There is a long tradition of viewing psychotherapy with a certain degree of suspicion. Within the relatively cloistered field of psychotherapy ethics, key concerns have tended to cluster around the risk of boundary violations and the need to maintain a considered neutrality on the part of clinicians. But of course psychotherapy also has a life outside the consulting room, so to speak, and broader worries have persisted regarding the societal role of the psychological disciplines (often inspired by the work of Foucault). In this talk, we take up several related strands of concern, exploring the increased importance of social critique as a necessary tool to better understand contemporary clinical realities and the ways in which foundational theories of psychotherapy themselves function within specific social and political contexts. This starts with recognition that ethical analyses have gradually shifted towards the tracking of implicit moral and social values active within the clinical encounter. Indeed, even formalized interventions such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) – including versions adapted for digital platforms – raise the spectre of indirect influence. We also want to suggest that these worries demand another layer of critique, one that examines the explanatory rationale supporting any particular school of psychotherapy. Each and every type of therapy carries with it theoretical assumptions not just about how it works, the particular 'mechanism of change,' but also what conception of well-being and human flourishing is best aspired to. This calls for sustained social and political analysis of both theory and practice.