1-23

The gendered dimension of psychological distress : an interpretative phenomenological analysis of female clients' counselling and psychotherapy experience

• Καστράνη, Θεοπούλα
• Δεληγιάννη-Κουϊμτζή, Βασιλική

Drawing on a feminist framework the present study attempted to explore the role of gender in women's psychological distress, as manifested in the experience of 27 female counselling and psychotherapy clients. The research approach was qualitative. Semistructured interviews were used and the data were analysed with the methodology of interpretative phenomenological analysis. The results suggest that in the clients' experience gender played an important role both in the problems that brought them to counselling and also in the explanation of women's psychological distress.

• Psychology

• Psychology, Applied
• Feminist psychology
• Psychoanalysis

συμβουλευτική, φύλο, ψυχική οδύνη, counselling, gender, psychological distress

Περιέχει πίνακες και βιβλιογραφία

1. Astbury, J. A. (2006). From hysteria to human rights. In S. E. Romans & M. V. Seeman (Eds.),Women’s mental health: A life-cycle approach (pp. 377-392). Philadelphia: LippincottWilliams & Wilkins.Αυδη, E. (2005). Νέες γυναίκες, ταυτότητα, σώμα και φαγητό: Φεμινιστικές θεωρίες για τιςδιαταραχές στην πρόσληψη τροφής. Στο Β. Δεληγιάννη-Κουϊμτζή, Α. Στογιαννίδου, & Χ.Αθανασιάδου (Επιμ. Έκδ.), Συμβουλευτική στην εφηβική ηλικία με την οπτική του φύλου(σ. 121-144). Θεσσαλονίκη: Τμήμα Ψυχολογίας Α.Π.Θ., Έργο Καλλιρρόη.Belle, D., & Doucet, J. (2003). Poverty, inequality, and discrimination as sources of depressionamong U.S. women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 27, 101-113.Benson, A., & Cockerell, J. (1997). Sociocultural context of mental health nursing care. In B.Thomas, S. Hardy, & P. Cutting (Eds.), Stuart and Sundeen’s mental health nursing:Principles and practice (pp. 71-88). London: Mosby.Boonzaier, F. (2006). A gendered analysis of woman abuse. In T. Shefer, F. Boonzaier, & P.Kiguwa (Eds.), The gender of psychology (pp. 135-150). Lansdowne, Cape Town: UCT Press.Bromberger, J. T., & Matthews, K. A. (1996). A “feminine” model of vulnerability to depres-sive symptoms: A longitudinal investigation of middle-aged women. Journal of Personalityand Social Psychology, 70(3), 591-598.Brown, L. S. (2010). Feminist therapy. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.Chino, A., & Funabiki, D. (1984). A cross-validation of sex differences in the expression ofdepression. Sex Roles, 11, 175-187.Clarkin, J. F., & Levy, K. N. (2004). The influence of client variables on psychotherapy. In M.J. Lambert (Ed.), Bergin and Garfield’s handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change (5thed., pp. 194-226). Chicago: Wiley.Cook, E. P. (1990). Gender and psychological distress. Journal of Counseling and Development,68, 371-375.Cournoyer, R. J., & Mahalik, J. R. (1995) Cross-sectional study of gender role conflict exam-ining college-aged and middle-aged men. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 42, 11-19.Duncan, L. E., & Johnson, D. (2007). Black undergraduate students’ attitude towards coun-seling and counselor preference. College Student Journal, 41(3), 696-719.Enns, C. Z. (1993). Twenty years of feminist counseling and therapy: From naming biases toimplementing multifaceted practice. The Counseling Psychologist, 21(1), 3-87.Good, G. E., & Mintz, L. B. (1990). Gender role conflict and depression in college men:Evidence for compounded risk. Journal of Counseling and Development, 69, 17-20.Henderson, W. J., & Lyddon, W. J. (1997). Client gender role attitudes and perception of counselor characteristics. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 19(2), 182-190.Herrera, V. M., Koss, M. P., Bailey, J., Yuan, N. P., & Lichter, E. I. (2006). Survivors of maleviolence: Research and training initiatives to facilitate recovery from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. In J. Worell & C. D. Goodheart (Eds.), Handbook of girls’ andwomen’s psychological health (pp. 455-466). New York: Oxford University Press.Hill, M., & Ballou, M. (1998). Making therapy feminist: A practice survey. Women and Therapy,21(2), 1-16.Kaplan, A. G. (1986). The “self-in-relation”: Implications for depression in women.Psychotherapy, 23, 234-226.Καστράνη, Θ. (2012). Φύλο, ψυχική οδύνη και συμβουλευτική διαδικασία: Μία ερμηνευτικήφαινομενολογική ανάλυση της εμπειρίας γυναικών από τη θεραπευτική σχέση.Αδημοσίευτη διδακτορική διατριβή, Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης,Θεσσαλονίκη.Klonoff, E. A., Landrine, H., & Campbell, R. (2000). Sexist discrimination may account forwell-known gender differences in psychiatric symptoms. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 24,93-99.Kohen, D. (2000). Introduction. In D. Kohen (Ed.) Women and mental health (pp. 1-16).London: Routledge.Kornstein, S. G., & Clayton, A. H. (2002). Preface. In S. G. Kornstein & A. H. Clayton (Eds.),Women’s mental health (pp. xi-xiv). New York: Guilford Press.Letherby, G. (2003). Feminist research in theory and practice. Buckingham: Open UniversityPress.Lin, Y. (2010). Counselor preferences of white university students: Ethnicity and other impor-tant characteristics. University of Tennessee (Master’s thesis). Retrieved 18 June 2011from: http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/725Lips, H. (2006). A new psychology of women: Gender, culture, and ethnicity (3rd ed.). Boston:McGraw-Hill.Lorber, J., & Moore, L. J. (2002). Gender and the social construction of illness (2nd ed.). WalnutCreek, CA: Altamira Press.McLeod, J. (1994). Doing counselling research. London: Sage.Mintz, L. B., & O’Neil, J. M. (1990). Gender roles, sex and the process of psychotherapy: Manyquestions and few answers. Journal of Counseling and Development, 68, 381-387.Moradi, B., & Funderburk, J. R. (2006). Roles of perceived sexist events and perceived socialsupport in the mental health of women seeking counseling. Journal of CounselingPsychology, 53(4), 464-473.Morgan, T., Ness, D., & Robinson, M. (2003). Students’ help-seeking behaviours by gender,racial background and student status. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 37(2), 151-166.Nam, S. K., Chu, H. J., Lee, M. K., Lee, J. H., Kim, N., & Lee, S. M. (2011). A meta-analysisof gender differences in attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. Journalof American College Health, 59(2), 110-116.Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Larson, J., & Grayson, C. (1999). Explaining the gender difference indepressive symptoms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(5), 1061-1072.Ogrodniczuk, J. S., Piper, W. E., Joyce, A. S., & McCallum, M. (2001). Effect of patient genderon outcome in two forms of short-term individual psychotherapy. The Journal ofPsychotherapy Practice and Research, 10, 69-78.O’Malley, K. M., & Richardson, S. (1985). Sex bias in counseling: Have things changed? Journalof Counseling and Development, 63(5), 294-299.Pikus, C. F., & Heavey, C. L. (1996). Client preferences for therapist gender. Journal of CollegeStudent Psychotherapy, 10(4), 35-43.Rhodes, A. E., Goering, P. N., To, T., & Williams, J. I. (2002). Gender and outpatient mentalhealth service use. Social Science and Medicine, 54(1), 1-10.Seem, S. R., & Johnson, E. (1998). Gender bias among counseling trainees: A study of caseconceptualization. Counselor Education and Supervision, 37(4), 257-270.Sheu, H., & Sedlacek, W. E. (2004). An exploratory study of help-seeking attitudes and copingstrategies among college students by race and gender. Measurement and Evaluation inCounseling and Development, 37, 130-143.Silverman,W. K., & Carter, R. (2006). Anxiety disturbance in girls and women. In J. Worell &C. D. Goodheart (Eds.), Handbook of girls’ and women’s psychological health (pp. 60-68).New York: Oxford University Press.Smith, J. A. (1996). Beyond the divide between cognition and discourse: Using interpretativephenomenological analysis in health psychology. Psychology and Health, 11, 261-271.Smith, J. A., & Eatough, V. (2007). Interpretative phenomenological analysis. In E. Lyons &A. Coyle (Eds.), Analysing qualitative data in psychology (pp. 35-50). London: Sage.Smith, J. A., Flowers, P., & Larkin, M. (2009). Interpretative phenomenological analysis: Theory,method and research. London: Sage.Smolak, L. (2006). Body image. In J. Worell & C. D. Goodheart (Eds.), Handbook of girls’ andwomen’s psychological health (pp. 69-76). New York: Oxford University Press.Snell, W. E. Jr., Hampton, B. R., & McManus, B. (1992). The impact of counselor and partic-ipant gender on willingness to discuss relational topics: Development of the RelationshipDisclosure Scale. Journal of Counseling and Development, 70(3), 409-416.Speight, S. L., & Vera, E. M. (2005). University counseling center clients’ expressed prefer-ences for counselors: A four-year archival exploration. Journal of College StudentPsychotherapy, 19(3), 55-68.Στογιαννίδου, Α. (2005). Κακοποίηση-παραμέληση στην εφηβική ηλικία. Στο Β. Δεληγιάννη-Κουϊμτζή, Α. Στογιαννίδου, & Χ. Αθανασιάδου (Επιμ. Έκδ.), Συμβουλευτική στηνεφηβική ηλικία με την οπτική του φύλου (σ. 161-182). Θεσσαλονίκη: Τμήμα ΨυχολογίαςΑ.Π.Θ., Έργο Καλλιρρόη.Storey, L. (2007). Doing interpretative phenomenological analysis. In E. Lyons & A. Coyle(Eds.), Analysing qualitative data in psychology (pp. 51-64). London: Sage.Swim, J. K., Hyers, L. L., Cohen, L. L., & Ferguson, M. J. (2001). Everyday sexism: Evidencefor its incidence, nature, and psychological impact from three daily diary studies. Journal ofSocial Issues, 57, 31-53.Ussher, J. (2007). Gender issues and women’s health. In S. Ayers, A. Baum, C. McManus, S.Newman, K. Wallston, J. Weinman, & R. West (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of psychologyhealth and medicine (2nd ed., pp. 92-96). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Whiffen, V. E., & Clark, S. E. (1997). Does victimization account for sex differences in depres-sive symptoms? British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 36, 185-193.Whiffen, V. E., & Demidenko, N. (2006). Mood disturbance across the life span. In J. Worell& C. D. Goodheart (Eds.), Handbook of girls’ and women’s psychological health (pp. 51-59).New York: Oxford University Press.Worell, J., & Remer, P. (2003). Feminist perspectives in therapy: Empowering diverse women (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.