Professor Stephen Briggs has degrees from Cambridge (BA History), Oxford (MSc Applied Social Studies) and University of East London (PhD). His PhD, which he obtained in 1995, was a study using infant observation of five infants at potential risk, published later as a book, Growth and Risk in Infancy (Jessica Kingsley 1997).
Stephen qualified as a social worker (CQSW) in 1977 and then was a social worker in London until 1984. He then moved to teaching, taking up the position of Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Croydon College (1984-1991). He has combined an academic career with continuing involvement in practice. He was a Guardian-ad-Litem between 1984 and 1988 and a counsellor and supervisor in Croydon Pastoral Foundation (1987-1991). Between 1991 and 2012 he worked in multidisciplinary mental health practice in the Tavistock Clinic’s Adolescent Department, where he combined clinical practice with teaching and research. He joined University of East London in 1994, became Reader in 2003 and Professor in 2006.
Stephen is now Professor of Social Work and Director of the Centre for Social Work Research in the University of East London. He teaches, researches and writes about psychotherapy and social work. His work focuses on adolescent mental health and psychotherapy, suicide and self harm and infant mental health (using infant observation). He has written 4 books, reflecting these specialisms, and he has contributed chapters to books and written articles for peer review journals (see publications). He is an accredited psychotherapist with the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC), a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Authority (PFHEA).
