Dr Valerie Sinason is a poet, writer, child psychotherapist, and adult psychoanalyst. A member of the Association of Child Psychotherapists and of the British Psychoanalytical Society, she helped to pioneer the field of disability psychotherapy and served as founding President of the Institute of Psychotherapy and Disability. She is also the founder of the Clinic for Dissociative Studies in London, and has worked extensively with severely traumatised individuals suffering from dissociative identity disorder. Previously, she has worked as a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist at the Tavistock Clinic, the Portman Clinic, the Anna Freud Centre, and St. George's Hospital Medical School in the University of London. Her many books include Mental Handicap and the Human Condition: New Approaches from the Tavistock, now in its second edition.