Bringing Patriarchy into the Clinic: Feminist Therapeutic Work in Contemporary Turkey

Abstract Book of the 12th International Academic Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences

Year: 2026

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Bringing Patriarchy into the Clinic: Feminist Therapeutic Work in Contemporary Turkey

Ayce Feride Yilmaz

ABSTRACT:

While feminist therapy has been extensively theorized and institutionalized in Western contexts, its role in non-Western settings shaped by strong socio-political patriarchy remains underexplored. This study addresses this gap by examining feminist-informed therapeutic work in Turkey, where gender-based violence and femicides are embedded within a broader configuration of institutional, cultural, and political power relations. Drawing on a qualitative design, the study is based on in-depth interviews with four feminist psychologists working or volunteering at a women’s shelter organization in Istanbul. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, it explores how practitioners conceptualize women’s psychological distress, integrate feminist principles into clinical practice, and position themselves in relation to mainstream psychological frameworks. The findings suggest that participants move beyond individualizing accounts of distress and instead situate women’s experiences within a “patriarchal constellation” composed of state policies, legal structures, and socio-cultural norms. In this context, therapeutic work becomes a site where the internalization of gendered power relations—manifested in emotions such as guilt, shame, and self-blame—is rendered visible and critically interrogated. Practitioners navigate tensions between mainstream institutional expectations and feminist commitments through creative strategies, including the strategic use of mainstream psychological discourse to negotiate patriarchal dynamics within legal processes. From a sociological perspective, the study shows how therapeutic practice can both reproduce and challenge power relations.

Keywords: Gender-Based Violence; Feminist Psychology; Qualitative Research; Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis