About Dr. Rachel Gibbons
Biography
Dr Rachel Gibbons is a consultant psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and group analyst, and a leading voice on the psychodynamics of suicide, self-harm and homicide, with a particular focus on their impact on clinicians and the bereaved. She has worked on the frontline of NHS mental health services for over 20 years.
She chaired the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Working Group on the Effect of Suicide and Homicide on Psychiatrists, led its Patient Safety Group, and is Vice Chair of the Psychotherapy Faculty. She led the development of two RCPsych guidance documents on the pastoral care of staff following a patient’s death by suicide or a patient-perpetrated homicide, with the suicide guidance now incorporated into England’s National Suicide Prevention Strategy (2023).
She is co-editor of the RCPsych book Seminars in the Psychotherapies, Clinical Director of the charity Making Families Count, and Special Advisor to the Maytree Suicide Sanctuary. She received the RCPsych President’s Medal in 2024 and the British Psychoanalytic Society’s Outstanding Contributions to the Dissemination of Psychoanalysis Award in 2026.
Her papers and resources are free to download from drrachelgibbons.co.uk.
About this website
This website is a place for open, creative thinking about mental health and the questions that resist easy answers.
I am a consultant psychiatrist, medical psychotherapist and psychoanalyst. Having worked for more than twenty years in the NHS and in national roles at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, I have seen how difficult it can be to speak honestly about suicide, bereavement and their impact on families and clinicians.
My work is concerned with what is hardest to think about. I created this space not to offer simple reassurance, but to make room for uncertainty, disagreement and meaningful discussion.
You are welcome to read, disagree and get in touch.