Episode 685: Unpacking Race, Class, Gender & Trauma with Silvia Dutchevici

Silvia M. Dutchevici, MA, LCSW is the Critical Therapy Institute (CTI) founder and president.<br /><br />With more than 20 years of experience in social services and a passion for psychotherapy, Dutchevici (pronounced “doot-KAY-vitch”) created CTI when she perceived the need to expand psychoanalytic praxis to reflect how race, class, gender, and religion intersect with psychological conflicts. Silvia has an intensive background in psychoanalytic theory and trauma, with a particular focus on torture.<br /><br />However, after seeing that traditional psychoanalysis was not able to adequately transform and heal her patients, she embarked on an extended period of research and training. Drawing on liberation psychology and critical pedagogy scholarship and combining them with her real-life experience as a practicing psychotherapist, she founded CTI in 2012; it focuses on teaching, research, and the application of critical therapy in advisory, consulting, and educational services.<br /><br />Unlike traditional therapists, critical therapists work from the premise that the personal is political. To be more effective, psychotherapy must therefore interrogate the patient’s as well as the therapist’s worldview. Engaging in power analysis, critical therapists explore deeply how power affects the patient’s and therapist’s identities as well as their relationship with one another. CTI offers a four-year training program for psychotherapists, as well as workshops on various clinical issues.<br /><br /><b>In This Episode</b><br /><ul><li><a href="https://criticaltherapy.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Critical Therapy Institute</a></li><li>Silvia’s book: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Critical-Therapy-Power-Liberation-Psychotherapy-ebook/dp/B0B5DL113P/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1BT0LVGNP2LGW&amp;keywords=critical+therapy&amp;qid=1659647160&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=critical+therap%2Cstripbooks%2C301&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Critical Therapy: Power And Liberation in Psychotherapy</a>.</li></ul>Th