Dr Andrew Briggs – My Story

 

Before training as a Child Psychotherapist in the 1980s at the Tavistock (now Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust) I was a university lecturer teaching the history of eastern and western ideas, and various aspects of the social sciences. Before training I worked for several years in several Youth Clubs within North London boroughs with a total Afro-Caribbean membership. The lessons I learned within these clubs have served me life-long. During part of my training, I worked within children’s nurseries and the mental health division of university health centres. Here I learned a great deal about undergraduate and post-graduate symptoms as indicative of the pressure of academic commitments and the university timetable. At the Tavistock my specific interests were children with autism as a diagnosis, and children traumatised by separation from the parents who conceived them; they are, adopted children or those in care. Like so many other mental health clinicians, working with what is termed reconstituted families is an enduring part of my caseload.

Once qualified I took up my first post in the NHS. I worked in what was then Child and Family Consultation Services (CFCS) which became Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) long before the end of my career. The change of name also indicates a change of focus. By the time I retired children and families were more likely to be assessed and processed through clinical pathways rather than more deeply understood and part of being consulted to and with. I retired from the NHS in 2018. From 2000 to 2004 I was a district Head of Child Psychotherapy in a London borough. From 2004 until 2018 I was Head of Child Psychotherapy for a very large NHS Trust in southern England. During my career I was instrumental in setting up specialist mental health services for Children in Care and Adopted, and children under the age of five whose parents were in the armed services. I supervised the training of many trainee Child Psychotherapists, and clinically supported the work of members of other disciplines within CAMHS (psychiatric nursing, psychiatry, clinical and forensic psychology, systemic psychotherapy, and social work). Being for so long a CAMHS professional it is perhaps not surprising that I see working with children and their families as best done with a team around the child. Working privately now, my offer is to include the child’s school in various aspects of the work where the school input to helping psychotherapeutic progress is necessary.

I have edited three collections of papers. These are published by Tavistock: Routledge. Two concern Children in Care or Adopted. The other concerns infant mental health.  I have also published numerous peer reviewed papers in international journals on clinical and consultancy topics. From a very early age I have been concerned about the non-human environment we all depend upon. I remember working on a farm during nearly all my school holidays and growing increasingly close to the crops, the livestock and the soil. I learned what soil nourishment not only good but bad weather can bring. Carbon pollution of our cities and the damage done to marine life by human waste led me to join Greenpeace. Nowadays I am also a member of Climate Psychology Alliance. From my undergraduate days until retirement, I gained academic degrees and clinical qualifications including; several M.A.s, a B.A (Hons) and a Ph.D. I am a full member of the Association of Child Psychotherapists (Membership number 3774) and the Tavistock Society of Psychotherapists.

In the early 2000s I returned to the Tavistock to train as an Organisational Consultant. Since then, I have consulted to individuals and teams within the private, public and not for profit sectors of the economy. Projects have included; working with NHS senior management and consulting to individual CEOs on their preparations for the Covid pandemic (and then their post-pandemic Trust wide functioning), improving outcomes for research and development teams in adoption and fostering not for profit organisations, facilitating the return to being a viable business of a micro-brewery, and enabling staff to work better together in not for profit children’s therapeutic communities and homes.

Credentials & Affiliations

My academic and professional journey has been focused on developing expertise in child and adolescent psychotherapy and organisational consultancy. My qualifications and memberships highlight my commitment to ongoing learning and professional growth.

Professional Associations

• Full Member, Association of Child Psychotherapists Membership number 3774
• Member, Tavistock Society for Psychotherapists
• Member, OPUS (Organisation for Promoting Understanding Society)
• Board Member, CPA (Climate Psychology Alliance)