Centenary webinars 2020
For 100 years, the Tavistock and Portman has proudly been at the forefront of exploring mental health and wellbeing. From attachment theory and infant observation, to applying psychoanalytic and systemic approaches in varied settings, our ideas have led to changes in care, education, how organisations work and beyond.
Our Centenary Festival is celebrating our history and exploring contemporary issues in relation to identity, relationships and society. It is considering how we continue to draw on our heritage to provide valuable responses to contemporary and future problems from the perspective of equality and inclusion.
Esther Bick was intensely passionate about her work, which she pursued with a single minded focus and dedication. Her best-known contribution to psychoanalysis was her development of infant observation, which still underpins child psychotherapy training not just at the Tavi but around the world.
Esther Bick’s pioneering legacy continues. Join experts Dilys Daws and Alexandra de Rementeria who will share their first-hand experience of learning and teaching infant observation.
6 to 7:30pm, Monday 14 December - This event has now passed. Watch a recording on our YouTube channel and read a blog by Jenifer Wakelyn about the event.
Steve Bambrough and Louise Allnutt will set the scene with a look at some of the key theories of Freud, Bion, Klein and others. They will look at the formation of thinking capacity from a developmental perspective. They will then go on to illustrate some of this from their clinical experience of working with patients who have fragmented thoughts and projections and whose projections actively undermine the capacity for thought.
Steve and Louise will explore their thoughts on what it is (and what it might mean) to create a space in the mind for thinking activity which can hold on to and contain anxiety (primitive emotions) while being able to hold on to doubt and work creatively at producing thoughts/feelings. Reflecting via the use of another mind in supervision or team reflection will be explored. They will also touch on some of the physiological aspects of this process.
6 to 8:30pm, Monday 30 November 2020 - This event has now passed. Read more on the event page.
Join us for talk on our ground-breaking work with people with autism and their families. This event will explore the rich clinical work and innovative thinking around Autism Spectrum Condition at the Tavistock over the past five decades.
We hope that we will be joined by both professionals from a range of backgrounds, and those with lived experience of Autism Spectrum Condition in our discussion of how we can continue to best support individuals and their families in the future.
Thursday 10 December - This event has now passed. A recording will soon be available. Read more on the event page.
Join us for a Tavistock Policy Seminar with Helen Morgan, examining white privilege and white fragility from a psychoanalytic perspective.
This presentation is rooted in the assumption that the problem of racism is a problem of whiteness and that an examination of this construct of whiteness needs to be central to seeking a solution to this destructive dynamic. A key and urgent question then for those of us who are regarded as white is, how do we interrogate our whiteness to bring about the radical change that is required?
10 November 2020 - This event has now passed. You can watch a recording on our YouTube channel and read a write up of the event.
Margaret Rustin will describe initial encounters with children and adolescents of different ages, and very different life experiences, with whom a conversation could be initiated. This is what child psychotherapy aims to set in motion, a chance for a child to feel understood, to feel the relief that this gives, and to become interested in understanding him or herself. Understanding ourselves is a life-long task and there is a special privilege in being able to contribute to the development of the next generation in this way.
Andrew Balfour will then discuss his paper and explore the link between parenting difficulties and couple relationship issues in psychotherapeutic work with parental couples. The paper looks at the social policy context of couple psychotherapy and the resistances it can evoke, which has led to an emphasis on ‘parenting’ rather than ‘couple’ interventions in the historic development of family service provision in the UK.
6 to 7:30pm, Friday 6 November 2020 - This event has now passed. You can watch a recording on our YouTube channel.
The story of psychoanalytic, psychodynamic and systemic thought is enmeshed in the story of the Tavistock and Portman. Join us for a lunchtime talk for a fascinating look at the history of our ideas with Sebastian Kraemer, Glenn Gossling and Sarah Helps.
This event has now passed. You can watch a recording on our YouTube channel and read a blog by Sebastian Kraemer about the event.
1 to 2pm, Thursday 22 October 2020
Join us for a lively discussion about who we really are, navigating complexity in an unequal society, from the personal to the political. Lemn Sissay will launch our Centenary Festival by discussing his experience of growing up with a white foster family and in care in England in the 70s. The poet will address the different narratives that colour experience and the importance of developing your own narrative about who you are, of finding your voice.
This event has now passed. Read more on the event page. Read a blog by Sheena Webb about the event.
30 September 2020
Organisational consultant Francesca Cardona will lead a panel discussion who will address the pandemic and current crises. She and the panel will make connections with other societal and organisational crises and discuss the relevance of the Tavistock approach in these contexts. With Gwen Hanrahan, Ajit Menon and Vega Roberts.
1 to 2:15pm, 5 October 2020 - This event has now passed. Read more on the event page.
Organisational consultant Francesca Cardona will lead a panel discussion and address the current crises. She and the panel will make connections with other societal and organisational crises and discuss the relevance of the Tavistock approach in these contexts. With Ben Neal, Robyn Vesey and Vega Roberts.
This event has now passed. You can watch a recording of the event on our YouTube channel.
15 September 2020
Jessica Yakeley and Stanley Ruszczynski will describe the past, present and future work of the Portman Clinic, first established in 1931 as the clinical arm of what came to be known as the Institute for the Study and Treatment of Delinquency.
25 February 2020 – This event has now passed. Read more on the event page.
