Lesbian Families' Challenges and Means of Resiliency: Implications for Feminist Family Therapy

by Anne M. Prouty Lyness (Editor)

Overview

An inside look at the unique challenges of the lesbian experience

Lesbian Families’ Challenges and Means of Resiliency: Implications for Feminist Family Therapy is a unique collection of interdisciplinary feminist examinations of the resiliency of lesbian couples and families. Leading feminist researchers and clinicians discuss parenting within lesbian families, with a focus on personal resiliency. These thought-provoking and insightful articles address the challenges of having and raising children in a society that struggles to accept alternative family structures.

Lesbian Families’ Challenges and Means of Resiliency examines a wide range of issues facing lesbian couples, with a special focus on parenting and couple violence. The book’s contributors examine the unique challenges of lesbian and gay parenting; adversities facing lesbian parents and the coping methods they employ; violence among lesbian couples and the lesbian community’s response to domestic violence; and the application of feminist theory to validate, strengthen, and promote resiliency in lesbian couples. The book also includes interviews with single or partnered lesbians who had children through adoption, artificial insemination, or a previous relationship.

Topics examined in Lesbian Families’ Challenges and Means of Resiliency include:

• parenting
  
• artificial insemination
  
• lesbian family therapy
  
• family law
  
• couple violence
  
• lesbian community
  
• feminist research
  
• feminist couple therapy
  
• and much more

Lesbian Families’ Challenges and Means of Resiliency is a vital professional aid for psychotherapists, family therapists, psychologists, social workers, and counselors. It’s an equally valuable resource for academics working in family studies, women’s studies, queer studies, gender studies, and sociology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781136452673
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/13/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	190
File size:	533 KB

About the Author

Anne M. Prouty Lyness

Table of Contents

• About the Contributors
• Editor’s Foreword (Anne M. Prouty Lyness)
• Living Outside of the Box: Lesbian Couples with Children Conceived Through the Use of Anonymous Donor Insemination (Karen C. Kranz and Judith C. Daniluk)
• Redefining the Nuclear Family: An Exploration of Resiliency in Lesbian Parents (A. Cassandra Golding)
• Application of Feminist Therapy: Promoting Resiliency Among Lesbian and Gay Families (Charles Negy and Cliff McKinney)
• Intimate Violence Among Lesbian Couples: Emerging Data and Critical Needs (Bette Speziale and Cynthia Ring)
• Exploring a Community’s Response to Lesbian Domestic Violence Through the Voices of Providers: A Qualitative Study (Suzanne R. Merlis and Deanna Linville)
• A Feminist Perspective of Resilience in Lesbian Couples (Colleen M. Connolly)
• Reflection: Girls Can’t Marry Other Girls (Lisa Giddings)
• Index
• Reference Notes Included

What People are Saying About This

Laura S. Brown

Several really excellent chapters. . . . The resiliency materials are EXCELLENT AND TRULY WORTH HAVING. (Laura S. Brown, PhD. ABPP, Independent practice, Seattle WA)

Shelley A. Haddock

INVALUABLE TO THERAPISTS, STUDENTS, AND RESEARCHERS who wish to understand lesbian families' means of resiliency within the constraints of a heterosexist society. The authors . . . intelligently and meaningfully address two of the most controversial and important topics related to lesbian families—parenting and domestic violence—from a resiliency and feminist lens. . . . Provides UP-TO-DATE AND COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION THAT IS ESSENTIAL TO THERAPISTS in effectively working with lesbian parents and those struggling with domestic violence. . . . Will sensitize readers to the myriad number of stressors faced by lesbian families, and the great resilience that these families often exhibit in responding to these challenges. (Shelley A. Haddock, PhD, LMFT, Assistant professor, Marriage and Family Therapy Program, Human Development and Family Studies Department, Colorado State University)

Cheryl L. Storm

CLINICIANS READ THIS BOOK. You will come away with a new appreciation for the complexity of the challenges facing lesbian parents and families, couples, and community; and the resiliency that you can tap in therapy. . . . EFFECTIVE CLIFF NOTES FOR UPDATING PRACTITIONERS ON RELEVANT RESEARCH AND CONTEMPORARY ISSUES. Authors review research of interest to clinicians and note the general implications of the findings for practice. At least one new study is included for each topic. In excerpts from interviews, lesbians describe how freedom from stereotypical gender roles sometimes occurs, the ways they cope with the stressors of parenting and coupling, and the joys and obstacles of being alternative families. Particular gems for clinicians are the initial chapter by Negy and McKinney that includes a case study illustrating how feminist family therapy can promote resiliency in lesbian families, and the concluding reflection piece by Giddings, where she and her long time-partner, respond to their daughters' proclamation that 'Girls can't marry other girls'. (Cheryl L. Storm, PhD, Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy, Pacific Lutheran University)

Cleveland G. Shields

The chapters of this book shine light on the needs and issues of sexual minorities both in maintaining relationships and in gaining support and acceptance from their families and society. As therapists, we cannot blissfully remain ignorant of these struggles. For anyone about to expand their practice or their thinking about gay and lesbian relationships, THIS BOOK WILL GIVE THEM MUCH NEEDED GUIDANCE. (Cleveland G. Shields, PhD, University of Rochester School of Medicine)

Editorial Reviews

"This edited book of various feminist authors comprises a variety of issues that lesbian families face and overcome. One of the most beneficial aspects of it are the myriad of topics that are covered: from anonymous donor insemination to working with lesbian families in counseling to understanding domestic violence and the part it plays in the gay and lesbian culture."

— The Family Journal, October 2009

From the Publisher