For almost 100 years, the Tavistock and Portman clinics have embodied a distinctive way of thinking about and understanding mental distress, mental health and emotional wellbeing. Working with children and families and adults, our approach brings together psychoanalytic, psychodynamic and systemic theory and practice and other approaches and seeks to understand the unconscious as well as conscious aspects of a person's experience and places the person, their relationships and social context at the centre of our practice.

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Services Offered

We can help you with a range of mental health difficulties. When we meet you for the first time we help you to understand what you are wrestling with.

Abuse

Abuse of any sort can be extremely detrimental to someone's long-term mental health and well-being.

In the case of children, those who witness abuse toward another person, either in a family situation or in the context of a community under attack, can feel powerless and helpless to protect or be protected. In later life they can find themselves drawn to, or seen as being identified with those who are perpetrators or survivors.

Autistic spectrum conditions

Autism spectrum conditions are conditions that affect social interaction, communication, interests and behaviour.

It's estimated that more 1 in every 100 people in the UK has an ASC. More males are diagnosed with the condition than females

As an ASC is a neurodevelopmental condition, there is no "cure" but a number of individual, family-based, educational and other interventions are available to help children, adults and families.

Depression

Depression is more than simply feeling unhappy or fed up for a few days.

Everyone goes through spells of feeling down, but with depression you feel persistently sad for weeks or months, rather than just a few days.

Depression is common, increasingly so during childhood and adolescence. Rates of depression in young people in the UK have risen by 70% in the past 25 years, and one in four young people report experiencing suicidal thoughts.

Learning disabilities

A learning disability affects the way a person learns new things in any area of life, not just at school. It affects the way a person understands information and how they communicate.

Around 1.5m people in the UK have some kind of learning difficulty. This means they can have problems when:
- understanding new or complex information
- learning new skills
- coping independently

Personality disorders

People with personality disorders tend to have longstanding difficulties in managing relationships with others and their emotions. These difficulties originate from early experiences.

For example, it is common for people with personality disorders to have experienced some form of abuse or neglect in their childhoods. These early experiences affect the way in which the person comes to view the world and others around them, their expectations of how others will respond and treat them. This in turn affects how a person interacts with and approaches others and their ways of coping.

Phobias

A fear becomes a phobia when it stops us from enjoying things or doing them easily.

You feel really frightened of something that is not actually dangerous and which most people do not find troublesome. The nearer you get to the thing that makes you anxious, the more anxious you get and so you tend to avoid it. Away from it you feel fine.

Self harm

Self-harm is when someone intentionally hurts themselves; this can take many forms, such as cutting, hitting or burning oneself.

It is more common than you might think, especially amongst younger people, although it can affect people of any age. It is estimated that around 10% of young people self-harm at some point, however the figure may actually be higher as not all people seek help. Often people try to hide their self-harm; they might feel ashamed, concerned about being judged or worried about the reactions of others.

Sexual problems

Sexual problems range from common mild sexual dysfunctions to less common and more serious problematic sexual behaviours which cause significant distress to the person and/or other people.

Sexual problems may occur at all stages of life from adolescence to old age. Individuals often are reluctant to seek help due to embarrassment or shame, although effective treatment interventions are available.

Sexual dysfunctions include erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, pain on intercourse, and low or excessive sexual desire or drive. Although many people with sexual dysfunction may function very well in other aspects of their lives, sexual dysfunctions can result from both physical illness and psychiatric disorders, and also as a common, but poorly recognized, side effect of medication. Sexual dysfunctions may also cause mental disorders, particularly anxiety and depression.

Traumatic events

A trauma occurs when our usual way of coping and managing our day to day experiences is overwhelmed. It is frightening, and we feel helpless.

Our lives may be under threat or we feel in danger or see other people dying or injured. This may occur as a single event such as an assault, a road traffic accident, a natural disaster, an experience of being physically unwell and hospitalised, or the murder or suicide of a loved one. People such as soldiers, Blue light workers (police, ambulance workers and firefighters) asylum seekers and refugees, or victims of domestic violence may suffer multiple episodes of trauma over a period of time.

Fees and Payment

This is a not-for-profit organization

Services Offered To:
Adults
Teens

Special Groups:
LGBTQ

Payment:
Sliding Scale
Pro-bono