International Women’s Day is a chance to celebrate the achievements and influence of some incredible women. Whilst there are hundreds of women who had a key role in changing psychotherapy and counselling as we know it today, below are a just a few who we would like to celebrate today:
Anna Freud (1895-1982)
Anna Freud is one of the most influential psychologists in child psychotherapy. As an Austrian, she escaped the Nazis during WWII and moved to London, where she set up nurseries for children who had been made homeless by bombing. Here she observed child development which became the basis for many of her theories about child therapy. Today, the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families is a key institution in the UK for supporting children and families’ relationships and mental health.
Marsha M. Linehan (1943- )
Marsha M.Linehan, through her own mental health struggles, developed theories on Borderline Personality Disorder which moved away from the traditional models focussing on anger. She created Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) that focusses on mindfulness and managing thoughts. This therapy is still used as treatment for those with Borderline Personality Disorder today.
Mamie Phipps Clarke (1917-1983)
Clarke was an American psychologist who through her work with children pioneered research on race and self-concept amongst minorities. She played a key role in the US civil rights movement. The findings from Clarke’s ‘Doll-test’ experiment played an important part in the Brown vs Board of Education case by demonstrating the harmful effects of segregation on children. The outcome of this case was that the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in US schools was unconstitutional.
Elisabeth Kuber-Ross (1926-2004)
Kuber-Ross was a Swiss-American psychologist who developed the theory of the five stages of grief through her work with terminally ill patients. She believed that as people were confronted with death they went through stages of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, but not in a fixed order. Her theories have helped to develop hospice care, palliative care and grief support. Although she has often been referred to as the ‘death and dying lady’, she often referred to herself as the ‘life and living lady’.
Francine Shapiro (1948-2019)
Shapiro was an American psychologist who devised the form of therapy known as eye movement desensitization reprocessing (EMDR). EMDR is used in the treatment of trauma and involves making rapid eye movements to stimulate the brain which assists people in processing traumatic memories. The treatment has been used for those involved in traumatic incidents all over the world, as it particularly suits those who might find putting their experiences into words uncomfortable.
Let us know if there is anyone else you feel we should have included in the list!
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Author: Beth
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Sources:
Annafreud.org
https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/reading-linehan-age-critical-psychiatry
https://www.verywellmind.com/mamie-phipps-clark-biography-2796022
https://www.ekrfoundation.org/about/
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jul/15/francine-shapiro-obituary
