CTA Podcast

Dr. Nina Silander, PsyD, is a US-based clinical psychologist. Her concern with the ideological bias in psychology has motivated her to look into the effects of this bias on psychological research, professional roles and clinical practice. In this episode Christine and Jaco interview Nina on her chapter in the book, Cynical Therapies - Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social J...

Piers Newman, MSc (Family Therapy) is a Systemic Family Psychotherapist in England. He is an intermediate level family therapy teacher and supervisor. As is evident from this discussion, Piers has a special interest in working with crisis families and families with parents with traumatic childhoods. In our discussion, Piers takes us through the development of family therapy to where it recently ad...

Bret Alderman holds a PhD from Pacifica Graduate Institute, where he studied Depth Psychology. He is a life coach and writer based in Oakland, California. He is the author of Symptom, Symbol and the Other of Language: A Jungian interpretation of the Linguistic Turn (2016) published by Routledge. In this episode, Bret uses Jungian Psychology to explain the religious character of CSJ, particularly t...

Stella O'Malley is a psychotherapist, bestselling author and public speaker based in Ireland. Her recent book, What your teen is trying to tell you, was published in 2023. In 2018, she was the writer and presenter of the Channel 4 documentary, Trans Kids: It's Time to Talk. She is the founder and director of Genspect and the co-host of Gender: A Wider Lens Podcast. Sasha Ayad is a US-bas...

In this episode, Val reflects on the therapeutic relationship as the foundation for healing in psychotherapy, and how the insertion of CSJ into psychotherapy jeopardises this sacred space. This is due to the inherent non-therapeutic nature of CSJ as a radical political ideology, rather than a healing, reconciling theory. She furthermore explores ways of integrating the collective dimesion into the...

Ben Harris is a psychotherapist in private practice in London. He practices from an integrative perspective, gleaning from psychoanalytic, Jungian and existentialist insights.  In this episode, Christine and Jaco discuss Ben's chapter in the Cynical Therapies book. Ben makes a thorough case from analytical psychology and existential philosophy, on how Critical Social Justice promotes, rather...

Dennis Relojo-Howell is a Philipine-born founder of the digital media company, Psychreg, that focuses on psychology, health and wellness. In this episode, Dennis, Christine and Jaco discuss his chapter in the book, Cynical Therapies - Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice. Dennis elaborates on the research of male mental health, in particular, the higher suicide rat...

Dr. Dina McMillan, PhD, is an American social psychologist and academic currently based in Brisbane, Australia. She specialises in domestic abuse prevention and effective bias reduction. In 2020 Dina developed a unique programme called Healing the Rift, designed to reduce racism and other types of bias without using blame-and-shame methods that may increase divisions and exacerbate intolerance.  I...

Val Thomas, DPsych, is the co-founder of Critical Therapy Antidote (CTA), is a UK-based psychotherapist, writer and formerly a counsellor educator. And she is the editor of Cynical Therapies - Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice. In this episode, Val discusses her chapter which provides an account of how the therapy field arrived at this critical point where it ha...

Dr. Carole Sherwood (DClinPsy) is a retired UK-based clinical psychologist. We discuss her chapter on Critical Race Theory by personifying them as a client who has arrived at the counsellor's clinic. Carole considers how she, as a white therapist, would work with CRT presenting themselves in a therapeutic space.

CTA founder and psychotherapist, Dr. Val Thomas, gives a brief introduction to the organisation, Critical Therapy Antidote, and the book Cynical Therapies - Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic nature of Critical Social Justice.