We have an excellent reputation for research. Research has been a part of our history since we were established in 1920.
The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust was formed by the joining of two clinics: the Tavistock Clinic and the Portman Clinic. At the time these clinics existed independently, but they both had a history of being testing grounds for fundemental new ideas and practices in psychotherapy.
Methods
Initially, every clinical session was seen as a research enterprise which the clinicians tried to learn from. In these sessions clinicians tested existing theory and developed new theory. The methods used were careful completion of case notes, discussion amongst the clinicians and case presentations and reports in journals. Over the years we have developed new methods and techniques, which have been influential in themselves.
Major developments
The Tavistock and Portman Clinics have carried out pioneering research, and have made significant developments in a number of areas, including:
- working with mixed groups of offenders and victims
- working in groups
- family therapy
- using infant observation as a training tool
- elaborating infant observation to be applied to organisational observation
- attachment theory
- the effectiveness of a range of psychological therapies
- autism and related disorders
- adult psychopathology.
