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North London, NHS Foundation Trust
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Staff focus

Francesca Benjamin

Course lead for Introduction to Counselling and Psychotherapy (D12/ED12) and Psychodynamic Reflective Practice in Mental Health (D65)

“I am a Psychoanalytic Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist, trained at the Tavistock, having undertaken an MSc in Psychoanalytic Developmental Psychology at the Anna Freud Centre a number of years earlier. Prior to training, I trained as a musician, spending many years playing and teaching music, with a particular interest in using music as a way of connecting and communicating with children and adults with special educational needs, neurodivergence and mental health difficulties. Later, I took up a number of roles in social care contexts, working with families and young people including those experiencing family breakdown, trauma, the care system, and criminal involvement. Working in a range of settings, alongside the psychoanalytic learning I had engaged in, sparked a deep curiosity in understanding children’s experiences of the world and of others at a deeper level. This interest cemented my wish to train as a Psychoanalytic Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist.

As a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist, I have worked in a range of NHS settings and in private practice. I enjoy working with families and children from a range of backgrounds, being able to think about the complex dynamics that take place in families and in early development and to use these theories in order to understand more about the people I work with. I have a particular interest in the application of psychoanalytic ideas to work with families and child in a range of frontline mental health roles, and in the implementation of psychotherapeutic work in schools and other educational settings, an interest that includes a co-authored publication. I have a keen interest in the way emotional factors impact on the experience of both the learning and the relationships that take place in educational settings.

I also work on a number of Psychoanalytic Applied and Clinical courses, as seminar leader, lecturer, tutor and clinical supervisor. In my career, I have particularly enjoyed the opportunity to draw together my clinical work with my long-standing interest in teaching, through my Course Lead roles. I enjoy learning about the range of individual experience, through contact with students, patients and colleagues. I also love being in a field which allows space to reflect, think, and learn more about myself, as well as others, in an ongoing way. In this way, I continue to encounter new and rich experience in my role as a clinician and a Course Lead. I encourage applicants from a diverse range of backgrounds, who are interested in learning more about the mind and about human experience, to apply for an introductory course. I aim to offer a rich learning environment, brought alive by the clinical work that goes on in the Tavistock building, and enhanced by the history of theoretical and working models that have emerged through work at the Tavistock over time.”

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