This book provides a comprehensive exploration of the challenges women may face as they navigate the multiple roles that they carry. Attention is given to the unique cultural identities that women embody and suggestions are provided to help counselors acknowledge the various aspects of each client's intersectional identity. In addition to theory, we provide suggestions for practical application of relevant interventions and strategies for helping women achieve their goals. A foundation is provided that explore the multiple layers of development that occur during adolescence, adulthood, midlife, and older adulthood. Women face numerous challenges related to identity development and relationships. These challenges can generate psychological and emotional distress that lead women to seek professional assistance in finding solutions to their issues. With more choices than in generations past, women can face unexpected and unanticipated challenges and barriers to their individual and relational development. This book is organized around contemporary developmental and relational rites of passage women experience in adulthood. Traditional rites of passage include birth, menarche, marriage, and death. These events still hold significance but women's lives today follow expanded and complex trajectories. Numerous transitions, such as attending college, navigating employment opportunities and the relational challenges that women face in various areas of life, are presented and addressed in this book from a clinician's perspective providing practitioners with insight and practical knowledge. In this book, we cover choices related to such topics as career, relationships, parenthood, and support networks. We also explore the struggles that women face including abuse, depression, anxiety, feelings of low self-worth, loss, and addictions. Best practices in counseling women are highlighted and utilized in case study examples. The relationships created by women impact their lives and this book helps the reader to gain insight into how women can take ownership for their relationships and choices.
Table of Contents Contributors Acknowledgement Part I: Foundational Perspectives and Theory 1 Re-envisioning the Feminine Ideal: Women are the Sum of Many Diverse Parts Adrienne N. Erby 2 Integrating Feminist Theory into Counseling Practice Suzanne Degges-White 3 Integrating Relational Cultural Therapy into Counseling Practice Katherine Hermann-Turner Part II: Development from Adolescence through Older Adulthood 4 Counseling Adolescent Girls Marcela Kepic 5 Counseling Emerging Adult Women Marcela Kepic 6 Counseling Midlife Women Suzanne Degges-White 7 Counseling Older Women Marcela Kepic Part III: Career Counseling 8 Career Counseling over the Careerspan Wendy Killam Part IV: Counseling Concerns of Relational Focus 9 Counseling Women facing Family-of-Origin Issues Lucy Parker and Dana Isawi 10 Counseling Contemporary Couples Rebecca Meeks, Jessica Shull, Ana Ulloa Estrada, and Bonnie Cardillo 11 Counseling Women facing Contemporary Family Challenges Elizabeth O'Brien 12 Counseling Women Survivors of Physical and Emotional Abuse Anne Shragal 13 Counseling Strategies to Help Women Build Healthy Support Networks Suzanne Degges-White Part V: Individual Concerns 14 Counseling Women with Body Image Concerns Rachel Brandoff and Marcela Kepic 15 Counseling Women with Low Self-Esteem Lucy Parker 16 Counseling Women with Depression Marcela Kepic and Wendy Killam 17 Counseling Women with Anxiety Lucy Parker and Nina Mendez 18 Counseling Women with Addictions Suzanne Degges-White Part VI: Caring for Self and Caring for Others 19 Counseling with Chronic Illness and Disability Yuleinys A. Castillo 20 Counseling Women who Caregive Marcela Kepic and Kim Tassinari Part VII: Coping with Grief and Loss over the Lifespan 21 Counseling Women who have Lost their Mothers Suzy Wise and Elisa Woodruff 22 Counseling Women who have Lost a Partner Marcela Kepic 23 Counseling Women suffering from Fetal or Perinatal Loss Donna Gibson 24 Counseling Women who have Lost a Child Suzanne Degges-White
