Feminist Dilemmas in Community Mental Health by Lynda L. Warwick page 39-51 Abstract Feminist therapists value the empowerment of clients and the appropriate sharing of the therapist's institutionalized power. Using four case examples, this paper will present clinical situations where the use of the therapist's power interfaces with homophobia, racism, and paternalism in the lives of low-income clients. Abstract Feminist therapy sensitizes our awareness to what is absent and unvoiced. Youngsters in the Child Welfare system are particularly vulnerable to fragmented and disconnected attempts to conceptualize their difficulties, meet their needs, and make decisions about their future. Unprocessed pain and competing agendas generate moral dilemmas that affect information sharing, placement recommendations or the process of uncovering a more complex truth.
Therapists have to select from among the roles of advocate, expert or interpreter.
Case examples and creative interpretation of a biblical text are used to delineate a moral stance that counters fragmentation by bringing integrity into awareness and action. A discussion of ways feminist therapists might morally and ethically work in a penal or other institutional system concludes this paper. When clients have disabilities, questions arise about boundaries, advocacy, and the interface between personal and political agendas. Case studies will present the dilemmas that two women faced concerning the conflict they experienced between their responsibility to themselves. Abstract A growing awareness of the high incidence of child abuse over the past two decades has resulted in a proliferation of preventive service agencies and a societal mandate for heightened scrutiny by mental health professionals of parenting practices.