Studies have shown such an alliance to be essential to the effectiveness of psychotherapy. Therefore, it is believed gender affects more than just client and therapist relations, but also has the ability to affect therapy diagnosis, treatment selection, length of treatment, and therapeutic outcome.
How does gender affect therapy outcomes?
Therefore, it is believed gender affects more than just client and therapist relations, but also has the ability to affect therapy diagnosis, treatment selection, length of treatment, and therapeutic outcome. Social influence is when an individual’s thoughts or actions are affected by other people, real or imagined.
How do you deal with gender dysphoria?
Treatment 1 Changes in gender expression and role. This might involve living part time or full time in another gender role that is consistent with your gender identity. 2 Medical treatment. Some people use hormone therapy to seek maximum feminization or masculinization. ... 3 Behavioral health treatment. ... 4 Other steps. ...
Does gender have a role in the initiation of treatment?
Most recent studies suggest that gender either has no effect on initiation, or that if it does have an effect, women are more likely than men to initiate treatment (Weisner et al. 2001; Green et al. 2002; Timko et al. 2002).
Why do men and Women postpone treatment differently?
Again, women and men sometimes postpone treatment or drop out of it for different reasons. Women may be more likely to put off treatment in order to continue caring for the family, while men may be more likely to avoid it out of denial. Jennifer points out:
How does gender affect health care?
Gender inequality also poses barriers for women and girls to access health information and critical services, including restrictions on mobility, lack of decision-making autonomy, limited access to finances, lower literacy rates and discriminatory attitudes of healthcare providers.
How does gender bias affect patient care?
Gender bias has a significant negative effect on medical diagnosis and the quality of healthcare people receive. It can lead to substantial delays in diagnosis, as well as misdiagnosis and even death. Gender bias most severely affects women and other marginalized genders.
How does gender affect medical research?
Most research on gender bias in healthcare focuses on men and women. Overall, it shows that gender bias reduces the speed, accuracy, and effectiveness of medical diagnoses. The impact is most severe for women. However, it has an effect on men, too.
What is the importance of gender equal treatment?
Gender equality prevents violence against women and girls. It's essential for economic prosperity. Societies that value women and men as equal are safer and healthier. Gender equality is a human right.
How does gender bias affect nursing?
Gender bias in nursing education impedes recruitment and retention of males into the profession. Nurse educators who are unaware of men's historical contributions to the profession may unknowingly perpetuate gender bias.
How does gender inequality affect women's health?
Gender impacts our health and wellbeing outcomes The gender pay gap and Inequality at work puts women at higher risk of physical and mental illness. Gender-based violence and harassment affect how and when women access and use public services and spaces.
How does gender affect social determinants of health?
Evidence shows that gender norms – social expectations of appropriate roles and behaviours for males and females – influence overall health and well-being, as does the social reproduction of these norms in institutions and cultural practices.
Why is gender bias significant in psychology?
Additionally, interpersonal and intrapersonal gender biases create stereotypes that are more likely to associate scientific work and brilliance with men than women. The study found that both women and men are socialized to accept and conform to gender stereotypes and will seek out careers that enforce such stereotypes.
What is feminism in medicine?
An approach that integrates feminist epistemology and methodology into the study and practice of medicine and strives to understand the complexity of gender can improve the health of both women and men [79, 80] worldwide.
How does gender affect development?
Gender also affects physical growth in infancy. Weight, length, and head circumference are greater in boys than in girls throughout the first year of life (Geary, Pringle, Rodeck, Kingdom, & Hindmarsh, 2003). These growth differences are related to hormonal differences between boys and girls.
What are the positive effects of gender equality?
Benefits of gender equalityFairness. Fairness, equality and justice are the foundation of human rights. ... Economic prosperity. Gender equality is not only the right thing to do – it's also the smart thing to do. ... Health and happiness. ... Peace and security. ... Limitless possibilities.
How does gender equality prevent violence?
Some of the research findings regarding gender economic equality include: States with higher female participation in the labor force exhibit lower levels of international violence, and are less likely to use military force to resolve international conflict.
How does gender affect therapy?
The purpose of this study is to explore clients and therapists’ experiences of gender within the therapeutic relationship and how they affect overall treatment effectiveness and duration. Because gender issues create obstacles or advance progress, this paper discusses how gender differences affect the formation of the therapeutic relationship and how these effects alter therapy outcome. Clients expect male therapists to be more controlling in therapy, while they perceive females to more supportive; therefore, seeing a male therapist is likely to limit initial disclosures by clients. It has also been determined that a therapist’s credibility can be reduced based on their gender’s accepted roles. From a therapist’s standpoint, gender has been shown to alter their expectations in clients. Female therapists have been found to be more tolerant and accepting during the therapeutic process- displaying more unconditional positive regard. However, male therapists show more sensitivity to gender regarding their behavior and outlook towards clients; they’re more critical of females and hold males to higher expectations. Both client and therapist perceptions of gender have been shown to hinder the interaction between client and therapist; however, little focus has been given to how these perceptions play out in the development of a therapeutic alliance. Studies have shown such an alliance to be essential to the effectiveness of psychotherapy. Therefore, it is believed gender affects more than just client and therapist relations, but also has the ability to affect therapy diagnosis, treatment selection, length of treatment, and therapeutic outcome.
How does gender affect conversation in therapy?
If gender results in different responses within these exchanges, a possibility because gender influences conversation, therapists could create inequality rather than change. A study by Zimmerman and Murphy (1997) evaluated a component of such conversations. They examined therapists’ interruptions during family therapy, to see if women and men clients were treated differently. Their study used gender of the therapist as an interaction effect in regards to previous research suggesting gender has a significant consequence to the therapy dialogue. Results found male therapists to describe more problems in female clients than did their female counterparts. Male therapists were also seen to portray clients in a more negative light. However, the therapist’s gender was not determined to play a role in the number of therapist interruptions during therapy. Nonetheless, female clients were observed to be interrupted more often than male clients. Depending on the therapist’s view of the client’s gender, interruptions could be being used or viewed as a power tactic. It is important to consider that therapists may use such tactics as a result of their own socialization. Therapists may simply interrupt women clients more, simply because it is a common feature of conversation (Zimmerman & Murphy, 1997). .
How do male and female therapists differ?
Within social science research a lot has been said about the development of males and females. It has been posited that each gender is socialized differently to the norms of a specific society. For example, females are taught important values such as empathic attachment that urges them to use expressive functions. On the other hand, males are encouraged to separate themselves from such feelings and to look at things from a more functional viewpoint. Therefore, female therapists are seen to encourage expression and possess a higher tolerance for developmentally earlier needs, wishes, and feelings. In contrast, male therapists tend to work in the here and now with their clients and view female clients as “sicker” than their male clients (Korner & Goldberg, 1996). Korner and Goldberg (1996) studied this potential gender bias within therapy by asking 91 therapists to give their thoughts concerning treatment on male and female client vignettes. Both male and female therapists felt female clients needed more support and understanding rather than action and tolerance. It was suggested that male therapists appear to adjust their therapeutic approach the greatest in an attempt to implement change more quickly. That being said, male therapists look to gender expectations as a means to alter their approach to align with their client, while female therapists consistently value encouragement over accomplishment (Korner & Goldberg, 1997).
Why is counter-transference important in therapy?
From the therapist’s side, the importance of counter-transference has long been recognized. Male and female therapists have been found to hold differing expectations amongst their clients based on their gender. Identifying these expectations is not just important in terms of transference, but also in terms of diagnosis and treatment selection. Jones and Zoppel (1982) expected male therapists would hold males to higher expectations and be more judgmental with females, thus increasing their likeliness to diagnose females and demand more of male clients. To further test this hypothesis, they asked therapists to complete three inventories measuring therapy outcome, therapeutic process, and adjective use during sessions on 160 former clients. Results concluded male therapists to endorse less socially desirable adjectives in describing clients, particularly female clients. It was also determined that female therapists were more tolerant and accepting during the therapeutic process regardless of client gender- displaying more unconditional positive regard. Thus male therapists tend to be more gender sensitive regarding their behavior and expectations towards clients (Jones & Zoppel, 1982).
How does a relationship with a therapist help?
A crucial part of this relationship is the client’s use of cognitive-affective representations of their therapist (Farber & Geller, 1994). Farber and Geller (1994) looked at how the gender of the therapist influenced the nature of a patient’s internalized representations of their therapist and the corresponding relationship. Using the Therapist Representation Inventory (TRI), patients indicated they relied in varying proportions on words, sounds, odors, body movements, and somatic representations to construct a relationship with their therapist. In addition, self-perceived improvement in psychotherapy was positively and significantly correlated with the clients who felt more connected to their therapist, thus feeling a strong therapeutic relationship. Therefore, being aware of gender and other outside factors can be extremely important in facilitating a productive relationship. As a therapist, being aware of how one reacts (e.g., voice, body, etc.) to those opposite in gender can make all the difference in building a prompt, lasting rapport to help in aiding you and your client’s therapeutic goals.
What is therapeutic relationship?
The therapeutic relationship is an encompassing term usually associated with psychotherapy. This relationship emphasizes the collaborative nature of an alliance between therapist and client (Horvath & Luborsky, 1993). Such an alliance incorporates client preferences and goals into treatment which in turn allows the therapist to establish methods for accomplishing those goals. The therapeutic relationship requires a therapist to listen and assess their clients without judgment. Throughout the literature, this relationship has been labeled as the actual treatment in psychotherapy and that without this positive alliance there is unlikely to be any progress. Nonetheless, even though it is considered to be an important component to therapy, a positive therapeutic relationship is often overlooked in predicting a client’s response to an intervention.
What is the relationship between a psychotherapist and a client?
An important factor for most orientations within clinical psychology is the client-therapist relationship, with an obvious component of this relationship being the gender of the therapist and client (Gehart & Lyle, 2001). In the understanding and practice of psychotherapy, gender is an important but neglected variable. Gender can influence the client’s choice of therapist, the rapport between them, the sequence and material presented for the diagnosis, and the length and final outcome of treatment (Gehart & Lyle, 2001). Prescriptive norms, such as warmth and communality, often are attributed to females whereas males are seen as authoritarian figures (Carli, 1999). Norms associated with gender play a major role in determining the strength of therapeutic relationships as well as treatment outcomes.
Why do women postpone treatment?
Again, women and men sometimes postpone treatment or drop out of it for different reasons. Women may be more likely to put off treatment in order to continue caring for the family, while men may be more likely to avoid it out of denial. Jennifer points out:
What are gender specific stigmas associated with substance use?
Gender-specific stigmas associated with substance use stem from a woman or man’s inability to fulfill these expected roles.
How does stigma affect addiction?
Stigma does this in two ways: by preventing women and men from seeking treatment in the first place and by convincing them to leave treatment early .
Why do women and men experience stigma differently?
Gender Roles: The Basis for Stigma Difference. The biggest reason women and men experience stigma differently is because society assigns them different gender roles. Women are typically expected to fill the role of caretaker and manager of the home in addition to their professional responsibilities. This expectation is even greater ...
Is a woman and a man different?
While women and men are more alike psychologically than they are different , each gender is faced with unique social roles and expectations. We’ve discussed in a previous post how gender differences can affect what a person needs during addiction treatment, but we’ve only scratched the surface on the unique ways women and men experience addiction.
Why are women more likely to seek treatment than men?
Women are more likely than men to face multiple barriers to accessing substance abuse treatment and are less likely to seek treatment. Women also tend to seek care in mental health or primary care settings rather than in specialized treatment programs, which may contribute to poorer treatment outcomes. When gender differences in treatment outcomes ...
How does gender affect substance abuse?
Women typically consume less alcohol than men when they drink, drink alcohol less frequently, and are less likely to develop alcohol-related problems than men (Fillmore et al. 1997). Similarly, women are less likely than men to use illicit drugs and to develop drug-related problems (Greenfield et al. 2003a).
How many times more likely are men to be abstinent than women?
Men and women are equally likely to complete treatment, but women who complete are nine times more likely to be abstinent than women who do not; men who complete treatment were only three times more likely to be abstinent than men who do not (Green et al. 2004).
How do men and women differ in their mandates?
Women, in contrast, are more often referred by a social worker, suggesting family service agency involvement in their treatment entry (Grella and Joshi 1999). To date, researchers have not directly addressed how gender affects the processes leading to such mandates.
How many women have alcohol problems?
Women make up about one-third of the population with alcohol problems and slightly less than half of those who have problems with other drugs (Greenfield et al. 2003a).
Why are women more likely to have difficulty attending treatment sessions?
Women are more likely to have difficulty attending regular treatment sessions because of family responsibilities ...
Why do women feel shame?
Women are more likely to report feeling shame or embarrassment because they are in substance abuse treatment (Thom 1987). Anxiety or depressive disorders, which tend to be more prevalent and severe among women, may prevent women from seeking help with substance abuse problems (Brady and Randall 1999).
Why Is Gender-Specific Treatment so Important?
Because gender-specific treatment for alcohol and addiction rehab is so important, the United States has changed the way women are treated for addiction. Medical professionals are dedicated to ensuring that addicted women are given the help they need to recover from their substance abuse disorder.
What Do You Need to Know About Gender-Specific Treatment?
These needs range from mental to physical. This post addresses all of the questions that you may have about how gender-specific addiction treatment works and why it is so important. The major questions addressed here include:
Why Does Addiction Affect Both Genders Differently?
Let’s take a look at one of the reasons why. Women tend to have lower body weight and a higher body fat percentage than men . Their reproductive organs themselves contain quite a bit of body fat. This physiological difference will need to be taken into account in recovery.
What is the focus of gender specific addiction treatment?
They may also equip them with specific tools for keeping healthy habits throughout the recovery process. These aspects of drug and alcohol rehab focus on providing the best possible addiction treatment for women. This foundation of gender-specific addiction treatment ensures that rehabilitation works and works well.
What is gender specific rehab?
Gender-specific rehabs offer the same type of evidence-based treatment approaches are regular rehab facilities. The primary difference is that these treatment facilities are able to offer alcohol and drug addiction treatment with extra care for the specific needs of women. This enhances the recovery process.
Why are there physiological differences between men and women?
There are physiological differences between men and women when it comes to the way that they develop addiction and the way that they handle rehabilitation. Women are less likely to develop a drug or alcohol addiction than men; however, when addiction does develop, it often progresses more quickly and causes stronger physiological effects. These physiological differences can be attributed to not only genetic differences but also body weight and body fat percentage. It may also boil down to metabolic differences between genders.
What are the co-occurring disorders of women?
As mentioned above, many women who need addiction treatment struggle with some co-occurring disorders. Often, the co-occurring mental health disorder may have prompted the alcohol and drug abuse in the first place. For example, someone who is struggling with depression may use drugs or alcohol to self-medicate. These substances may balance out the neurochemicals in the brain to create a more neutral or positive emotional experience. Many women who struggle with addiction have also dealt with some trauma. This can be anything from childhood trauma, physical trauma, or sexual trauma. Studies show that many women who are addicted to drugs and alcohol may have used substances to cope with traumatic events.
How does gender affect psychotherapy?
DeJong et al. [9] demonstrated that therap ists were more confrontational and critical with male clients, while female clients received more empathy and support. The male clients were seen by the therapists as threatening, in which case the attitudes became confrontational, while female clients were seen as submissive, which led to empathetic attitudes. These attitudes were due to stereotypical gender roles common in society. The therapist's own gender had no impact on the attitudes toward clients in the study by DeJong et al.
What is gender role in therapy?
Gender role is a key concept in our study. It refers to the set of attitudes and behaviors socially expected of the members of a particular gender [6]. According to Bem's [7] theory, a traditionally gender-typed person is highly attuned to the cultural definitions of gender-appropriate behavior and uses such definitions as the ideal standard against which her or his own behavior is to be evaluated. Masculinity and femininity are gender roles of the traditional type. Androgyny, in turn, is considered to be a modern gender role. It means that a person is both masculine and feminine; these traits are not mutually exclusive.
Why are female therapists more adept at avoiding alliance ruptures that easily lead to dropping out?
This explanation is supported by a recent Finnish study which found that female therapists in substance abuse treatment were significantly more empathetic and friendly toward clients than were their male colleagues [14]. Moreover, avoidance of excessive directiveness was considered more important by female therapists than by males.
Do males have more stereotypical attitudes toward clients than females?
By contrast, findings on mental health professionals have indicated that males generate more stereotypical attitudes toward clients than do females [10, 11]. These findings corroborate a study by Bernstein and Lecomte [12] reporting that psychotherapist's gender is an important factor for attitudes toward clients, males being more stereotypical than females.
Do female therapists have higher education?
On average, the female therapists had a higher level of professional education than the male therapists, even though the males had acquired university degrees more often than their female colleagues (Table 1). Among therapists in team leader position, men were more common than women. Compared to men, the women more often worked as nurses. Every tenth subject had a history of personal recovery of substance abuse.
What are the treatment options for gender dysphoria?
Treatment options might include changes in gender expression and role, hormone therapy, surgery, and behavioral therapy. If you have gender dysphoria, seek help from a doctor who has expertise in the care of transgender people.
How to help someone with gender dysphoria?
What might help one person might not help another. The process might or might not involve a change in gender expression or body modifications. Treatment options might include changes in gender expression and role, hormone therapy, surgery, and behavioral therapy.
What is the procedure to change breasts?
Surgery, such as feminizing surgery or masculinizing surgery to change the breasts or chest, external genitalia, internal genitalia, facial features, and body contouring. Some people use hormone therapy to seek maximum feminization or masculinization.
What is gender dysphoria?
Gender dysphoria involves feelings of distress due to a strong desire to be of another gender than the one assigned and by the extent and pervasiveness of gender-variant activities and interests.
What are the impacts of gender identity in work, school, home and social environments?
Impact of gender identity in work, school, home and social environments, including issues related to discrimination, abuse and minority stress
Is surgery necessary for gender dysphoria?
Treatments are based on your goals, as well as an evaluation of the risks and benefits of medication use, the presence of any other conditions, and consideration of your social and economic issues. Many people also find that surgery is necessary to relieve their gender dysphoria.
Is therapy helpful?
Therapy might be helpful during many stages of your life.
