methodologies and formal analyses cannot provide. This exploratory case study adopted an ethnomethodology approach in order to explore the praxis question in a particular single case with two women during a feminist therapy session. The researcher became immersed in the data of the conversation and identified a number of key themes: (a) building a safe environment for chatting, (b) reciprocity, (c) selfdisclosure, (d) genuineness and openness, and (e) reflection of strength and inconsistencies. The talk during the analysed session contained talk that was similar to that of a conversation between two women, but also contained a number of important differentiators that enabled the work that was done. The results demonstrated that there is value in exploring feminist therapy using the ethnomethodological approach. As a single case study by design, the findings cannot be generalised to other cases and hence the observations made through this exploratory study could not be generalised to other feminist therapy sessions or to feminist therapy in general. To extend this research it is recommended that further sessions of feminist therapy are analysed using the ethnomethodological approach in order to further explore what can be achieved.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Steven Christensen |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Sep 2025 02:53 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Sep 2025 02:53 |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52193 |
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