The psychological is participatory

Counseling centers for women are important institutions founded by the second women`s movement. In The Psychological is Participatory, researchers are conducting research together with counselors and clients of women`s counseling centers. We are interested in the life stories of women who seek help at counseling centers. Therefore, biographical interviews with the participation of female citizens are at the center of the research project. The data from the interviews are then condensed into biographical "profiles and made publicly accessible in an online archive (feministvoices.com). The perspective of women clients has very rarely been considered in the history of psychology. Disadvantaged women in particular are often not heard, for example immigrant women or single mothers affected by poverty. Our research with clients aims to empower women and to explore with them how social circumstances have shaped their lives. To this end, the women are guided in workshops to document their knowledge in the form of narrated stories. This method of oral history research can and should be carried on in the women`s social communities and the counseling centers even after the project has ended. The researchers will then conduct a comparative analysis of the women`s interviews with interviews conducted in a previous research project. The previous project focused on feminist psychology and gender justice at women`s counseling centers in Vienna. The Viennese counseling centers Frauen* beraten Frauen* and Peregrina are participating in the project. The project is led by Ass.-Prof. Dr. Nora Ruck, and Dr. Barbara Rothmüller is research associate, at Sigmund Freud Private University Vienna.

In this research project, university researchers, practitioner researchers, and citizen researchers collaborated to investigate how women overcome difficult life situations and how women's counselors manage the emotional contradictions in their work. The method used, "Critical Participatory Action Research," promotes collaboration between different social groups to collectively create knowledge and initiate change. The aim was to explore and improve the problems and resources of women in society. Women were viewed as experts of their own lives and took on the role of co-researchers. The project was divided into two workshop strands: one for practitioner researchers (women's counselors) and university researchers, and a second for citizen researchers (former clients of women's counseling centers) and university researchers. Research methods included qualitative approaches such as interviews, group discussions, collage-making, and memory work. Collected data was analyzed partly in collaboration and partly by university researchers, and then discussed collectively. The results are published not only in academic journals but also through workshops organized by the Austrian Chamber of Labor, bringing together representatives from various authorities, women's counselors, and clients to gather best-practice examples on how to better support especially migrant women in Austria. The central research questions were: How do women overcome difficult life situations? Who or what supports them in this? What role do women's counseling centers play? And how do women's counselors themselves experience and manage the emotional contradictions in their work? The results revealed that both women and counseling centers reach their limits when dealing with structural issues such as discrimination, lack of job opportunities, and barriers to recognition of qualifications or access to childcare. Highly educated migrant women especially often struggled to enter the labor market and were forced to take low-paying jobs or were unable to work at all. Women view freedom of choice, equality, security, and mental health as fundamental prerequisites for leading a self-determined life. Women's counseling centers were highlighted as valuable support, providing orientation and information. However, structural limits became apparent, frustrating both counselors and clients, as counseling alone is insufficient to solve deep-rooted societal issues. Women's counselors are also facing challenges such as increasing demands from funding agencies, reduced base funding, and an increase in project-based financing, which can lead to conflicts within teams. Team-related emotions were perceived as more stressful than working with women, even when the women brought experiences of violence or other difficult topics into the counseling sessions. Co-researchers called for better networking between public agencies and counseling services, changes to the rights of third-country nationals, more spaces for women to meet and support each other, and better funding for women's counseling centers. They emphasized that existing knowledge from counseling centers should be utilized to influence political decisions and combat structural problems.