A Grammar of Power in Psychotherapy: Exploring the Dynamics of Privilege

I am a clinical social worker with over 40 years of experience. In my opinion the author laid out a very interesting paradigm, or grid, of relative privilege in psychotherapy relationships (she called it a “grammar,” which is not a way I have ever understood that word to be used).Of course I’ve thought about many of the things she discussed, and the way privilege of various types plays out in the therapy relationship, but she had a way of deepening the issues, and she managed to both focus on the small pictures and the big picture at once. I thought her understanding of race and marginalization (both as they play out in Norway and in the US) was really impressive and astute. I love the way she did not put herself above struggling with some of the issues, and was open about moments of her own failures to be helpful to clients because of her own blind spots.She is more psychoanalytic than I am (that is not my orientation), but that said, I found the book to be very important, and I plan to record recommend it to my colleagues. Takk/ tack, Malin Fors!