Critical Therapy Antidote

Birgit Ewald is a UK-based counsellor, clinical supervisor, and lecturer in counselling. She has a longstanding interest in psycho-spiritual development, the interface between psychology and spirituality and the nature of relationships. She is currently researching the therapist’s experience of therapeutic presence, in particular the transpersonal/spiritual dimension of presence. Birgit is the author of the chapter in Cynical Therapies titled “Therapeutic Presence and the Inadequacy of Critical Social Justice”, which we discuss and elaborate on in this episode. We explore the basic requirements necessary for a therapeutic relationship from humanistic/transpersonal perspectives. We also discuss the I-Thou vs the I-it relationship of Martin Buber, and how it plays out in therapy. This forms the basis for contrasting and critiquing Critical Social Justice as inadequate for the establishment of a healing therapeutic relationship.