57. The Antidote to Critical Therapy with Dr. Carole Sherwood

Has Critical Social Justice completely captured clinical psychology? So many people seek out therapy in hopes of improving their lives and the lives of those around them through traditional therapeutic practice. What happens when those practices are no longer taught and therapists are instead activists seeking to derail the normative behavior of others? In this week’s episode, I am joined by British psychotherapist Dr. Carole Sherwood to get her perspective on how critical therapy has captured psychology by overhauling psychology training courses worldwide. Dr. Sherwood offers her advice to see through the fallacies of Critical Social Justice in hopes that therapists can return to their traditional roles of helping patients cope with mental illness. 

Dr. Carole Sherwood is a clinical psychologist. She worked for the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, specializing in sexual health, chronic pain, cancer, palliative care, and trauma. Dr. Sherwood has grown increasingly concerned about the incursion of Critical Social Justice into clinical psychology. In 2022 she co-authored an independent report, The Politicization of Clinical Psychology Training Courses in the UK, with Dr. Kirsty Miller. She also contributed to the book Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice, edited by Dr. Val Thomas. Dr. Sherwood is on the steering committee of Critical Therapy Antidote, an organization that is committed to preserving the healing ethos of therapy. She is also on the Advisory Council of Don’t Divide Us, the UK’s common-sense voice on race. 

In this episode I mention a recent episode: 51. Wokeness Versus the Counseling Profession with Christine Sefine

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