Mary Boston obituary

One of the first child psychotherapists to work in the NHS with seriously deprived children

The child psychotherapist Mary Boston, who has died aged 96, was one of the first generation to be trained to work in the NHS in this new profession, which came into being as the health service was launched. She worked with John Bowlby on the development of attachment theory and went on to establish a clinical research specialism working with seriously deprived children, at the Tavistock Clinic in London (now the Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust).

In 1948, as the Tavistock became part of the new NHS, she had begun to train as an educational psychologist there when she learned that a new training in child psychotherapy was planned for the following year, under the guidance of Bowlby, chair of the children’s department; Esther Bick, a child psychoanalyst, had been invited to organise the course.

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2HW2k7P