Courses | Workshops | Seminars
The FTN will offer opportunities for learning more about feminist perspectives in the psy-disciplines. These will be available in person and via Zoom. If you are interested in offering a learning opportunity through the FTN, please get in touch, providing an overview of your intended course and pedagogy. Course dates and venues will be shared via the FTN newsletter and posted on the website when available.
What is Feminist Therapy?
A recording of this webinar is now available to purchase for a contribution of £10 - £25.
All proceeds will be donated to the Al Mustafa Welfare Trust to support the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Click here to purchase the recording.
This webinar will provide an overview of the emergence of radical feminist therapy, the core principles and ethos underpinning feminist therapies, introduce important thinkers and contributors to its development, alongside considering its contemporary relevance and presence within psychotherapeutic practice. A recording of the webinar will be provided to those unable to attend live. Attendees are invited to submit questions in advance.
Feminist Perspectives in Therapy
This introductory course will consider the early pioneers of feminist therapy and radical therapy movements, feminist therapy as a theoretical orientation, gender role analysis in the context of therapy, elements of a feminist conceptualization, feminist critiques of diagnosis, the relation between feminist therapy and social justice work, feminist therapy ethics and values and considerations for a contemporary feminist therapeutics. This course is suitable for those training and working in the psy-disciplines, or a related field, with an interest in feminist therapies. It will run online over eight weekly sessions, or in person over two full days.
Working with Trans, Non-Binary and Gender-Questioning Clients and Understanding 'Conversion Therapy'
November 4th 1 - 2.30pm
Book here.
Therapy has the potential to provide life-saving support to trans, non-binary and gender-questioning people, by offering a safe and affirming space for exploration. But research points to a lack of comfort amongst therapists in working with gender in the therapy room. One reason for this discomfort is the confusion around ‘conversion therapy’. This is the practice of attempting to change a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation. Although the government has now committed to a ban for all LGBTQ+ people, the inclusion of trans people has been threatened and still remains uncertain. Trans people should be entitled to access safe and ethical therapy without fear of abuse; denying them the same legal protections as anyone else leaves them vulnerable to harmful practices.This webinar is an information session on working with trans, non-binary and gender-questioning clients, and demystifying some of the confusion around 'conversion therapy’. It also addresses the ways in which LGBTQ+ affirmative practices align with feminist therapy. The session will last for one hour and will be held on Zoom. It will not be recorded.
Abolition and Anti-Carcerality in Therapy
Drawing on key abolitionist feminist thinkers and organisers, including Angela Y. Davis, Mariame Kaba and Ruth Wilson Gilmore, this workshop will explore the possibilities of abolitionist-informed therapeutic practice. We will explore the core principles of abolition feminism, consider the carceral binds of the Medical Industrial Complex and how these might manifest within our own practices, and look at current organising efforts within the psy-disciplines that are building an alternative ethics and models of therapeutic care based on transformative and liberatory principles and praxis.
Black Feminism and Mental Health
Black feminism has a rich herstory of Black indigenous healing practices that challenge individualist perspectives on ‘mental health’ in favour of community-oriented care. Self-actualization is connected to collective struggle and self-recovery to political resistance. This workshop / course will discuss works of Black feminists including bell hooks, Audre Lorde and Toni Cade Cambara, alongside the work of contemporary Black feminist therapists whose practices are engaged with remembering and renewing a Black feminist ethics of care for our times.
**seeking (co)facilitator(s) – please get in touch if this is your area of interest and practice**
Feminist Supervision
This course is suitable for supervisors looking to develop feminist perspectives within their supervisory practice. We will explore key characteristics and concerns of a feminist supervisory relationship, including egalitarianism, feminist consciousness, power and gender role analysis, self-disclosure and social justice ethics. Some prior knowledge of feminist theory and therapy will be helpful.
Manifesto Writing for Therapists
As therapists, we are often encouraged to ‘integrate’, to synthesise our theories into coherent. therapeutic approaches. What, however, of the aspects of therapeutic practice that we find intolerable, what of the parts that resist integration and require active refusal? Manifestos have a long history in politics and the arts, yet their role in therapeutic practice has been minimal. This workshop considers how manifesto writing might be utilised as a critical and resistant therapeutic intervention for our times? Using discussion of various feminist manifestos as our starting point, participants will be invited to experiment with writing their own therapist manifestos. We will work together in large and smaller groups, whilst also allowing time for self-writing.This course is suitable for those training and working in the psy-disciplines. It will run online over two half-day sessions, or in person over one full day.
Saturday 2nd December, MayDay Rooms, London. Booking opens September 1st. - POSTPONED
Existential Psychotherapy: feminist perspectives
This course will consider existential psychotherapy through a feminist lens. It will introduce aspects of Simone de Beauvoir’s existential philosophy, particularly her existential analysis of oppression that challenges the apolitical individualism of some existential thinkers, whilst engaging with Black feminist critiques of her work. We will discuss works of philosophers including Iris Marion Young, Kathryn Sophia Belle, Celine Leboeuf and Skye Cleary, considering key notions such as authenticity, bad faith and freedom from an existential-feminist perspective. This course is suitable for those training or working in the psy-disciplines, or a related field, with some prior knowledge of existential psychotherapy. It will run online or in person over six weekly sessions.
Feminist Liberation Psychology
This seminar will consider the roots and praxis of liberation psychology, a diverse movement within the psy-disciplines that seeks to address issues of oppression and social injustice through its practice. We will explore its contemporary manifestations and relevance, looking particularly at contributions from feminist liberation psychologists. Suitable for those interested in therapy, activism and social change.
Spiritual Activism: bridging the personal and political
Drawing on feminist and womanist perspectives, this one day seminar is an introduction to spiritual activism, a spirituality for social change that bridges binaries such as self/society, spiritual/material and personal/political. Underpinned by a relational worldview and “metaphysics of interconnectedness” we will explore spiritual activist works by writers including Gloria Anzaldúa, AnaLouise Keating and Layli Maparyan, in order to consider a feminist therapeutics that is inspired by a spiritual activist epistemology and framework. Suitable for those interested in spirituality, therapy and social change.
Eco-feminist Psychotherapy
This outdoor workshop will explore key principles of eco-feminism, considering how these support an ecologically informed and nature-allied therapeutic practice and ethics of care.
**seeking (co)facilitator(s) – please get in touch if this is your area of interest and practice**