What is critical psychotherapy?
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
As a 'critical' psychotherapist, I am concerned with the question of how to do no harm. Rather than adhering to a therapeutic model, a rule, or a statement of fact, it is my striving to do no harm that is at the forefront of developing ways of working with people, together with the subsequent critique of these ways of working. This requires engaging in an ongoing process of staying alert to how the use of power has shaped the lives of my clients, my own life, and what occurs in therapy.
When this intention or striving is absent, I am aware of the risk of becoming an agent of social control. This involves contributing, either wittingly or unwittingly, to the further marginalisation of those disenfranchised by the dominant group.
It is challenging to create the conditions in which I remain alert to what we don't know and to remain alert to collusion in the imposition of meaning that marginalises others. In my attempt to meet these challenges, I turn toward other people's unique experiences and choose to privilege discovery, supported by what I know, while being ready and willing to have this knowing changed, added to, or confirmed.
All psychotherapists develop an approach, or what might be called a 'clinical' philosophy, that guides how they work with their clients. This approach is informed by many different theories, models and ideas about the experience and process of becoming and being a person. This includes beliefs about what causes mental and emotional distress or suffering in a person and what is regarded as therapeutic. These are powerful kinds of knowledge acquired through various trainings and education. Many of these beliefs have also become mainstream within the wider culture, institutions and in everyday ways of making meaning of experience.
Therapists are also drawn to certain models of therapy and ways of working for many reasons, not least their own experiences of life, power, values, joy, belonging, loss, trauma and healing. The dominant framework in Western cultures is the biological-medical model of mental 'illness'. While many people find it helpful to have a diagnosis, there is a growing global community of clients and practitioners, including psychiatrists, academics, researchers, psychologists and psychotherapists, who are questioning the very foundations of this framework and working towards creating very different ways to make meaning of distress and offer therapeutic support.
If you would like to read more about critical approaches to therapy that question the biological-medical model, have a look at the organisation A Disorder for Everyone https://www.adisorder4everyone.com/
