The ‘Impossibility’ of Working in the Current NHS

Lunchtime Talk: 10 April 2019 - Dr Rachel Gibbons

Dr Rachel Gibbons will ask for your help in thinking about what is wrong with the NHS? She will draw on her psychoanalytic and group relations understanding to explore her experience of 20 years of working inside the NHS in frontline services as a psychiatrist and clinical leader.

She will ask whether we are missing something obvious that would help us understand the current crisis in the NHS. If so, why are we missing it?

Are powerful destructive unconscious primitive processes accepted in everyday life in the NHS? She will share various every day compelling and challenging situations to illustrate how there is a conscious task which is at odds with the unconscious task that makes working in the NHS ‘Impossible’.

Dr Rachel Gibbons is currently the Director of Therapy for the Priory Group. She is a practicing psychoanalyst and group analyst. She has recently left the NHS after working as a Consultant Psychiatrist in various psychiatric settings that include, inpatient and psychiatric intensive care wards, outpatient psychiatric and psychotherapy services, hospital liaison teams and forensic and prison services.

She has organisational consultancy training and has been a regular member of group relations conferences over the past 16 years. These transformative conferences, including three Leicester Conferences, have helped her survive and thrive in this challenging environment.

She worked and trained at the Tavistock and Portman Clinic. She writes and talks about the nature of mental illness, suicide and self-destructive mental processes.

Register to attend the talk for free

All events take place @ The Tavistock Institute.

Bring your lunch and your expertise with you – hot/cold drinks will be provided. Contact talks@tavinstitute.org if you would like further details or to be notified of future talks.

You can listen to many of our previous talks here.

From January 2019, TIHR Lunchtime Talks take place on the 3rd Wednesday of the month between 1 pm – 2.30 pm, allowing more time for plentiful reflection and discussion.