Women, Girls and Psychotherapy: Reframing Resistance

Adolescence, Spring, 1993

What are the unique problems facing adolescent girls? How do they "make it through" the teenage years? What special strengths do these girls show during their growing-up years? How do their experiences as teenagers affect their adulthood? These questions and more are answered in this book, which details the vitality of resistance in young girls.

The "voices" of adolescent girls from many different backgrounds are presented. Further, Gilligan, Rogers, and Tolman combine their developmental and clinical expertise to positively reframe girls' resistance against debilitating conventions of feminine behavior. This practical book demonstrates how to identify adolescent girls' resistance so that they can be helped to recognize their strengths and hear their own voices as they grow into young women. Examples and interpretations of girls' voices throughout this book show how the resistance of teenage girls challenges adult women and men to rethink practices of parenting, educating, and providing psychotherapy to girls and women.