The Role of the Therapist in Therapeutic Change: Does Therapist Gender Matter?

Clients are often matched with therapists based on certain criteria. These may include characteristics such as age, race, religion, sexual orientation, and gender. This article reviews the literature on the role of gender matching in therapy. While there is still much to be learned about therapist v...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of feminist family therapy 2008-01, Vol.20 (1), p.66-86
Main Authors: Blow, Adrian J., Timm, Tina M., Cox, Ronald
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Clinical outcomes
Family counseling
Family Therapy
Feminism
feminist family therapy
Gender
Sex
Sex Roles
therapist characteristics
Therapist gender
therapist training
therapist-client match
Therapists
therapy change processes
therapy outcome
therapy process
therapy training research
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Summary:Clients are often matched with therapists based on certain criteria. These may include characteristics such as age, race, religion, sexual orientation, and gender. This article reviews the literature on the role of gender matching in therapy. While there is still much to be learned about therapist variables in the change process, gender alone does not appear to influence clinical outcomes directly, except in some cases for adolescents. However, research suggests that other variables may moderate or mediate the impact of gender in the process of therapy, especially when working with couples and families. This article focuses on the field of couples and family therapy and how gender affects the therapy process when there is more than one client in the room.
ISSN:0895-2833
1540-4099
DOI:10.1080/0895280801907150