Critical Therapy Antidote is a UK-registered limited company. Its day-to-day operations are directed by a team of three clinicians, with guidance and oversight provided by two senior therapy professionals on the Advisory Board.
With an international scope, CTA represents a breadth of therapeutic modalities and psychological disciplines.
BOARD OF ADVISORS
Val Thomas, DPsych, FHEA is a UK-based writer and semi-retired psychotherapist who has worked mainly in private practice and in statutory substance misuse agencies in London. Val was formerly a counselling educator, academic and researcher specialising in mental imagery applications with two books published by Routledge: Using Mental Imagery in Counselling and Psychotherapy and Using Mental Imagery to Enhance Creative and Work-Related Processes.
Since 2020, Val has focused on raising public awareness of the ideological capture of the therapy professions. She founded Critical Therapy Antidote and is the editor of Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice . She is an advisory member on the board of The Open Therapy Institute.
Carole Sherwood, DClinPsy, is a UK-based retired clinical psychologist. She previously worked for the NHS, specialising in sexual health, trauma, chronic pain, cancer and palliative care.
In recent years, Carole has focused on the increasing politicisation of the psychology professions, co-authoring in 2022 an independent report, The Politicisation of Clinical Psychology Training Courses in the UK, with Dr Kirsty Miller. She also contributed to the book Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Anti-therapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice, edited by Dr Val Thomas. Carole is a member of the Advisory Council for Don’t Divide Us and founder of the UK campaign Save Mental Health.
Our Directors
Jaco van Zyl, MA (Clinical Psychology) is a South Africa-trained clinical psychologist and psychoanalytic psychotherapist now based in Ireland specialising in trauma-spectrum disorders, personality and mood disorders, and affective disturbances related to gender and sexuality.
Informed by the historical and contemporary political challenges of his home country, Jaco explores the dynamics of group psychology, ideology, adopted narratives and rituals within political and ideological movements. He uses a psychoanalytic lens to shed light on recent identitarian developments writing for Merion West (here) and CTA (here, here and here). Jaco is also a co-host on the Critical Therapy Antidote Podcast, a wide-ranging discussion forum, where he and Christine Sefein Wolk explore current ideological and psychological trends in society with fascinating guests.
Christine Sefein-Wolk, LMFT, is a US-based Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist specialising in grief and trauma work in a variety of communities and settings including dual-diagnoses residential facilities, intensive outpatient treatment, homeless shelters and in private practice. Christine has held positions such as Clinical Director of OUR HOUSE Grief Support Center, Clinical Supervisor of the Interpersonal Violence programs at California Lutheran University, and grief specialist.
As Teaching Faculty staff member in the Master’s program at Antioch University, Christine experienced firsthand the ideological capture of therapy training described in her book chapter in Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Anti-therapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice, edited by Dr Val Thomas. Christine is a co-host on the Critical Therapy Antidote Podcast, a wide-ranging discussion forum, where she, Jaco van Zyl, and Dr Michael Olan explore current ideological and psychological trends in society with fascinating guests.
Michael Olan, PsyD, is a U.S.-trained Doctor of Psychology in clinical psychology, currently practising in the Chicago area. He earned his Master’s and Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, with clinical training at the McLean OCD Institute in Houston, Hartgrove Hospital in Chicago, and Aspire Indiana.
Michael’s work examines ideological intrusions into psychotherapy and their corrosive effects on the psychological conditions necessary for healing. He has written on misandry in contemporary psychology for Critical Therapy Antidote and has presented at Heterodox Academy on the use of cognitive-behavioural tools to support viewpoint diversity.
He is also a co-host of the Critical Therapy Antidote Podcast, where he joins Jaco van Zyl and Christine Sefein-Wolk to explore the intersection of ideology, culture, and clinical practice.