PLAGIARISM FREE IN 15 HOURS or LESS TECHNIQUES SUMMARY

"Skills for Addressing Gender Issues”

Every helper needs to have the skills of the reflective practitioner that we talked about in Chapter 1. If you recall from that discussion, using your skills as a reflective practitioner is important when differences between helper and client produce misunderstandings. Reflection is the process of identifying a puzzling issue and looking at it from different angles. How can we use reflection to help deal with gender issues? Assumptions about gender are so deeply ingrained that it is difficult to get free of them. Have you thought about how you will react to a transgender, gay, or lesbian client? Using a journal, participating in group discussions, and consulting a supervisor are all reflective ways of getting to a point of view that is broader than your own. In addition to reflection, here are some general strategies and skills that helpers can develop to avoid gender becoming a wall between them and their clients:

Address gender in the assessment process. Understand the importance the client places on gender identity. Be familiar with the terms that gender minority clients use to describe their gender identity and sexual orientation.

Be willing to discuss gender issues that surface in client/helper interactions and misunderstandings. Utilize supervision to discover your attitudes about a client that may be the result of your own gender socialization.

Be particularly aware of how gender affects attitudes about family roles and family violence (Anderson, 1997; Nayak, Byrne, Martin, & Abraham, 2003). Gender bias in career expectations is a major issue that can potentially stunt an individual’s development (Kerka, 1999).

Just as cultural groups tend to stereotype outsiders, the same generalizations arise when we talk about differences between men and women and sexual and gender minorities. These stereotypes can affect how we diagnose a person and how much weight we give symptoms (Lopez, Grover, Holland, & Johnson, 1989). Recognize that clinicians may hold gender stereotypes about what defines a mentally healthy man and a mentally healthy woman (Gold & Hawley, 2001). We may automatically pathologize a man who cries at work and a woman who is a strong leader.

Most of the male/female contrasts we are faced with are those of perception rather than real divisions in behavior. For example, there appears to be no plausible evidence of variability in how men and women express and react to emotions (Wester, Vogel, & Pressly, 2002). Despite this, it is a common belief that women are more emotional and men less so. Popular books such as Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus (Gray, 1992) may reinforce these stereotypes. Again, the lesson is to understand your client as a unique individual shaped by cultural forces."