The Tavistock and Portman changes lives. For 100 years, we have proudly been at the forefront of exploring mental health and wellbeing. Over the last hundred years, the work of the clinic has continually evolved to reflect new learning and develop new methods.
Key tenets that have guided us throughout are a developmental approach, thinking contextually, and reflective practice. The Tavistock and Portman has and continues to make a substantial contribution to therapeutic practice, social work, the justice system, education and organisational consultancy.
100 years on from when we saw our first patient, our centenary is a chance to celebrate our influence and consider what our contribution might be across the next hundred years.
Find out more about the key figures who have shaped the Tavistock and Portman, see a timelines of our history and make sure to sign up to our Centenary Festival talks and events.
“For decades, the Tavistock’s work has helped shape how we see ourselves, as persons and as a society. Much thinking that has entered the mainstream emerged from its challenging, interdisciplinary research and practice”
– Hilary Mantel
Introduction This presentation and discussion will explore leading and following in music settings with the Principal Percussionist of the ENO orchestra. What can we learn about organisational life from the work and craft of the orchestral musician, and the complex management of authority over the instrument, over others, and in […]
By Dr Myooran Canagaratnam ‘When people start writing they think they’ve got to write something definitive . . . I think that is fatal. The mood to write in is ‘This is quite an interesting story I’ve got to tell. I hope someone will be interested. Anyway it’s the best […]
by William Halton Based on a talk given at a Trust scientific meeting: ‘Group Relations at the Tavistock: Where from and where to?’ on 11 May 2020. Group Relations owes its origin to Kurt Lewin, a gestalt psychologist from Germany who emigrated to the United States in 1933. Lewin formulated […]
by Dr Andrew Elder, 25 September 2020 Michael Balint was a dominant figure in that particularly productive era of the Tavistock’s history just after the Second World War. He was born into a middle-class Jewish family in Budapest, the son of a GP. After qualifying in medicine in 1918, he […]
How our concept of discipline changed 1920-2020 By Sebastian Kraemer A hundred years ago – whether bringing up children or training soldiers – discipline simply meant doing what you were told, with the possibility of punishment if you did not. I tell a story about a few of the Tavistock […]
(or ‘What I meant to say at: The 100 years of the Tavistock and Portman: open day for staff, students, alumni, and friends’) Author: Glenn GosslingBased on the presentation on 27 September 2020 Introduction Over the last year or so I have been researching the histories of the Tavistock and […]
At the end of September we launched ‘100 years of the Tavistock and Portman’ with award-winning poet, playwright and broadcaster Lemn Sissay. Sheena Webb Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Service Manager and Joint Clinical Lead for our Pan-London Family Drug and Alcohol Court Team reflects on the talk and its implications […]
By Dinesh Sinha, Andrew Williams, Myooran Canagaratnam, Elizabeth VanHorn The Trust centenary has come at a point in our national life, when the crisis of the pandemic has exposed challenges to the foundations of social cohesion and delivery of healthcare. This is a situation remarkably similar to the period following […]
By Irene Henderson, Race Diversity Champion at the Tavistock and Portman. Join us in celebrating the centenary of the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust. Originally the Tavistock opened its doors on the 27th September 1920, the Portman Clinic opened its doors on 18th September 1933 and both organisations became […]
By Paul Jenkins, Chief Executive of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust The 27th September marks the 100th anniversary of when the first patient, a child, was seen at the Tavistock Clinic. While inevitably more muted, due to Covid 19, than originally planned, it remains a good time to […]