In a "direct" approach to psychotherapy, the therapist generally uses herself as a model and communicates her own values, thereby influencing the gender roles of her clients, particularly her female clients. In this approach, the therapist is seen as more authentic by the client, especially by clients from diverse cultural and social backgrounds. In a period of rapid social change, women are particularly vulnerable; the female therapist has a unique opportunity to affect a woman's feelings about herself. The bond that arises between client and therapist is experienced differently than that between mother and daughter, and does not have to be severed for the client to achieve autonomy and to consolidate psychological strengths and emerging independence. Female clients need a female therapist who can model the kind of woman she can become, competent and free of stereotyped "minority group" traits without having to play the role of superwoman. (Author/CS)