Breaking the Legacy of Silence: A Feminist Perspective on Therapist Attraction to Clients

Authors: Renata Carneiro, Jody Russon, Allena Moncrief, Erica Wilkins

Abstract:

Views on therapists- attraction have influenced the ethical and professional development of the mental health fields. Because the majority of therapist attraction literature (63.6%) has been conducted from a psychoanalytic standpoint, approaches to attraction from feminist perspectives have not been adequately developed. Considering the lack of a feminist voice regarding attraction, this article attempts to offer a feminist perspective on this issue. The purpose of this article is to offer a feminist perspective on the phenomenon of attraction in order to raise awareness about the importance of power inequalities, intersectionalities, contextual variables and the need for action in the field.

Keywords: attraction, feminism, power inequality, silence

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1061747

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