The Radical Therapist

The Radical Therapist #142 – A Developmentalist’s Guide to Better Mental Health w/ Lois Holzman

In this episode of The Radical Therapist, Chris sits down with developmental psychologist, social therapist, and longtime cultural provocateur Lois Holzman to explore what a developmentalist approach to mental health offers in a time when therapy often collapses growth into diagnosis, insight, or symptom management.
Drawing from her latest book A Developmentalist’s Guide to Better Mental Health, Lois introduces listeners to a playful, philosophical, and deeply relational way of thinking about human problems, one that shifts the focus from fixing individuals to creating conditions for ongoing social and emotional development. Through the book’s unique letters-and-responses format, she invites readers (and therapists) to step out of psychology-speak and into a more performative, improvisational relationship with their lives and dilemmas.
Together, Chris and Lois explore how Vygotsky’s legacy and social therapeutics challenge dominant therapeutic models, why play and performance are not luxuries but necessities for adult development, and what distinguishes a developmentalist response from advice-giving or problem-solving. They also reflect on how people can begin to move when they feel most stuck, not by changing their stories, but by changing how they relate, act, and create with others.
 
A Developmentalist's Guide to Better Mental Health Navigating Everyday Life Dilemmas

The Radical Therapist #141 – Regulating Emotion, Regulating Selves with David Nylund

What if “emotion regulation” isn’t just a clinical skill, but a cultural demand?
In this episode of The Radical Therapist, Chris sits down with therapist and professor David Nylund for a rigorous and timely conversation about the near-hegemonic status of emotion regulation in contemporary therapy. Together, they explore how practices often framed as neutral, helpful, or evidence-based can quietly function as technologies of governance, shaping not just how people feel, but who they are allowed to be.
Drawing on narrative therapy, post-structural theory, Black feminist thought, and critiques of neoliberal subjectivity, David invites us to look beyond whether regulation techniques “work” and ask deeper questions: What kinds of selves do these practices produce? What futures do they orient us toward? And whose emotions are deemed acceptable, intelligible, or safe?
A conversation for therapists, educators, and practitioners who want to think more critically about what we’re teaching, what we’re regulating, and what might change if we treated emotions not as problems to solve, but as embodied critiques of the worlds we inhabit.
 
Chris' Casperson Therapy Center Training

The Radical Therapist – What I'm Building in 2026

In this episode Chris launches Dangerous Stories Studio, a new constellation of offerings for people navigating transitions and building futures that don't fit existing maps.
The work continues in new forms:
• A new podcast exploring how stories shape what becomes possible (launching February 2026)
• Quarterly Futuring Sprints, intensive workshops for people in liminal space (first sprint March 2026)
• The Studio Membership—ongoing community and practice (opening March 2025)
• The Futurecraft Mastermind—a three-month intensive for identity and practice redesign (applications open September 2026)
Learn more and stay connected @dangerousstoriesstudio
Let's build something dangerous.

The Radical Therapist #140 – New Materialisms, Systemic Therapy, and the More-Than-Human Turn w/ Christopher Loh & Federico Albertini

In this episode of The Radical Therapist, Chris sits down with systemic therapists and thinkers Christopher Loh and Federico Albertini to explore how New Materialisms are reshaping the foundations of therapeutic practice. What happens when therapy loosens its grip on language as the primary site of meaning-making, and begins listening to the material, the more-than-human, the in-between?
Drawing on philosophy, anthropology, physics, and the emerging edges of systemic psychotherapy, Christopher and Federico guide us through a relational world where matter is active, contexts are dynamic, and change emerges from constellations of forces, not just conversations. Together we explore how New Materialisms challenge the limits of the linguistic turn, illuminate the agency of bodies, environments, and objects, and invite therapists to rethink what “systemic” really means.
A conversation for anyone curious about what emerges when we let therapy become a practice of attention to the material conditions of suffering, care, and transformation, and when we recognize that the future of the field may lie in the spaces, relations, and rhythms we’ve long overlooked.

The Radical Therapist #139 – Poetics, Politics, and the Art of Therapy w/ Todd Disney, Psy.D.

In this episode of The Radical Therapist, Chris sits down with narrative therapist and educator Todd Disney, Psy.D., to explore his work on Narrative Poetic Inquiry (NPI), the art of drawing out the poetic sensibility of clients rather than performing it as therapists.
Building on the ideas of Foucault, Bachelard, Michael White, Lefebvre, and others, Disney invites us to rethink therapy as an aesthetic and political act: a practice of “making the ordinary strange,” of discovering the sacred in the everyday, and of restoring beauty to lives flattened by productivity and pathology. Together, Chris and Todd explore poetic memory, the ethics of the therapist-as-artist, and how questions can become openings into resonance, imagination, and renewal.
A conversation for anyone wondering how language itself might help us re-enchant the world.

The Art of Listening & The Past, Present and Future of Narrative Therapy w/ Gene Combs

In episode #138 of The Radical Therapist Podcast, Chris sits down with long-time narrative therapist Gene Combs for a conversation on the past, present, and future of narrative therapy. Gene shares his journey into narrative therapy, his thoughts on neoliberalism’s impact on mental health, and why honoring people as the first authors of their lives remains a central commitment in his work.
We also dive into Gene’s recent writing/thinking on listening, what he calls “experiencing the storyteller’s experience” and explore how therapists can cultivate resonant presence in their conversations.
 
Chris Hoff PhD, LMFTWe want to hear from you!
YouTube: http://bit.ly/2i0DmaTInstagram: https://instagram.com/theradicaltherapist/Email: theradicaltherapist@gmail.com

The Radical Therapist #137 – Bibliotherapy as Narrative Practice w/ Mariana Casale, PhD

What if the act of reading could help rewrite the stories we live by?
In this episode of The Radical Therapist, Dr. Chris Hoff sits down with bibliotherapist and narrative practitioner Mariana Casale to explore her new article, “Bibliotherapy as Narrative Practice: Reader Empowerment Through Re-Authoring Conversations.”
Drawing on the work of Michael White, Alejandra Pizarnik, Foucault, and others, Casale makes a compelling case for reading literature not as passive consumption but as a co-authored, transformative act that can decenter dominant discourses, uncover “sparkling moments,” and help people reclaim agency over their life narratives.
MarianaCasale.com
 
Chris Hoff PhD, LMFTWe want to hear from you!
YouTube: http://bit.ly/2i0DmaTInstagram: https://instagram.com/theradicaltherapist/Email: theradicaltherapist@gmail.com

The Radical Therapist #136 - Therapy as Resistance: Culture, Politics, and Spirit w/ Dr. Makungu Akinyela

In this episode of The Radical Therapist, Chris sits down with Dr. Makungu Akinyela, scholar, therapist, and community organizer to discuss his new book Culture, Politics, Spirituality and Practice: A Book of Resistance and Critical Theory for Disturbing Times.
We explore how therapy can be an act of resistance, how spirituality is political, and how Dr. Akinyela’s groundbreaking practice of Testimony Therapy reclaims healing as a collective, culturally-rooted, and justice-oriented process.
From the failures of Western psychology to the power of African-centered healing, this conversation is a call to action for therapists, healers, and anyone committed to liberation work in disturbing times.
https://makunguakinyelaauthor.com/
https://www.sankofatestimonies.com/
Chris Hoff PhD, LMFTWe want to hear from you!
YouTube: http://bit.ly/2i0DmaTInstagram: https://instagram.com/theradicaltherapist/Email: theradicaltherapist@gmail.com

The Radical Therapist #135 – Pluriversal Practice w/ Brooke Lavelle and Katrine Bregengaard

In episode #135, host Chris Hoff sits down with contemplative scholar Brooke Lavelle and philosopher and activist Katrine Bregengaard to explore the emerging field of pluriversal practice—a response to the limitations of "one-world-worlding" that dominate our movements, institutions, and inner lives. Drawing on their co-authored essay (with Maha El-Sheikh) in The Arrow Journal and their work with the Courage of Care Coalition, Brooke and Katrine share how pluriversal frameworks invite us into deeper relationality, cognitive flexibility, and radical imagination. They unpack how dominant systems often reproduce themselves inside the very movements meant to resist them—and offer practices for undoing that replication through somatics, contemplative inquiry, and collective care. This is a rich conversation on healing, liberation, and building the worlds we dream of—worlds where many worlds fit.
Courage of Care Coalition
Liminal Lab by California Family Institute
Chris' Substack
2nd Annual Contemporary Narrative Therapy Conference
 
Chris Hoff PhD, LMFTWe want to hear from you!
YouTube: http://bit.ly/2i0DmaTInstagram: https://instagram.com/theradicaltherapist/Email: theradicaltherapist@gmail.com

The Radical Therapist #134 – Men, Masculinities, and Narrative Therapy w/ Brian Dean Williams

In episode #134, host Chris Hoff sits down with therapist Brian Dean Williams to explore the complexities of masculinity, mental health, and contemporary dilemmas facing men.
Drawing from multiple perspectives on patriarchy, Chris and Brian discuss:🔹 The emotional and relational costs of traditional masculinity🔹 Why men struggle with vulnerability, connection, and purpose🔹 How therapists can help men navigate accountability and healing🔹 The crisis of loneliness and the need for deeper male friendships🔹 How expanding our ideas of masculinity can lead to more generative lives
Whether you're working with men in therapy or reflecting on masculinity in your own life, this conversation is a must-listen.
 
Brian's Website: https://briandeanwilliams.com/
 
Chris Hoff PhD, LMFTWe want to hear from you!
YouTube: http://bit.ly/2i0DmaTInstagram: https://instagram.com/theradicaltherapist/Email: theradicaltherapist@gmail.com