White Therapists, Trainers and Supervisors – Mend your Ways!
Black Identities and White Therapies: Race, Respect and Diversity. Edited by Divine Charura and Colin Lago. PCCS Books 2021 A Review Colin Feltham You may find this cynical but I want to begin with the assertion that we all protect and advance our own self-interest and that of our group, even when it is not …
British Psychology: Where are we now?
A year ago, I wrote a letter to the governing body of British Psychology (The BPS), raising concerns about the direction the organisation, and the discipline, was taking. Specifically, I was concerned about the organisation’s promotion of the overtly political Critical Social Justice ideology, which I believed threatened the scientific integrity of the discipline, prevented …
Moving Forward: Considerations for Responding to Changes in the Training Standards for Therapists
Since May 2020 following the death of George Floyd, I have become concerned about trends in the focus and direction of my social work profession. I am a clinical social worker in the United States. After completing an undergraduate degree in psychology in the mid 1990’s I decided to pursue a Master of Social Work …
Political Bias at the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
I’ve been a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) since 2013. By far the largest professional membership body for counsellors and psychotherapists in the UK, with over 50,000 members, the BACP has considerable influence over the provision of counselling education through accredited training programmes, and on the continued professional development of …
One-Dimensional Intersectional Psychobabble
Intersections of Privilege and Otherness in Counselling and Psychotherapy: Mockingbird by Dwight Turner (2021) A review by Colin Feltham Where to begin a review of a book of this kind? Since the author declares himself at the outset a black, heterosexual, able-bodied man, perhaps I should declare myself a white, heterosexual, able-bodied man. Turner and …
Is Psychotherapy a Safe Space for ‘Political Dissidents’?
Looking back to the 1970s, I always understood psychotherapy as something free from religion and politics. Its focus was the individual client and his or her distress, turmoil, or need to explore the idiosyncratic inner life. Although the 1960s and 1970s were culturally momentous in many ways, some of us turned to therapy as more …
Selective Attention: Ideological Bias Evident in the APA 2020 Virtual Conference
Given the current cultural polarity, few topics may be as unanimously agreed upon as the unanticipated adversity of the 2020 calendar year: A global pandemic with devastating health and financial ramifications, Saharan sandstorms, plagues of locusts, wildfires, police-related deaths and racial protests and rioting, and a contentious presidential election with a disputed outcome top the …
From Psychotherapist to Psycho-activist: How Therapy is Becoming Derailed
This is a public health warning: the seal on the tin labelled Counselling and Psychotherapy has been tampered with and the contents have become contaminated. Mainstream culture has been captured by Critical Social Justice, an ideology that prioritises group identity over the individual. The wholescale adoption of this belief system threatens to change the practice …
I Signed Up To Study Sexual Health. What I got Was Gender Ideology, Fetishism, and Porn
By Tim Courtois I am not a conspiracy theorist. And as recently as a year and a half ago, if someone had told me the things I am reporting here, I would have accused them of paranoia. That was before I enrolled in a professional training program that I’d hoped would expand my skills as …
Collision with Reality: What Depth Psychology Can Teach Us about Victimhood Culture and Teen Anxiety
By Lisa Marchiano When Carl Jung was a 12-year-old schoolboy, he was shoved to the ground by another child, hitting his head on the pavement, and nearly losing consciousness. Instantly, he grasped the opportunities created by this attack. ‘At the moment I felt the blow, the thought flashed through my mind: “Now you won’t have …
Disingenuous Pedagogy in Professional Counselling Training: Turning an Intersectional Lens into an Ideological Straitjacket
Critical Social Justice Theory (CSJT)—a political ideology that views society as grounded in systems of power—has several ways of colonising a territory. One favoured route is through training and education, in particular the education of the young. The general public is only now becoming aware of the way in which this radically different worldview has …
How Critical Social Justice Theory Cuts The Heart Out of Therapy
It should appear to any astute observer that the counselling and psychotherapy disciplines are approaching a critical juncture. At the moment it is unclear whether the encroachments of Critical Social Justice Theory (CSJT) into talking therapies are going to be met with a strong enough resistance to prevent a complete capture of the field. In …
Why Critical Social Justice Activism Could Increase Suicide Risk
No death impacts others in the way a suicide does. With a death by suicide come shame, guilt and many questions—the most prominent of which is why? But sometimes we can put the pieces together. Several plausible theories may help us conceptualize the key factors that may lead someone to attempt or complete suicide. Being cognizant of …
The Contradictions of Critical Theory and Counseling
When a mental health professional begins working with a client, there’s a common phrase which suggests the first course of action: “meet them where they are.” In essence, this means in order to help the person, you need to first understand how they conceptualize themselves, the problem they face, and possible solutions. Each person is …
A Therapist’s Plea for Freedom of Speech
To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.—Frederick Douglass. The single best predictor of a positive therapeutic outcome is the relationship a client has with her therapist or counselor. Cultivating a relationship in which the client can be her fully authentic …
Wake Up, Talking Therapists! Critical Social Justice Theory Poses an Existential Threat to your Professions.
There is one thing that the field of talking therapies is, ironically, not talking about and this is the existential threat posed to our professions by Critical Social Justice Theory (CSJT). In this article I will sketch out how the social justice ethos embedded in theory and practice at the beginning of the millennium is …
Therapy and the Hermeneutics of Oppression
The disciplines of counselling and psychotherapy have evolved over the course of many decades into the rich pluralistic field of today. The complex shifting nature of this territory engenders dynamism and creativity, but it can also make it susceptible to anti-therapeutic intrusions. Examples of the latter would be the dangerous individuals who slip through the …
