By following my instincts and honoring my inner senses, the beliefs and attitudes that I was taught lost their influence. In similar ways, I attempt to assist clients to become fair witnesses to their struggles, and help them to notice the ways in which they have internalized aspects of their cultures that they need to question, challenge and fight to resist. Therapists can normalize the struggle by identifying the common thread of many female experiences within their cultures - those that imply over and over that women are not enough, or too much, and will never measure up to the ideal. In treatment, I work to assist clients on a new journey of transformation. I stay in tune to the fact that after every session, they return to a culture or system that may not support their recovery of voice, and so may resist their efforts to express themselves more authentically.
Treatment is, therefore, more than symptom management.
It must not only help clients to understand the meaning of their symptoms, but must also help them to trust their voices when confronted with silencing forces, and to cope adaptively when those forces will not change. Out of this exploration with clients, I hope to create a new system that will encourage the use of voice, build up true self and provide coping tools to deal with unchanging forces outside the treatment environment. As an activist, I work as an agent of change - to enable internal transformation and encourage cultural transformation. Instead of heeding the voice of suppressing influence, I tell women to beware when they hear messages that say they are not enough or too much of something. Instead, I tell them to be particularly sensitive to these messages, and to confront and challenge them in whatever form they occur.