Teresa McDowell

Feminist-Informed Critical Multiculturalism Considerations for Family Research

In this article, the authors draw from feminist, critical, and multicultural research traditions to identify fundamental assumptions for researching from a feminist-informed, critical, multicultural stance. Core considerations include amplifying marginalized voices, interrogating the politics of knowledge production, ensuring research benefits to those at the center of analysis, attending to culture and context, holding ourselves accountable as researchers for our own multicultural competence, and using diverse methodologies to support social equity. They offer examples of critical multicultural research and argue for the potential of this approach to contribute to a corrective research agenda in the field of family studies.

Transformative Learning through International Immersion: Building Multicultural Competence in Family Therapy and Counseling

This study explores the experiences of graduate students who completed one of two international courses facilitated by family therapy faculty in a U.S. masters-level counseling psychology department. Participants reported that international courses were personally and professionally transformative. Spending time in a foreign country gave them opportunities to learn from cultural differences, ultimately increasing the social and global awareness required for multicultural sensitivity. Experiential learning, reflection, and dialogue resulted in raised critical consciousness among participants. In this article, we discuss the transformational learning processes embedded in international courses and the potential benefits of these experiences on the development of multicultural sensitivity in family therapists and counselors in training.

Exploring the Racial Experience of Therapists in Training: A Critical Race Theory Perspective

This qualitative study focused on the experiences of students of diverse racial and national origins in order to construct knowledge about race and racism in marriage and family therapy (MFT) education. Research was completed with a critical race theory (CRT) interpretive lens. Themes of racial awareness, racism, strength and resistance, and creating kinship resonated with literature on critical multicultural education and were consistent with tenets of CRT, including acknowledging racism and recognizing the impact of multiple intersecting identities; interrogating socially constructed, dominant-culture knowledge; valuing voices from marginalized locations; and commitment to social justice. Implications for MFT training and practice are discussed.

Decolonizing Academia: Intersectionality, Participation, and Accountability in Family Therapy and Counseling

In this paper we offer a framework for supporting decolonizing practices in family therapy and counseling that reflect values of human diversity, collaboration and participation, distributive justice, and self-determination. To this end, we propose a vision of social justice involving at least three foundational elements of professional development and organizational leadership: intersectionality, participation, and accountability. We include case examples throughout to illustrate our points and offer practical suggestions for decolonizing praxis in the academy. We conclude by revealing dilemmas we have encountered as a result of these efforts.

Raising Critical Consciousness in Family Therapy Supervision

Although family therapy literature reflects an increased consideration of cultural and contextual issues, there is little guidance on how to address intersecting forms of oppression and privilege within the supervisory system. In this article, we show the importance of critical consciousness in addressing these issues. Additionally, we provide concrete suggestions and tools for developing critical consciousness through supervision. The practices and tools we provide resulted from ongoing and deliberate discussions of an inquiry group that consisted of supervisor candidates and supervisors of supervision. Our goal in writing this article is to describe the strategies that we have found to be crucial in becoming more competent supervisors and therapists.

Mapping Social Capital: A Critical Contextual Approach For Working With Low-Status Families

Promoting justice in therapeutic work with families demands an analysis of contextual factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, and social class in relationship to societal systems of power, privilege, and oppression. A broad understanding of these dynamics, however, is inadequate to inform our work with families whose social capital severely limits available life choices, social influence, and material resources. In this article, we describe working from a critical contextual perspective to consider how families gain and/or lose social capital through participation in multiple contexts. We introduce a technique for mapping social capitol within and across multiple systems as well as suggestions for interventions aimed at increasing the social well-being of low-status families. These include considering the dynamics of boundary crossing, recognizing and optimizing resistance to oppressive dynamics, finding ways to limit constraints and optimize opportunities, and developing webs of allies to support family functioning and access to resources. We offer the example of 13-year-old Pepe as a case in point.

Diversity and Social Justice Issues in Family Therapy Literature: A Decade Review

ABSTRACT In this paper, we report on our (a) review of diversity and social justice issues as represented across articles published in five family therapy journals between 1995 and 2005, and (b) in-depth analysis of the content of diversity and social justice related articles in one of the five journals (the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy [JMFT]) during the same time period. Our primary goal is to contribute to the discourse on diversity and social justice by examining how frequently these issues have been discussed across family therapy journals and in what ways they are talked about. The results of our research indicate that there has been an overall increase in articles focusing on diversity and social justice over time, although some dimensions of cultural identity, including class, age, and nation of origin, have been severely underrepresented. Our in-depth analysis of articles in the JMFT yielded trends in how diversity and social justice have been discussed as well as suggestions for clinical practice.

Social Class in Family Therapy Education: Experiences of Low SES Students

In this article, we report the results of a national survey of students in COAMFTE-accredited family therapy programs who self-identify as coming from lower- or working-class backgrounds. Results of the study reveal opportunity and tension relative to family, friends, and community because of social mobility associated with graduate education. Participants describe family therapy education as middle-class centered, pointing to lack of attention to social class, marginalization, classism, and unacknowledged class barriers as salient experiences in their graduate programs. Finally, participants share a number of suggestions for program improvement.

Exploring Social Class: Voices of Inter-Class Couples.

Social class is not often discussed or examined in-depth in couple and family therapy research and literature even though social class shapes familial relationships and is considered an important variable in marital satisfaction. In this qualitative study, we explored the perceptions of eight couples who made lasting commitments across class lines by asking them about the impact of their social class backgrounds on their relationships. Three categories of themes emerged including: (a) differences and similarities in values and attitudes toward education, work, money, and class awareness/classism, (b) relationship issues involving families of origin, friends, and class-based couple conflict, and (c) differences in economic resources, social capital and privileges/opportunities. Implications for assessment and treatment of couples are included.

Peace on Earth/War at Home: The Role of Emotion Regulation in Social Justice Work

The present article discusses the role of emotions in translating critical awareness of social inequities into action. Our work is premised on the assumption that emotions play a key role in social justice work by not only fueling capacity for resistance but also hindering ability to resist injustice effectively or even prompting unwitting contribution to oppression. Drawing from the clinical psychology literature, we introduce the concepts of psychological flexibility, emotion regulation, and mindfulness to the discourse on social justice in therapy and counseling. We argue that emotion regulation enhances our capacity for social justice work. We entertain the following questions: Is social justice work influenced by emotions? Do emotions hinder or fuel our work to dismantle systems of injustice?