Research Week 2023

Last week we held our annual Research Week, bringing together our staff, students, and visitors interested in research at the Trust. The online week was packed with talks and workshops to develop attendees’ research skills, and featured presentations from a range of our doctoral students during our Doctoral Conference, the highlight of the week.

Tanya Moore, Research Lead, said: “Research Week has been a fantastic opportunity for the research community at The Tavistock and Portman to join together in our thinking and learning and to see how psycho research methods can enhance our understanding across disciplines.”

The week started with informative sessions on data analysis software, advanced literature search, research ethics and preparing for the thesis and viva, delivered by Mathieu Lebrun, our information skills librarian, and partners from the University of Essex.

On Wednesday we were treated to a full day of thought-provoking presentations during our Doctoral Conference, titled ‘Crossing boundaries: coming together across disciplines’. The conference was chaired by Elisa Reyes-Simpson, Chief Education and Training Officer and Dean of Postgraduate Studies, and included presentations from students across our doctoral research programmes.

Joe Horner, one of our M80 Child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy students, who presented his research on the day, said: “The Doctoral Conference was a great opportunity to hear about some of the research that is going on in different parts of the Trust. It was really interesting to find out about the fascinating work that people are exploring in different areas and to think about links across the doctoral research presented. One of my favourite things to do is listen to people talk about things that they have a lot of interest and passion about, so I really enjoyed the day.

“It was also a great opportunity to present some of my own research. Although I don’t naturally enjoy public speaking, I really welcomed the opportunity to speak with others about my research and also to get feedback from others’ reflections and thoughts about it. I hope others found the presentation engaging and thought provoking. I found the comments afterwards helpful and they made me reflect on different aspects of the project. Presenting in this way also felt like really good preparation for my viva which I hope will happen soon!”

The week closed with interactive sessions on writing for publication, decolonising research methodology, and counter-transference, delivered by faculty from the University of Essex and our Directorate of Education and Training. Thank you to all our presenters and attendees for joining us for a lively and enriching programme. We hope to see many of you return to join next year’s Research Week.