Sagal Adam Hassan to train as a Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist

SHF/Tavistock Scholar Sagal Adam Hassan has been accepted to train as a Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust. This is a demanding and intellectually rigorous four year clinical training for those with a lively interest in and aptitude for working in mental health services for young children, adolescents and families. Qualified Child Psychotherapists are a fundamental component of NHS services for children, and their particular understanding of life inside the mind of the child is vital to work with the most vulnerable, deprived and complex families.  

Sagal received a Tavistock/ SHF bursary in 2018 for her MA in Working with Children, Young People and Families: A Psychoanalytic Observational Approach at the Tavistock, which is a pre-requisite to applying for the clinical training. Our hope for this bursary – offered to black and brown students on the MA course – was that it would widen access to the clinical training by supporting students to engage more deeply with their studies. We are thrilled with the news that Sagal has been accepted to train and look forward to news of her development.

Sagal’s response to the news of her acceptance on the training follows here:

“I am delighted to have been recently offered a place on the Doctoral child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy training at the Tavistock. I would like to thank all of the trustees for supporting me as a Stuart Hall Foundation scholar, as without this support, it would have been unlikely that I would have had the chutzpah to make an application for the training. I would like to thank SHF Trustee Becky Hall in particular for being a friendly and familiar face, someone who listened to me in times of difficulty and showed me it was possible. I remember when Becky called me to let me know I was successful in being awarded the scholarship, I was overwhelmed with excitement, but I had no idea that a couple of years later I would be training as a child and adolescent psychotherapist. I guess at the time, I knew the scholarship was not a guarantee that I would be able to train, but what it certainly afforded me was the right to imagine new possibilities. I think most importantly, the scholarship affirmed for me that there was a place/space for “people like me” at the Tavistock. Ultimately, I am an example of how the scholarship does “work” in addressing the lack of black representation in child and adolescent psychotherapy, and I hope that my story can help to inspire more support for the Stuart Hall Foundation, so that there can be a new generation of black child and adolescent psychotherapist training at the Tavistock.”

Sagal will begin the Professional Doctorate in Child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy (M80) at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust in Autumn this year. 

Read more about Sagal Adam Hassan on our Scholars and Fellows page