Gwen Adshead (born 1960) is a forensic psychotherapist,
at
Gresham College
Gresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in Central London, England. It does not enroll students or award degrees. It was founded in 1596 under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham, and hosts ove ...
, Jochelson visiting professor at the Yale School of Law and Psychiatry, and consultant forensic psychiatrist at Ravenswood House.
At the age of 11 Adshead flew to England alone to attend
Cheltenham Ladies' College
Cheltenham Ladies' College is an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. Consistently ranked as one of the top all-girls' schools nationally, the school was established in 1853 to pr ...
as a boarder.
Adshead qualified in medicine in 1983 and holds two master's degrees; in medical law and ethics, and in
mindfulness
Mindfulness is the practice of purposely bringing one's attention to the present-moment experience without evaluation, a skill one develops through meditation or other training. Mindfulness derives from ''sati'', a significant element of Hind ...
based
cognitive therapy
Cognitive therapy (CT) is a type of psychotherapy developed by American psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck. CT is one therapeutic approach within the larger group of cognitive behavioral therapies (CBT) and was first expounded by Beck in the 1960s. Cogn ...
.
She was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2005.
She was previously a consultant at
Broadmoor Hospital
Broadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England. It is the oldest of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth Hospital near Liverpool and Rampton Secure ...
, where she treated people referred to by the media as "the violent insane", but whom she described as "not mad or bad, but sad".
She has written more than a hundred academic papers.
In 2012 received a
Jerwood Award
The Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Awards for Non-Fiction were financial awards made to assist new writers of non-fiction to carry out new research, and/or to devote more time to writing.
The awards were administrated by the Royal Society of ...
to support the writing of ''A Short Book About Evil'', published 28 Apr 2015.
Personal Life
She is the mother of two boys.
She is a Christian and enjoys singing as part of a choir.
Media Appearances
She was the castaway on the
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...
programme ''
Desert Island Discs
''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942.
Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usu ...
'' on 1 July 2010.
In August 2022 she was on
BBC HARDtalk
''HARDtalk'' is a BBC television and radio programme broadcast on the BBC News Channel, on BBC World News, and on the BBC World Service.
Broadcast times and days vary, depending on broadcasting platform and geographic location. ''HARDtalk'' ...
where she discussed her career, compassion and the concept of evil.
Bibliography
* (28 Apr 2015)
References
1960 births
Living people
British psychiatrists
British psychotherapists
Fellows of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
Professors of Gresham College
British women psychiatrists
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