The 46th International Psychoanalytic Child Psychotherapy Colloquium – online

Norka Malberg, DPsych

Dr. Malberg is a child and adolescent psychotherapist who graduated from Anna Freud’s clinical training in 2004. She is an adult psychoanalyst, member of the Western New England Society in New Haven, the Contemporary Freudian Society and the Spanish Psychoanalytic Society. She holds specialised master’s degrees in developmental psychopathology, school and counseling psychology.

Dr. Malberg has been an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Yale Child Study Center since 2011 as part of the Voluntary faculty, conducting weekly seminars in early childhood for Child Psychiatry Residents and collaborating with Dr. Linda Mayes in promoting the legacy of Anne Marie Sandler.

She is one of the co-authors of Mentalization-Based Treatment for Children A Time-Limited Approach, a clinical manual published by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 2017. In addition, Dr. Malberg has co-authored books for APA in Working with Emotion alongside Dr. Leslie Greenberg and most recently in Working with Parents from a Mentalization Lens in 2023. She was the recipient of the APA scholarship award in 2024, for her contribution linking the concept of epistemic injustice to the impact of categorical diagnosis in the lives of neurodiverse individuals. She is co-editor of the child and adolescent sections of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual 3 to be published September 2025.

In 2023, Dr. Malberg became the founding Director of IMAGINA: Centro de Aplicaciones de la Mentalización in Barcelona, Spain where she works in private practice. She is a clinical tutor and supervisor for Mentalization-Based Treatments with children, adolescents and families and is active in researching clinical adaptations of the model to work with children who have experienced early relational trauma. She is currently writing an adaptation for work with Autistic School Age Children and their families to be published by APA in 2026. She remains committed to promoting Anna Freud’s clinical legacy.

Christos Ioannidis, DPsych, MSc; BSc

Christos Ioannidis is a Child Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist and soon-to-be recent full member of the Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP). Prior to undertaking clinical training, Christos completed the MSc in Psychoanalytic Developmental Psychology (now the Early Child Development and Clinical Applications MSc) at Anna Freud. He went on to work in early years and primary education, as well as in clinical settings such as the Parent Toddler Group Service at Anna Freud, and the Tavistock and Portman Day Unit (Gloucester House).

He has published in the area of psychometric measurement in psychology research and has a special interest in the epistemology and utility of clinical instruments. His doctoral thesis explored the ways in which child psychotherapists synthesise information to formulate, and the contribution of a formal clinical framework to this process.

Eamon McCrory

Prof. McCrory oversees all UCL postgraduate programmes at Anna Freud. Since 2006, he led the creation of one of the UK’s leading educational portfolios in child and adolescent mental health, helping to train a new generation of researchers and clinicians. For many years, he was also Director of the MRes in Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology with Yale, which he established. Professor McCrory continues to contribute teaching across several programmes, particularly focusing on the impact of childhood adversity, mental health vulnerability and advances in neuroscience research.

Professor McCrory is best known for his work on childhood adversity, maltreatment and the brain. He is interested in why mental health problems develop, and has investigated how childhood trauma can impact brain structure and function in ways that may lead to an increased risk of later psychiatric disorder. He has argued in his theory of Latent Vulnerability that alterations in brain structure and function, associated with childhood maltreatment, may in part represent adaptation to early dangerous or unpredictable environments that can create increased mental health risk in the longer term. His research has documented altered functioning in an array of neurocognitive systems, including the threat, reward and autobiographical memory systems.

He has recently argued for the importance of viewing the brain as a social organ, suggesting that mental health vulnerability following childhood maltreatment can in part be understood as a socially mediated process.

Neela Basu

Neela Basu is a Parent Infant Psychotherapist and Integrative Child Psychotherapist. She runs a Specialist Parent Infant service within an East London CAMHS and works within a Child Psychotherapy Team. Neela has experience of assessing and treating children of all ages, and brings learning from working within a Neurodevelopmental Team and leading an Under 5s service into her thinking around the interplay of neurodiversity and trauma.

Neela facilitates Parent–Infant Observation seminars as part of the MSc in Early Child Development and Clinical Applications at Anna Freud. Her training in Fine Art at the Ruskin School and later experience of Infant Observation have informed her interest in attentive awareness, expression, and embodied communication as part of a psychotherapeutic approach.

She is an advisory member for EI-SMART, a charity offering a multidisciplinary approach to early intervention for infants at risk of developmental delays. She has presented her work at the World Association of Infant Mental Health conference. Neela’s paper on Infant Observation – ‘Experiences of being held: creating a space to think and play within a family’ was published in Read and Magagna’s Contemporary Child Psychotherapy: Integration and Imagination in Creative Clinical Practice.

Holly Dwyer Hall DPsych, MSc, BA

Holly Dwyer Hall is a child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapist, Dynamic Interpersonal Therapist, Arts Psychotherapist and qualified Mentalization-Based Treatment practitioner, supervisor and trainer with children, adolescents and families and MBT Practitioner with adults.

Her clinical work spans 25 years in both child and adult services in the UK’s National Health Service, social care, education and the private sector. She has set up an emotional wellbeing service for children under 5 years of age and worked in a specialist service offering assessment and treatment for adults with a diagnosis of EUPD.

Holly currently provides assessment and treatment for children, young people and families who have experienced complex early trauma. She is trained in using the Story Stem Assessment Profile to examine young children’s mental representations of attachment and relationships.

Holly lectures on the Doctorate in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy with UCL, Anna Freud and the British Psychotherapy Foundation (bpf), and on the MSc Early Child Development and Clinical Applications at UCL and Anna Freud. She is the current Lead for Psychodynamic Psychotherapies and MBT with children, young people and families and in the Family Trauma team at Anna Freud.

She has published papers and chapters on Mentalization-Based Treatment, rupture and resolution processes in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and the practice of infant observation.

Dr Abi Enlander

Dr Enlander is a qualified Clinical Psychologist, currently working in Anna Freud’s Family Trauma Team. Here, she supports families following Adoption and Special Guardianship Orders, as well as with families where Local Authorities are involved due to safeguarding concerns, including acting as an Expert Witness to the Family Courts.

Dr Enlander completed her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 2021 and her MSc in Developmental Psychology with Clinical Practice in 2017 – including completing a Parent–Infant Observation. In previous roles, she predominantly worked in clinical teams within Local Authority Children’s Social Care to support families and children who have experienced complex trauma.

Dr Enlander taught on MSc programmes at UCL and Anna Freud and is a research supervisor at the University of Surrey. She has a particular interest in parental mental health and their experiences of social care and has published research in this area. She is currently a Research Fellow at King’s College London, as part of a project exploring perinatal mental health support for mothers at risk of having their infants removed from their custody.

The event programme will include a mix of research, theoretical and in-depth clinical presentations providing an opportunity to think together. Further details to follow.

Those attending in person have the opportunity to present material for discussion in a small clinical group the morning of September 13th.

These groups will reflect on assessing and formulating the needs of the child, young person and family using the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual working towards creating a focus formulation for treatment.

If you are interested in bringing a case for discussion please email Holly.DwyerHall@annafreud.org

Please note there are a limited number of concessionary rate online places at a cost of £175 for this conference. Concessionary places are reserved for trainees and those who have qualified in past 6 months. If you are interested in attending this conference at the concessionary rate, please email training@annafreud.org for details. You need to provide proof you are a trainee or have qualified in the last 6 months to be eligible.

“Very interesting papers – inspiring, challenging and thought-provoking.”

“I loved the different perspectives offered by the presenters. It felt like each paper was unique and offered something new, yet they complemented each other.”

“A good quality space to hear a variety of interesting and relevant presentations.”

"I think it was very well organised. I liked all the different and very interesting presentations, high quality, but also the chance to see clinical psychoanalytic work and the openness, and room to think together, in big and small groups."

"The space for discussion that integrates theory and practice of psychoanalysis of infancy, childhood, and transgenerational inheritance is important. This is something the AFC is best placed to curate."

"All the clinical papers were very good. And the research presentation. The small group I was in was welcoming. Members ranged from trainees, to very experienced clinicians, teachers, and supervisors. It was easy to speak, and also listen. I enjoyed this part of the Colloquium very much."

"I enjoyed the various perspectives, clinical work, theoretical aspects, discussion with professionals from Anna Freud and professionals from different countries. It´s so enriching to meet people from different countries with psychoanalytical backgrounds and sometimes different and new aspects of thinking, but on the main basis of psychoanalysis."

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