Subversive Dialogues: Theory in Feminist Therapy Reading Group

Feminist therapy aims to deprivatize the lives of the therapists and the people with whom they work by asking, out loud and repeatedly, how each life and each pain are manifestations of processes operating in a larger social context.

― Laura. S. Brown, Subversive Dialogues: Theory in Feminist Therapy (1994)

This online Reading Group will closely and wholeheartedly engage with Laura S. Brown's seminal text on feminist therapy: Subversive Dialogues: Theory in Feminist Therapy over three monthly meetings from September to November 2025.

Laura S. Brown has been a vital voice in the articulation and actualisation of feminist psychotherapies and is the author of over 15 books and 150 publications. Subversive Dialogues is essential reading for psychotherapists and counsellors wanting to better understand the theory that feminist therapies stand upon. Brown constructs a robust and subversive vision of feminist therapy that understands the therapeutic encounter through a feminist lens, addressing issues such as the power of the therapist, assessment and diagnosis, feminist ethics, and diversity practice. Subversive Dialogues is a core and essential text for feminist / feminist curious therapists to engage with.

By telling a story of liberation, Laura Brown shifts the paradigm of feminist therapy. Her cogent argument is a philosopher’s stone for an integrated feminist therapy and practice. Valuable reading for all clinicians, this book guides us through a journey of transformation that is provocative, insightful, and rewarding.

- Lillian Comas-Diaz, Ph.D.

Practicalities:

This Reading Group is specific to therapeutic practitioners at any stage of training or practice.

Starting in September 2025, we will meet together on Zoom on the third Friday of the month from 3.30pm – 5pm UK time. Numbers will be limited to enable our shared discussion. We ask for a joining fee of £21 that covers all three meetings to support the ongoing work and commitments of the Feminist Therapy Network. A CPD certificate of completion can be provided upon request.

Through reading and discussing a cluster of chapters together each month over three meetings, we will undertake age-old practices of communal learning, cultivating collective wisdom, building solidarities and engaging the feminist imagination. To do so requires a commitment to each other. To support our community of inquiry and to share the labour of learning together, the request is for Zoom screens to be on during our time together, whenever possible. Please ensure you will be able to join and participate from a stable physical place (not in transit).

Please familiarise yourself with the FTN's Ethos and Ali Phipps' Principles for a Feminist Classroom before joining this Reading Group as these will inform how our time together is held and interacted with. If it your first time joining a reading group, we recommend visiting the FTN’s suggested Reading Group guidelines here.

Dates:

The dates we will be gathering together are between 3.30pm – 5pm UK time on:

Friday September 19th (Introduction, Chapters 1 – 2)

Friday October 17th (Chapters 3 - 6)

Friday November 21st (Chapters 7 - 9)

The Zoom link to join will be sent to you via email the day prior.

Please read all the information, including the FAQs before signing up to join. If you have any further questions, email: feministtherapynetwork@protonmail.com .