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Child Attachment and Psychological Therapies Research (CHAPTRe)

ChAPTRe is a partnership between Anna Freud and UCL and research unit led by Professor Nick Midgley.

The mission of the research unit is to be a space for developing and promoting research related to children and young people's mental health and emotional wellbeing.

Our particular focus is on evaluating psychological therapies for children and young people, and their parents and carers. We have expertise in research with children and families in various contexts, including with care-experienced young people, families on the edge of care, and young people with depression.

We collaborate with UK clinicians and service providers in various settings, including children’s social care, and children and young people's mental health services. We also work on international collaborations.

As well as asking whether a treatment works, we also explore questions like:

  • Why does this treatment work?

  • What are the mechanisms of change?

  • Who does this treatment work for, and why?

  • What is it like to receive this particular treatment, from the perspective of children, young people, and families?

  • How can this treatment be successfully implemented in real world services?

Key areas of our research are psychological therapies (including psychodynamic and mentalization based treatments), attachment and reflective functioning, children in care and adolescent depression.

Current research projects

ChAPTRe is involved in a number of ongoing research studies.

Current training

The members of ChAPTRe offer a range of short courses and trainings at Anna Freud.

Trainings and consultations

The members of ChAPTRe offer a range of short courses and trainings at Anna Freud. Please find the details below. 

In addition, it is possible for us to offer bespoke trainings, based in London or elsewhere, and to offer consultations regarding child attachment and psychological therapies research.

Please contact us on chaptre@annafreud.org for more details, and for costings.

You can also discover past research projects in our archive. 

Meet the team

Professor Nick Midgley, Co-Director of ChAPTRe

Nick Midgley is Professor of Psychological Therapies with Children and Young People at UCL, where he is Academic Director for the Doctorate in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy. Among other projects, he is currently chief investigator on the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)-funded Reflective Fostering Study, a clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness of a mentalization based intervention for foster carers; as well as the Emotional Regulation in Children (ERiC) clinical trial, evaluating mentalization based treatment (MBT) for school-age children with emotional and behavioural problems referred to child and adolescent mental health services in the UK, funded by the Kavli Trust.

Dr Michelle Sleed, Senior Research Fellow

Michelle Sleed is a Senior Research Fellow in ChAPTRe and Deputy Programme Director of the Doctorate in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy at Anna Freud/University College London. Her research is focused on evaluating preventative interventions for families, and particularly the role of parental mentalizing as a mechanism of change. She has carried out research evaluating the outcomes of psychoanalytic and mentalization based treatments for families experiencing complex difficulties, including interventions for parents in prison, parents with perinatal psychiatric difficulties, and families in the child welfare system. Dr Sleed is a trainer in various systems for coding the Parent Development Interview, including Parental Reflective Functioning and the Assessment of Representational Risk. She has used the measures extensively in clinical evaluations and therapy process research. Her research has also investigated and addressed issues of measurement of parental mentalization, particularly pre-mentalizing modes, in the assessment of relational trauma within the parent-child relationship.

Dr Saul Hillman, Senior Research Fellow

Saul Hillman is a Senior Research Fellow and Research Tutor at Anna Freud and is an Honorary Lecturer at University College London. He is the tutor for two University College London postgraduate programmes: the MSc in Developmental Psychology and Clinical Practice (DPCP) and the Doctorate in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy where he both supervises and leads on specific projects. He is also the training lead for the Story Stem Assessment Profile (SSAP) courses including managing accreditation, coding and consultation. Saul’s research areas are around adoption and looked-after children with a particular interest in attachment and mentalization.

Dr Elizabeth Li, Research Fellow

Elizabeth Li is a Module Lead, Module Co-Lead, Senior Course Tutor and Research Tutor at UCL and UCL–Anna Freud Postgraduate Studies. She was awarded her PhD with no corrections in Developmental Psychopathology and Psychotherapy from UCL, following a research exchange at Yale University. Her research focuses on early adversity, psychological mechanisms, and psychotherapy process and outcome, using qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, and review approaches. Within the ChAPTRe group, Elizabeth is Co-Principal Investigator on a BACP-funded project exploring how epistemic mistrust and alliance ruptures contribute to dissatisfied dropout in adolescent psychotherapy.

Dr Guilherme Fiorini, Research Officer

Guilherme is a Research Officer at ChAPTRe and a Research Tutor at Anna Freud and Honorary Lecturer at University College London. He supervises the research projects of MSc students in two programmes at Anna Freud/UCL, namely Developmental Psychology and Clinical Practice (DPCP) and Early Child Development and Clinical Applications (Early Dev). His main interest is in child and adolescent psychotherapy, and what factors contribute to differential outcomes.