The Morphing of Family Therapy and Family Support: How British Social Policy and Feminist Practice Are Interacting

This paper focuses on contemporary British public policy and how social policies and feminist-informed family therapy are influencing and challenging each other. The concept and practice of family support is evaluated in terms of the central political role it fulfils in replicating stereotyped gender roles and normative family constructs. It is argued that family support and family therapy are morphing as government policies encourage more voluntary sector services, presenting feminist family therapists with both challenges and opportunities to influence social policy. (C) 2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.