Profile
Bettina Zehetner
Birth:
1970
Training Location(s):
Mag., Philosophy and Women's Studies (1995)
Dr. Phil, University of Vienna (2011)
Primary Affiliation(s):
Vienna Women's Shelters (1995-1999)
Women's Counseling Center of the Women's Shelters (since 1998)
Women's Counseling Center Women* Counsel Women*(since 1999)
Lecturer at the University of Vienna and FH Campus Vienna
- Teaching in Sociology (since 2007)
- Teaching in philosophy (since 2012)
Conception and management of seminars, workshops and training courses in various psychosocial counseling fields (since 2003)
Supervision for online counselors
Course in women-centered career counseling
EU- course online counseling
Career Focus:
Philosopher, university lecturer, specialist author, trainer, women-centered counseling (especially with a focus on career development, family and divorce counseling with a focus on violence, as well as counseling in the medium of writing and online counseling), linking feminist theory and practice, training activities on women-specific and feminist psychosocial counseling.
Biography
Bettina Zehetner is a philosopher and university lecturer at the University of Vienna, a psychosocial counselor, family, career and online counselor, and a specialist author and editor of edited volumes on feminist therapy and counseling.
Zehetner grew up in a small Upper Austrian town called Grieskirchen in the 1970s. Although her parents lived a more traditional concept of their family roles, they encouraged their daughter's independent thinking, as education and autonomy were high values in the family. Zehetner's access to books and her passion for language were shaped to a great extent by her mother, who opened up the world of reading and writing to her even before she started school. With her father, she regularly visited the parish library as soon as she could read. Even as a child, she was upset by injustices between the sexes, which sometimes made her rebellious and unruly, but Zehetner found she was heard - both by her family and at the humanistic Gymnasium. Discussions and arguments were part of everyday life, and a "great philosophy class" encouraged the student to study philosophy after her Matura (graduation from the Allgemein Bildende Höhere Schule). This decision was also supported by her parents. Zehetner therefore lived in the security of being able and allowed to express criticism and represent her own moral system from an early age.
She considers herself fortunate to have begun her studies in 1989, when women's studies and feminist ideas were major topics at the University of Vienna. At that time, philosophy students could choose as a second subject a combination of subjects of their own choice with lectures from many other subjects, such as political science, linguistics and sociology. Zehetner therefore decided to study a broad range of subjects and take courses with Professor Herta Nagl-Docekal (feminist philosophy, ethics and epistemology), Dr. Ingvild Birkhan (philosophy and women's studies), Ulla Ernst (sociology), Dr. Marion Breiter (education), Dr. Birge Krondorfer (political philosophy) and Prof. Dr. Gerburg Treusch-Dieter (sociology and cultural studies), who represented a wide variety of feminist approaches in their lectures.
When a staff member of the Viennese women's shelters presented on the women's shelter movement in a political science lecture, the young philosopher seized the opportunity to combine feminist theory and practice and began working in a women's shelter. Zehetner completed her diploma studies and then moved on to the counseling center of the women's shelters, where in addition to psychosocial counseling practice, Zehetner also acquired a great deal of legal knowledge. Since 1999 she has been working as a counselor at the Vienna counseling center Frauen* beraten Frauen* (Women* counsel Women*).
As a counselor, Zehetner wanted above all to support women in crisis situations and accompany them in their development processes. It was a socio-political concern for her to work collectively and in a team and not in a private practice as a therapist, because: "...then you go back to the private practice where you are individualized again."
Bettina Zehetner has been a recognized family counselor since 2000, after completing various trainings and continuing education courses in the field of counseling, such as career counseling and online counseling. In particular, online counseling, which was new to the women's counseling center at the time, proved to be a low-threshold format - long before the Covid-19 pandemic - for women who were not comfortable with "face to face" counseling or were unwilling or unable to come to the counseling center for other reasons. According to Zehetner, some women may find it easier to write down their thoughts than to speak them out. In feminist online counseling, the clients are encouraged to write about themself and their life story. The counselors then also respond in writing, yet it is possible that a relationship is built exclusively through writing.
For Zehetner, it is important that in the feminist counseling center Frauen* beraten Frauen*, despite advanced professionalization, work and discussions continue to take place on a grassroots level in non-hierarchical teams and that various projects are pursued. Current projects include "Is this violence already?", the dissemination of a handbook and discussion about violence in various contexts, debates about mental load, the commitment to a fairer distribution of care work and a project about digital violence, which Zehetner analyzed and discussed together with her colleagues in a gender-specific way. The collaboration with younger female colleagues and their digital competencies also opened up new forms of mediation, for example podcasts or appearances in digital media.
Therefore, it is important for Zehetner to emphasize: "I learned the most, and that was more valuable than all the training I did, by going along with colleagues and hearing and experiencing how they do consulting." Therefore, new colleagues at Frauen* beraten Frauen* will continue to be mentored by more experienced colleagues.
For Bettina Zehetner, the autonomous women's movement has always been important as a critical movement and is still active, albeit with different approaches and focuses than 40 years ago, when the Frauen* beraten Frauen* women's counseling center in Vienna was founded by autonomous women.
Her experiences in feminist research, academia and psychosocial work also fed into Zehetner's doctoral studies, which she completed in 2012 - a time when it was still possible as a lecturer at the University of Vienna to hold feminist courses, although Zehetner critically notes that this is far less desired today. Thus, although gender studies are established in the academic curriculum at the University of Vienna, feminist theories that aim to change society appear much less frequently, in contrast to her own student days.
At the same time, Zehetner is aware of her privilege to have always been active in fields of work and action where feminist thoughts are not only part of the self-conception but are motivation and driving force for debates and further development of consulting approaches. She finds it a pity that "the passion for feminist action" is more and more often slowed down by too many bureaucratic demands on the staff, whereby "sideshows [have] the tendency to get the upper hand." Zehetner finds new conservative trends such as the anti-abortion discussion abroad and the attempt in Salzburg to transfer care services provided by feminist women's shelter staff to a private-sector company worrying. She also describes the always arduous negotiations with funding agencies about the content and financial security of counseling work and the difficulty of communicating feminist content in traditional print media in Austria as alarming.
For this very reason, Zehetner considered it a special milestone that women's counseling and the counseling center Frauen* beraten Frauen*, have become an integral part of the Viennese counseling landscape.
Zehether recalls that when the staff of the women's counseling center decided in a team workshop about five years ago to inclusively extend the name of the counseling center with the help of the gender asterix and turn it into Frauen* beraten Frauen* (Women* counsel Women*), there was unexpectedly fierce criticism from several sides. For parts of the trans* movement the discussion did not go far enough, while women who wanted to be seen/read as women in a more traditional sense expressed concern that they were no longer meant as clients. "Identity politics worries us" says Zehetner, referring to the risk of losing sight of the common ground, such as the struggle for human and women's rights, due to grueling processes of agreement on identity affiliations.
This is why Zehetner enjoys networks such as the Austrian association Sorority, an intersectional network of feminists from different professions who regularly invite people to exchange ideas and build coalitions. In general, Zehetner advises younger women to build strategic alliances in order to assert their concerns collectively.
Bettina Zehetner is proud of publications such as "Is this violence already?" and the co-editing of volumes on feminist therapy and counseling. She would also be very keen to co-edit a new volume, but is not sure if this is still keeping with the times, given the new digital formats: "To hold books in one's hand, to show them and to be able to pass them on is something very very fine [...] to lay new tracks for younger and older women who can read, reread and continue to think about something."
By Emelie Rack & Susanne Hahnl (2023)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works
Selected Works
By Bettina Zehetner
Zehetner, B. (2012). Krankheit und Geschlecht. Feministische Philosophie und psychosoziale Beratung. Turia + Kant. Retrieved under: https://homepage.univie.ac.at/bettina.zehetner/downloads/Krankheit_und_Geschlecht _Zehet ner.pdf
Zehetner, B. (2017). Berührbarkeit, Verletzlichkeit und Geschlecht. Gewalt in Paarbeziehungen, feministische Philosophie und psychosoziale Beratung. In Brigitte Buchhammer (Ed.), Lernen, Mensch zu sein. Women Philosophers at Work II (pp. 213–226). LIT Verlag Münster.
Zehetner, B. (2018). Woran erkenne ich feministische Psychotherapie? Psychologie & Gesellschaftskritik, 42 (165), 103–123.
Zehetner, B. (2019). Schreiben wirkt: Die Online-Beratung des Vereins Frauen* beraten Frauen*. Grundlagen, Qualitätskriterien und Methoden. Supervision. Zeitschrift für Beraterinnen und Berater, 37 (1), 22–33.
Zehetner, B. (2020a). Das Auf-Begehren zur Sprache bringen. Der Chiasmus von Psyche und Soma in der feministischen psychosozialen Beratung. In Elisabeth Schäfer & Brigitte Buchhammer (Eds.), Erinnerung und Gedächtnis. Kunst – Philosophie – Feminismus. Festschrift für Ingvild Birkhan. LIT Verlag.
Zehetner, B. (2020b). Feministische Beratung in Zeiten der Ökonomisierung: Zwischen Selbstoptimierung und Widerstand. In Brigitte Buchhammer (Ed.), Philosophie in einer Welt der Ökonomisierung. Theorie und Praxis. Women* Philosophers at Work. A Series of SWIP Austria. LIT Verlag.
Zehetner, B. (2020c). Freiheit in der feministischen politischen Philosophie. In Freiheit und Feminismen. Feministische Beratung und Psychotherapie. Psychosozial Verlag.
Zehetner, B. (2020d). Reparaturprojekt Mann – Erholungsgebiet Frau. Feministische Beratung bei Beziehungskonflikten, Gewalterfahrung, Trennung und im Umgang mit Arbeit, Geld und Körper. Diametric-Verlag.
Zehetner, B. (2021a). Fremdheit, Freiheit und feministische Beratung. „It’s Time for a Pussy Riot!“. In Brigitte Buchhammer (Ed.), The Future of Europe - an Urgent Challenge to Global Philosophy. Philosophie in Theorie und Praxis. Women* Philosopher at Work. (pp. 19–36). LIT Verlag.
Zehetner, B. (2021b). Schreiben wirkt: Online-Beratung und kreatives Schreiben. Grundlagen, Qualitätskriterien und Methoden. Ein Leitfaden. https://www.frauenberatenfrauen.at/download/Leitfaden_Onlineberatung.pdf
Zehetner, B. (2021c). Vulnerability and gender. Violence in intimate relationships, feminist philosophy and psychosocial counselling. In Human Rights - Feminist and gender philosophical perspectives. LIT Verlag.
Zehetner, B. (2022). Feminist Philosophy Gets Practical: Differentiated Partiality for Counseling Women in Violent Relationships. In Feminist Philosophy. A Close Encounter with the Work of Herta Nagl-Docekal. LIT Verlag Münster.
By and about Bettina Zehetner
Zehetner, B. (2022, October 25). Interview with S.Hahnl [Video recording].
Bettina Zehetner
Birth:
1970
Training Location(s):
Mag., Philosophy and Women's Studies (1995)
Dr. Phil, University of Vienna (2011)
Primary Affiliation(s):
Vienna Women's Shelters (1995-1999)
Women's Counseling Center of the Women's Shelters (since 1998)
Women's Counseling Center Women* Counsel Women*(since 1999)
Lecturer at the University of Vienna and FH Campus Vienna
- Teaching in Sociology (since 2007)
- Teaching in philosophy (since 2012)
Conception and management of seminars, workshops and training courses in various psychosocial counseling fields (since 2003)
Supervision for online counselors
Course in women-centered career counseling
EU- course online counseling
Career Focus:
Philosopher, university lecturer, specialist author, trainer, women-centered counseling (especially with a focus on career development, family and divorce counseling with a focus on violence, as well as counseling in the medium of writing and online counseling), linking feminist theory and practice, training activities on women-specific and feminist psychosocial counseling.
Biography
Bettina Zehetner is a philosopher and university lecturer at the University of Vienna, a psychosocial counselor, family, career and online counselor, and a specialist author and editor of edited volumes on feminist therapy and counseling.
Zehetner grew up in a small Upper Austrian town called Grieskirchen in the 1970s. Although her parents lived a more traditional concept of their family roles, they encouraged their daughter's independent thinking, as education and autonomy were high values in the family. Zehetner's access to books and her passion for language were shaped to a great extent by her mother, who opened up the world of reading and writing to her even before she started school. With her father, she regularly visited the parish library as soon as she could read. Even as a child, she was upset by injustices between the sexes, which sometimes made her rebellious and unruly, but Zehetner found she was heard - both by her family and at the humanistic Gymnasium. Discussions and arguments were part of everyday life, and a "great philosophy class" encouraged the student to study philosophy after her Matura (graduation from the Allgemein Bildende Höhere Schule). This decision was also supported by her parents. Zehetner therefore lived in the security of being able and allowed to express criticism and represent her own moral system from an early age.
She considers herself fortunate to have begun her studies in 1989, when women's studies and feminist ideas were major topics at the University of Vienna. At that time, philosophy students could choose as a second subject a combination of subjects of their own choice with lectures from many other subjects, such as political science, linguistics and sociology. Zehetner therefore decided to study a broad range of subjects and take courses with Professor Herta Nagl-Docekal (feminist philosophy, ethics and epistemology), Dr. Ingvild Birkhan (philosophy and women's studies), Ulla Ernst (sociology), Dr. Marion Breiter (education), Dr. Birge Krondorfer (political philosophy) and Prof. Dr. Gerburg Treusch-Dieter (sociology and cultural studies), who represented a wide variety of feminist approaches in their lectures.
When a staff member of the Viennese women's shelters presented on the women's shelter movement in a political science lecture, the young philosopher seized the opportunity to combine feminist theory and practice and began working in a women's shelter. Zehetner completed her diploma studies and then moved on to the counseling center of the women's shelters, where in addition to psychosocial counseling practice, Zehetner also acquired a great deal of legal knowledge. Since 1999 she has been working as a counselor at the Vienna counseling center Frauen* beraten Frauen* (Women* counsel Women*).
As a counselor, Zehetner wanted above all to support women in crisis situations and accompany them in their development processes. It was a socio-political concern for her to work collectively and in a team and not in a private practice as a therapist, because: "...then you go back to the private practice where you are individualized again."
Bettina Zehetner has been a recognized family counselor since 2000, after completing various trainings and continuing education courses in the field of counseling, such as career counseling and online counseling. In particular, online counseling, which was new to the women's counseling center at the time, proved to be a low-threshold format - long before the Covid-19 pandemic - for women who were not comfortable with "face to face" counseling or were unwilling or unable to come to the counseling center for other reasons. According to Zehetner, some women may find it easier to write down their thoughts than to speak them out. In feminist online counseling, the clients are encouraged to write about themself and their life story. The counselors then also respond in writing, yet it is possible that a relationship is built exclusively through writing.
For Zehetner, it is important that in the feminist counseling center Frauen* beraten Frauen*, despite advanced professionalization, work and discussions continue to take place on a grassroots level in non-hierarchical teams and that various projects are pursued. Current projects include "Is this violence already?", the dissemination of a handbook and discussion about violence in various contexts, debates about mental load, the commitment to a fairer distribution of care work and a project about digital violence, which Zehetner analyzed and discussed together with her colleagues in a gender-specific way. The collaboration with younger female colleagues and their digital competencies also opened up new forms of mediation, for example podcasts or appearances in digital media.
Therefore, it is important for Zehetner to emphasize: "I learned the most, and that was more valuable than all the training I did, by going along with colleagues and hearing and experiencing how they do consulting." Therefore, new colleagues at Frauen* beraten Frauen* will continue to be mentored by more experienced colleagues.
For Bettina Zehetner, the autonomous women's movement has always been important as a critical movement and is still active, albeit with different approaches and focuses than 40 years ago, when the Frauen* beraten Frauen* women's counseling center in Vienna was founded by autonomous women.
Her experiences in feminist research, academia and psychosocial work also fed into Zehetner's doctoral studies, which she completed in 2012 - a time when it was still possible as a lecturer at the University of Vienna to hold feminist courses, although Zehetner critically notes that this is far less desired today. Thus, although gender studies are established in the academic curriculum at the University of Vienna, feminist theories that aim to change society appear much less frequently, in contrast to her own student days.
At the same time, Zehetner is aware of her privilege to have always been active in fields of work and action where feminist thoughts are not only part of the self-conception but are motivation and driving force for debates and further development of consulting approaches. She finds it a pity that "the passion for feminist action" is more and more often slowed down by too many bureaucratic demands on the staff, whereby "sideshows [have] the tendency to get the upper hand." Zehetner finds new conservative trends such as the anti-abortion discussion abroad and the attempt in Salzburg to transfer care services provided by feminist women's shelter staff to a private-sector company worrying. She also describes the always arduous negotiations with funding agencies about the content and financial security of counseling work and the difficulty of communicating feminist content in traditional print media in Austria as alarming.
For this very reason, Zehetner considered it a special milestone that women's counseling and the counseling center Frauen* beraten Frauen*, have become an integral part of the Viennese counseling landscape.
Zehether recalls that when the staff of the women's counseling center decided in a team workshop about five years ago to inclusively extend the name of the counseling center with the help of the gender asterix and turn it into Frauen* beraten Frauen* (Women* counsel Women*), there was unexpectedly fierce criticism from several sides. For parts of the trans* movement the discussion did not go far enough, while women who wanted to be seen/read as women in a more traditional sense expressed concern that they were no longer meant as clients. "Identity politics worries us" says Zehetner, referring to the risk of losing sight of the common ground, such as the struggle for human and women's rights, due to grueling processes of agreement on identity affiliations.
This is why Zehetner enjoys networks such as the Austrian association Sorority, an intersectional network of feminists from different professions who regularly invite people to exchange ideas and build coalitions. In general, Zehetner advises younger women to build strategic alliances in order to assert their concerns collectively.
Bettina Zehetner is proud of publications such as "Is this violence already?" and the co-editing of volumes on feminist therapy and counseling. She would also be very keen to co-edit a new volume, but is not sure if this is still keeping with the times, given the new digital formats: "To hold books in one's hand, to show them and to be able to pass them on is something very very fine [...] to lay new tracks for younger and older women who can read, reread and continue to think about something."
By Emelie Rack & Susanne Hahnl (2023)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works
Selected Works
By Bettina Zehetner
Zehetner, B. (2012). Krankheit und Geschlecht. Feministische Philosophie und psychosoziale Beratung. Turia + Kant. Retrieved under: https://homepage.univie.ac.at/bettina.zehetner/downloads/Krankheit_und_Geschlecht _Zehet ner.pdf
Zehetner, B. (2017). Berührbarkeit, Verletzlichkeit und Geschlecht. Gewalt in Paarbeziehungen, feministische Philosophie und psychosoziale Beratung. In Brigitte Buchhammer (Ed.), Lernen, Mensch zu sein. Women Philosophers at Work II (pp. 213–226). LIT Verlag Münster.
Zehetner, B. (2018). Woran erkenne ich feministische Psychotherapie? Psychologie & Gesellschaftskritik, 42 (165), 103–123.
Zehetner, B. (2019). Schreiben wirkt: Die Online-Beratung des Vereins Frauen* beraten Frauen*. Grundlagen, Qualitätskriterien und Methoden. Supervision. Zeitschrift für Beraterinnen und Berater, 37 (1), 22–33.
Zehetner, B. (2020a). Das Auf-Begehren zur Sprache bringen. Der Chiasmus von Psyche und Soma in der feministischen psychosozialen Beratung. In Elisabeth Schäfer & Brigitte Buchhammer (Eds.), Erinnerung und Gedächtnis. Kunst – Philosophie – Feminismus. Festschrift für Ingvild Birkhan. LIT Verlag.
Zehetner, B. (2020b). Feministische Beratung in Zeiten der Ökonomisierung: Zwischen Selbstoptimierung und Widerstand. In Brigitte Buchhammer (Ed.), Philosophie in einer Welt der Ökonomisierung. Theorie und Praxis. Women* Philosophers at Work. A Series of SWIP Austria. LIT Verlag.
Zehetner, B. (2020c). Freiheit in der feministischen politischen Philosophie. In Freiheit und Feminismen. Feministische Beratung und Psychotherapie. Psychosozial Verlag.
Zehetner, B. (2020d). Reparaturprojekt Mann – Erholungsgebiet Frau. Feministische Beratung bei Beziehungskonflikten, Gewalterfahrung, Trennung und im Umgang mit Arbeit, Geld und Körper. Diametric-Verlag.
Zehetner, B. (2021a). Fremdheit, Freiheit und feministische Beratung. „It’s Time for a Pussy Riot!“. In Brigitte Buchhammer (Ed.), The Future of Europe - an Urgent Challenge to Global Philosophy. Philosophie in Theorie und Praxis. Women* Philosopher at Work. (pp. 19–36). LIT Verlag.
Zehetner, B. (2021b). Schreiben wirkt: Online-Beratung und kreatives Schreiben. Grundlagen, Qualitätskriterien und Methoden. Ein Leitfaden. https://www.frauenberatenfrauen.at/download/Leitfaden_Onlineberatung.pdf
Zehetner, B. (2021c). Vulnerability and gender. Violence in intimate relationships, feminist philosophy and psychosocial counselling. In Human Rights - Feminist and gender philosophical perspectives. LIT Verlag.
Zehetner, B. (2022). Feminist Philosophy Gets Practical: Differentiated Partiality for Counseling Women in Violent Relationships. In Feminist Philosophy. A Close Encounter with the Work of Herta Nagl-Docekal. LIT Verlag Münster.
By and about Bettina Zehetner
Zehetner, B. (2022, October 25). Interview with S.Hahnl [Video recording].