The practice was set up in 1981 by Margaret Farrell, who bought no 26 Newnham Road, an end terrace next to the Malting House. Originally Margaret had come from California ; later having come to live in Cambridge she wanted to pursue her desire to become a child analyst, and was told by Anna Freud to study for a degree in psychology, She read psychology at Cambridge and worked at Brookside, the NHS clinic for children and families.

One of the appeals of 26, Newnham Road, apart from its position opposite the Mill Pond, and its charm as a building of historical interest, was that it was located next to Susan Isaacs’ progressive psychoanalytic nursery school that was set up in 1924 in the Malting House. Susan Isaacs was a Kleinian analyst and educator. The legacy of the Malting House School endures as a significant milestone in educational reform, highlighting the value of child-centered learning and the role of educators as facilitators of exploration and discovery.

 

The Cambridge Psychotherapy Practice was essentially psychoanalytic in orientation but aimed to be theoretically eclectic and to provide patients with the opportunity to develop more creative ways of living.

 

Margaret trained at the Guild of Psychotherapists, which had been formed in the early 1970’s by amongst others Dr Peter Lomas who  had established himself in Cambridge as a psychoanalyst and existential psychotherapist in the late 1970’s.

 

Margaret was married to Dr David Clark, at the time superintendent of Fulbourn, which he had transformed into a therapeutic community, challenging the stigma of mental illness and instituting a regime of humane psychological treatment, much of which took the form of group work.

 

When the CPT was formed in Cambridge, psychoanalysis was embraced by academics, by the University Counselling Service and to an extent by various doctors working in psychiatry and GP practice. 

When the practice was formed there were only two psychoanalysts working in Cambridge, Kenneth Lambert, a prominent Jungian and Peter Lomas, following the untimely and tragic death of Dr Bernard Zeitlyn and the retirement of the child analyst Marie Singer; there was space for the development of analytic psychotherapy in Cambridge.

 

These were exciting times in the growth of psychotherapy.

 

Margaret formed the practice, which at first consisted of Dr Roger Bacon,a psychotherapist, previously a sociologist, Dr Nicky Blandford,a psychiatrist, later a Jungian analyst Siân Morgan, a psychotherapist who had worked with post natally depressed mothers, Bill Lintott, a group analyst,and later Michael Miller who worked in Fulbourn with David Clark and Dr Marina Voikansksya, who had been a Russian dissident psychiatrist, who had also worked in Fulbourn and had later trained to be a psychotherapist.

 

Soon the practice became a centre for regular meetings with various professionals in the field and in the late 1980´s hosted  conferences, including several which focussed on the work of Jacques Lacan, with regular teaching by Patrick Guyomard, a pupil of Lacan.

 

Our connection with GP’s in Cambridge resulted in a growing interest in psychosomatic aspects of GP patients and hopefully promoted a growing understanding of the unconscious aspects of emotional disturbance. 

 

The practice was a wonderful place to work and was based at 26, Newnham Road for 40 years. The building was sold to Darwin College in 2022. Now the Cambridge Psychotherapy Practice has reformed and we have just launched our new website.