Mary MacCallum Sullivan retired from her roles at HDS having been there at its inception and who has seen us through to where we are today. Chair of the Board of Trustees, Lindsay Shrubsole, thanks Mary on behalf of everyone at HDS as she has worked tirelessly to ensure the high standards of our training, as well as the values and standards that HDS represents across Scotland, are sustained, developed and remain at the core of everything we do.

Our message of thanks to Mary

HDS owes a debt of gratitude to Mary MacCallum Sullivan, who has recently retired from HDS, having been there at its inception and who has seen us through to where we are today.  She has worked in a number of roles with us, including Chairing both the Board of Trustees and the Human Relations and Counselling Training Committee.  She has worked tirelessly to ensure the high standards of our training, as well as the values and standards that HDS represents across Scotland, are sustained, developed and remain at the core of everything we do.

Mary represents an important voice in the world of psychotherapy in the UK; her background is in psychotherapy and counselling education and training, at post-graduate level, as teacher, team leader and manager.  She is co-author with Harriett Goldenberg of Cradling the Chrysalis: Teaching/Learning Psychotherapy (2015) UKCP/Karnac, editor of Unconscious Communication In Practice (1999) Open University Press, and co-editor with Bernard Burgoyne of The Klein-Lacan Dialogues (1997) Rebus Press. She has also authored a number of papers and chapters, concentrating latterly on ethics and the wider implications of psychotherapy as a ‘new technology of human relations’.  She continues to write extensively in a variety of contexts and publications, about the work of psychotherapy, as well as bringing a valuable perspective beyond the world of psychotherapy to her work as a political thinker and activist in Scottish politics.  Mary’s energy and commitment to maintaining and developing the values and ideas embedded in psychotherapy and psychoanalytic thinking, to all aspects of modern life, is indefatigable and seminal. 

While we are sorry to see her go, we welcome her continued interest in the work of HDS and hope she will continue to contribute to our work, albeit in a reduced capacity as she enjoys a well-earned retirement.

Lindsay Shrubsole, Chair of the HDS Board of Trustees