Alan Cooklin

(1947) Alan Cooklin has worked as a family therapist, and adult, and child and adolescent psychiatrist for over 50 years.  Within the NHS he developed the ‘Marlborough Family Service’ and later the multi-family Kidstime Workshops for the children of parents with mental illness and their families, In 2012 he  established the charity The Kidstime Foundation, (now Our Time). He was co- founder and first Director of the Institute of Family Therapy, London.

Petya Varcheva: This was one of those moments, when someone is expressing something that you feel, but is still unspoken.
Dr. Alan Cooklin was one of the Keynote speakers at the first European Multifamily therapy Conference. I felt at the same time surprised and relieved when I heard him emphasizing that we should speak about Family Groups and not about Multi-Family-therapy. This change in the language we use was matching perfectly to my experience of being a facilitator in a Multi-Family group. The families and their interaction are the most valuable thing in the group and not some highly-specialized therapeutic interventions. By reflecting this in our language this space becomes more understandable, more open and welcoming for the families.
A lot of the colleagues that were presenting afterwards followed him in that expression and in thinking how we can be more humble, inviting and supporting for the families that are in a difficult time”.