About Thomas Booker
I am a trained psychotherapist with a career in mental health research and over ten years of NHS experience. In addition to my clinical work, I am an academic researcher at the Psychoanalysis Unit in the Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology at University College London (UCL) and a Visiting Lecturer at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation trust.
I completed my training in inter-cultural psychodynamic psychotherapy at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, and I am an accredited member of the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC) and the Tavistock Society of Psychotherapists (TSP).
I have been in the UK for many years, and I have also lived in the United States, Kenya, Colombia, France, Cuba, and Zimbabwe. I am a native French and English speaker (with a basic understanding of Spanish), and offer sessions in both languages.
For more on my qualifications, experience & publications, keep reading. To skip straight to info about psychotherapy and my approach, head to the FAQs page.
Qualifications and Experience:
Qualifications:
Inter-cultural psychodynamic psychotherapy (Adult) Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust
MA Foundations of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy University of Essex & Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust
MSc in Theoretical Psychoanalytic Studies UCL
BA(Hons) History and Politics University of Warwick
Foundation Course Institute of Psychoanalysis
MPhil/PhD in Psychoanalytic Studies (Fully funded studentship-ongoing) UCL
Current positions:
Research Associate & Programme manager UCL, Psychoanalysis Unit & The Anna Freud Centre for Children and Families, London
Visiting Lecturer Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust
Previous positions:
Psychotherapist, Camden and Islington Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Service, St Pancras Hospital, London
Researcher, Queen Mary University, Unit for Social & Community Psychiatry, Newham, London
Researcher, Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, London- Tavistock Adult Depression Study (TADS) Belsize Lane, London
Group facilitator, Adult Day Hospital and Ruby triage ward, Newham Centre for Mental Health (NCfMH), London
Befriender, Volunteering in mental health care for people with psychosis (VOLUME), Newham, London
Befriender, Maytree Suicide Respite Centre, Finsbury Park, London
Publications:
Hobbs, T., De Lima, E.S., Bevington, D., Preece, C., Allen, K., Barna, P., Berry, V., Booker, T., Davies, K., Davis, G. and Deighton, J., 2023. Kailo: a systemic approach to addressing the social determinants of young people’s mental health and wellbeing at the local level. Wellcome Open Research, 8(524), p.524.
Koeser, L., Rost, F., Gabrio, A., Booker, T., Taylor, D., Fonagy, P., Goldberg, D., Knapp, M. and McCrone, P., (2023). Cost-effectiveness of long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy for treatment-resistant depression: RCT evidence from the Tavistock Adult Depression Study (TADS). Journal of Affective Disorders.
Campbell, C., Tanzer, M., Saunders, R., Booker, T., Allison, E., Li, E., O’Dowda, C., Luyten, P. and Fonagy, P., (2021). Development and validation of a self-report measure of epistemic trust. PloS one, 16(4), p.e0250264.
Acquiring knowledge: Epistemic trust in the age of fake news (2021) Tanzer, M., Campbell, C., Saunders, R., Luyten, P., Booker, T., Fonagy, P. (pre-print)
Presentations:
Booker, T., Investigating a systemic approach to addressing the social determinants of mental health and wellbeing at a community level, 45th International Psychoanalytic Child Psychotherapy Colloquium (2023)
Campbell, C., Tanzer, M., Booker, T., Allison, Luyten, P. and Fonagy, P., UCL Psychoanalysis Unit Webinar, Epistemic regimes and regime change in psyche and culture: A conversation about epistemic trust (2021)
Booker, T., Rost, F., Fonagy, P., Taylor, D., McPherson, S., Carlyle, J., Thomas, R. The outcome of treating chronic refractory depression with long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy: The Tavistock Adult Depression Study (TADS) 47thAnnual meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, Jerusalem (2016)
Booker, T., Rost, F., The 50-minute hour: identifying interaction structures and treatment fidelity in individual sessions of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, 22nd Annual British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP)Research Conference (2016)
Booker, T. Rost, F., Taylor, D., Fonagy, P. Matching the complexity of the condition: treatment-refractory depression and a pilot qualitative study, 45th Annual meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, Copenhagen (2014)
Transcriptions:
Turp, M., & Weintrobe, S. (2022). Exploring The Psychological roots of the climate crisis. Psychodynamic Practice, 1-7.
Leader, D., & Barwick, N. (2021). An interview with Darian Leader on the Pandemic Transcribed by Thomas Booker. Psychodynamic Practice, 1-5
Phillips, A., & Barwick, N. (2020). Brexit, nationalism, populism: Where are we now? How did we get here? Where are we going? Birkbeck Counselling Association’s Autumn Talk, November 23rd, 2019.
Palmer, S. (2015). Controversial Discussions for the XXIst Century. PEP Video Grants, 1(1):2. Transcribed by Thomas Booker