John Adlam

John Adlam is Consultant Adult Forensic Psychotherapist with South London and Maudsley Foundation NHS Trust and is also Principal Adult Psychotherapist in the Wandsworth Complex Needs Service and formerly with the Adult Eating Disorders Service of South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust. He was formerly Principal Adult Psychotherapist with the Henderson Hospital Outreach Service Team (HOST). He trained in Psychoanalytical Group Psychotherapy at the Tavistock Centre; in Forensic Psychotherapeutic Studies at the Portman Clinic; and in Mentalisation Based Treatments at the Anna Freud Centre.

John is a visiting lecturer in eating disorders at Goldsmiths University of London and formerly in forensic mental health at the Portman Clinic, at St George's University of London and at the Cassel Hospital. He is a founder member of the Association for Psycho-Social Studies and a former Vice-President of the International Association for Forensic Psychotherapy.

John has worked as a psychotherapist in the National Health Service for two decades and before that he worked for many years in voluntary sector supported housing projects for homeless people and particularly for homeless offenders. Together with Christopher Scanlon and other colleagues he has published widely on psycho-social approaches to homelessness, dangerousness, food practices and eating distress, the contested diagnosis of 'personality disorder' and social exclusion.

John is an independent researcher and writer, psychosocialist and activist and is committed to communities of learning and practices of equality. He blogs under the name Barrelman at https://barrelblog.org/