Women On The Couch

Psychotherapeutic Work with Sexual Harassment

Challenging sexual harassment, objectification, domestic violence and sexual abuse have been on the feminizt agenda for decades. We have new words to describe behaviors such as ‘gaslighting’ as we discover more about the ways in which we come to feel undermined and controlled by the imbalance of power between the sexes. A central scaffold of psychotherapy is that together, therapist and patient can hold ambiguity, complexity and powerful emotional resonance without rushing to clear-cut explanations and answers.

How has the current volcanic eruption of women speaking about their experiences of sexual harassment and abuse changed the kind of material that is brought to us as therapists by both women and men, and the way we respond to it? How can psychotherapists and feminizts contribute to a deeper understanding of these power issues?