Welcome to Critical Therapy Antidote
This is a website for all those involved with talking therapies, including academics, practitioners, trainees and clients, who are concerned by the negative impact of Critical Social Justice Theory.
Latest Articles
It’s Time for the PTMF to Stop Categorising Men as Negative Stereotypes
This article is reproduced here by kind permission from The Centre for Male Psychology. It was originally published here online in the Male Psychology magazine on April 13th 2022. Around 25 years ago, as an undergraduate, I learned about the anti-psychiatry movement of the 1960s. The iconoclastic ideas of characters like psychiatrists RD Laing and Thomas Szasz resonated with me and other students …
Critical Social Justice Is More Likely to Lead to Division and Victimhood Than to Equality
Alarm bells have been ringing loudly for some time about the incursion of Critical Social Justice into the therapeutic professions. But it doesn’t seem that many clinical psychologists or other mental health professionals are listening. In some ways that’s understandable. Who knows what ‘Critical Social Justice’ actually means? It doesn’t trip easily off the tongue, …
Through the Looking Glass: Making sense of the MOU – Part 1
Introduction This is a two-part article exploring the impact of trans activism as channelled via the Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy (MOU) on the practice of counselling and psychological therapy within the context of the United Kingdom. While the development of this particular organisation and its associated policy relating to conversion therapy is specific …
Through the Looking Glass: Making sense of the MOU – Part 2
(The first part of this article looks at the background and history of the Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy in the UK (MOU). The Memorandum sets out a policy on opposing conversion therapy on the grounds of sexual orientation and of gender identity. The Memorandum has been signed by the majority of professional therapist …
The Mental Health Profession Is at a Crossroads Beween Science and Politically-Biased Narratives
As a clinical and forensic psychologist, I’ve always been interested in the causes, not correlates, of mental health, because associations, masquerading as causal mechanisms, bedevil psychology. Our profession is at a crossroads between science-based causal reasoning and knowledge versus politically biased narratives, where scientific evidence is irrelevant, and trauma is all that matters. Why is this …
The World Turned Upside Down
Meaning is made from the inside out and also from the outside in. From the inside out, meaning revolves around us and provides us with a sense of our importance and goodness. From the outside in, it is based on what we need to know to get by with others who don’t think we are …
‘Woke’ Therapy Weakens the Client
Critical Social Justice (CSJ)-driven therapy (aka ‘woke’ therapy) is a completely different practice to traditional counselling and psychotherapy. This point cannot be overstated. The mistake that many people are making is that they perceive this new politicised approach as a development or evolution of therapy—the social justice turn, if you will, in the counselling and …
BACP and Terfism: Reaching the Point of no Return for Ethical Therapy?
Words matter. For therapists, words matter a lot. To find the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) promoting a trans activist perspective on current gender issues therefore comes as a shock. The BACP is hosting an event badged as ‘Queering the therapy space’, which may have a lot more in common with promoting Queer …
The Importance of Maintaining an Evidence-based Approach in CBT
Preamble In October 2021, The British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Therapists’ (BABCP) published a piece in CBT Today by the founders of the ‘Women and Gender Minorities Equality Special Interest Group’ (WOMGENE). It suggested that implementing the following five recommendations would reduce violence against women, as follows: “Five things you can do to help …
My Resignation from the American Psychological Association
I’ve been a member of the American Psychological Association (APA) for years, and a fellow for the past six or seven years. I sat on their Council of Representatives, which theoretically sets policy for the APA, for 3 years. I am just ending my term as president of the APA’s Society for Media and Technology, …
Calibrating Gillick* in the Age of Gender Wars: Part 1: Background to the Current Crisis in Gender Therapy
* NB: For non-UK readers. The original Gillick case in 1985 addressed the issue of the capacity of young people under 16 years in England and Wales to consent to medical treatment (Gillick v Norfolk AHA [1985]). It determined that young people under 16 could consent, without requiring parental knowledge or consent, if they demonstrated …
Calibrating Gillick* in the Age of Gender Wars: Part 2: The Curious Case of the Tavistock
Applying Gillick at the Tavistock The past year has seen a dizzying series of legal decisions about young people’s capacity to consent to puberty blocking drugs for gender dysphoria at the Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS). In December 2020, the GIDS’ consent procedures for under 16’s were overturned via a judicial review brought by …
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