Seminar RECORDING - Gwen Adshead

Service Description

In this talk, Dr Adshead will discuss child protection processes in England and the mothers who are involved in those processes as part of public law proceedings. She will discuss what we know about mothers who mistreat their children; and suggest that attachment insecurity may be useful paradigm for understanding mothers who maltreat their children in a variety of ways. Dr Adshead will discuss the concept of disorganised attachment and recent research that links disorganised attachment to child maltreatment. She will conclude with some discussion about the implications for therapists who work with abusive mothers and what might be done to prevent child maltreatment. Dr Gwen Adshead is a forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist. She trained at St George’s Hospital, the Institute of Psychiatry, and the Institute of Group Analysis. She is also trained in mindfulness based cognitive therapy and mentalisation based therapy. Gwen has worked as a therapist with violent offenders for over thirty years; mainly in secure psychiatric services and prisons. Gwen is also a writer and teacher; and has published many academic papers and textbooks; most recently, the Oxford Handbook of Forensic psychiatry which is now in its second edition. In 2021, Gwen published her first book for a general audience, written with her good friend Eileen Horne; published by Faber and called ‘The Devil You know’. Gwen and Eileen are now working on a second book, and also consult on the BBC Scotland radio series ‘This Thing of Darkness’.