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  • Become a psychiatrist

    Become a psychiatrist

    • Choose Psychiatry

      Choose Psychiatry

      • What is psychiatry?
      • How to become a psychiatrist
      • Why choose psychiatry?
      • What next?
      • On a break from training?
      • Choose Psychiatry 2021 video
      • Continuing to choose psychiatry
      • Hear more from the stars of our 2022 film
    • Sixth formers and school students
    • Medical students

      Medical students

      • Becoming a student associate
      • Psychiatry attachments
      • Awards, prizes and bursaries
      • PsychSocs
      • National Student Psychiatry Conference
      • Summer and autumn schools
      • FuturePsych – the student associate magazine
      • The Student Psychiatry Audit and Research Collaborative (SPARC)
    • Foundation doctors

      Foundation doctors

      • Foundation doctor associates
      • Making the most of your psychiatry placement
      • Opportunities for foundation doctors
      • FuturePsych - the associate magazine
    • Help us promote psychiatry

      Help us promote psychiatry

      • How can I help?
      • Ideas to inspire you
      • Resources to help you promote psychiatry
      • RCPsych Recruitment Strategy 2022-2027
    • Choose Psychiatry: Guidance for Medical Schools
    • Supporting Medical Students: Medical Schools
    • Careers past events
    • Choose Psychiatry
      • What is psychiatry?
      • How to become a psychiatrist
      • Why choose psychiatry?
      • What next?
      • On a break from training?
      • Choose Psychiatry 2021 video
      • Continuing to choose psychiatry
      • Hear more from the stars of our 2022 film
    • Sixth formers and school students
    • Medical students
      • Becoming a student associate
      • Psychiatry attachments
      • Awards, prizes and bursaries
      • PsychSocs
      • National Student Psychiatry Conference
      • Summer and autumn schools
      • FuturePsych – the student associate magazine
      • The Student Psychiatry Audit and Research Collaborative (SPARC)
    • Foundation doctors
      • Foundation doctor associates
      • Making the most of your psychiatry placement
      • Opportunities for foundation doctors
      • FuturePsych - the associate magazine
    • Help us promote psychiatry
      • How can I help?
      • Ideas to inspire you
      • Resources to help you promote psychiatry
      • RCPsych Recruitment Strategy 2022-2027
    • Choose Psychiatry: Guidance for Medical Schools
    • Supporting Medical Students: Medical Schools
    • Careers past events
  • Training

    Training

    • Curricula and guidance

      Curricula and guidance

      • 2022 Curricula Implementation Hub
      • 2014 GMC approved curricula (ending July 2024)
      • Specialty guides
      • Dual Training
    • Your training

      Your training

      • Psychiatric Trainees Committee: supporting you
      • Time out of training
      • Training resources
      • Run-through training
      • Prizes and bursaries for trainees
      • Training less than full time
      • Routes to Registration
      • Cost of Training
      • Leadership and Management Fellow Scheme
      • Understanding Career Choices in Psychiatry
    • Exams

      Exams

      • Can I take an exam?
      • Contact the exams team
      • Preparing for exams
      • Applying for your exam
      • Exam results
      • Special notices
      • Exam FAQs
      • A fair exam
      • Examiners and exam panels recruitment
      • FAQs about applying for exams
      • FAQs about preparing for exams
      • FAQs about the day of the exam
      • FAQs about assessment and results
      • Exams news and updates
    • Neuroscience in training

      Neuroscience in training

      • About the project
      • Neuroscience events
      • Who was on the commission?
      • Neuroscience history
      • Neuroscience resources
      • Multimedia learning
    • Deanery/LETB Hub
    • Medical training initiative (MTI)
    • Undergraduate education forum
    • International Medical Graduates

      International Medical Graduates

      • Shortage Occupation List
    • Quality Assurance in Training
    • Credentialing
    • CPD eLearning
    • Building Capacity in Perinatal Psychiatry

      Building Capacity in Perinatal Psychiatry

      • Perinatal 2023 Masterclass Programme application and process details
      • Perinatal Psychiatry Masterclass for New consultants resources
      • About the Building Capacity Project
      • Perinatal Psychiatry Masterclass for Senior Trainees resources
      • Perinatal Psychiatry Top - up masterclass for consultants resources
      • Perinatal Psychiatry Masterclass for Senior Trainees Jan 2023 resources
    • Dean's annual update
    • Curricula and guidance
      • 2022 Curricula Implementation Hub
      • 2014 GMC approved curricula (ending July 2024)
      • Specialty guides
      • Dual Training
    • Your training
      • Psychiatric Trainees Committee: supporting you
      • Time out of training
      • Training resources
      • Run-through training
      • Prizes and bursaries for trainees
      • Training less than full time
      • Routes to Registration
      • Cost of Training
      • Leadership and Management Fellow Scheme
      • Understanding Career Choices in Psychiatry
    • Exams
      • Can I take an exam?
      • Contact the exams team
      • Preparing for exams
      • Applying for your exam
      • Exam results
      • Special notices
      • Exam FAQs
      • A fair exam
      • Examiners and exam panels recruitment
      • FAQs about applying for exams
      • FAQs about preparing for exams
      • FAQs about the day of the exam
      • FAQs about assessment and results
      • Exams news and updates
    • Neuroscience in training
      • About the project
      • Neuroscience events
      • Who was on the commission?
      • Neuroscience history
      • Neuroscience resources
      • Multimedia learning
    • Deanery/LETB Hub
    • Medical training initiative (MTI)
    • Undergraduate education forum
    • International Medical Graduates
      • Shortage Occupation List
    • Quality Assurance in Training
    • Credentialing
    • CPD eLearning
    • Building Capacity in Perinatal Psychiatry
      • Perinatal 2023 Masterclass Programme application and process details
      • Perinatal Psychiatry Masterclass for New consultants resources
      • About the Building Capacity Project
      • Perinatal Psychiatry Masterclass for Senior Trainees resources
      • Perinatal Psychiatry Top - up masterclass for consultants resources
      • Perinatal Psychiatry Masterclass for Senior Trainees Jan 2023 resources
    • Dean's annual update
  • Members

    Members

    • Workforce Wellbeing Hub

      Workforce Wellbeing Hub

      • Psychiatrists' Support Service
      • How the College supports workforce wellbeing
      • Top 10 tips for wellbeing
      • Mentoring and coaching
      • If a patient dies by suicide
      • If a patient commits homicide
    • Supporting your professional development

      Supporting your professional development

      • New consultants (StartWell)
      • Revalidation
      • Assessing and managing risk of patients causing harm
      • Leadership and management
      • Working less than full time
      • Writing clinic letters
    • CPD eLearning
    • Submitting your CPD

      Submitting your CPD

      • Alterations to CPD during coronavirus pandemic
    • Membership

      Membership

      • Members login
      • Receipts
      • Pay Your Subscription
      • Direct Debit
      • Your subscription
      • Grades of membership
      • Benefits of membership
      • Fellowship and other Honours
      • Applying for Fellowship
      • Nominations for Honorary Fellows
      • Nominations for National Honours
    • Your Faculties

      Your Faculties

      • Academic psychiatry
      • Addictions psychiatry
      • Child and adolescent psychiatry
      • Eating disorders psychiatry
      • Forensic Psychiatry Faculty
      • General adult psychiatry
      • Intellectual disability psychiatry faculty
      • Liaison psychiatry faculty
      • Medical psychotherapy faculty
      • Neuropsychiatry faculty
      • Old age psychiatry faculty
      • Perinatal psychiatry faculty
      • Rehabilitation and social psychiatry faculty
      • Faculty job descriptions
    • Specialist and Associate Specialty Doctors

      Specialist and Associate Specialty Doctors

      • A message from the Chair
      • Who are SAS Doctors?
      • How to enter the SAS grade
      • SAS career development
      • SAS doctors resources
      • College SAS training and events
      • Startwell and Staywell
    • Devolved Nations

      Devolved Nations

      • RCPsych in Scotland
      • RCPsych in Wales
      • Coleg Cymraeg
      • RCPsych in Northern Ireland
      • Executive Committee job descriptions
    • English Divisions

      English Divisions

      • Eastern
      • London
      • Northern and Yorkshire
      • North West
      • South Eastern
      • Trent
      • West Midlands
      • South West
      • Executive Committee job descriptions
      • NW and NY mentorship
    • International members
    • Special Interest Groups

      Special Interest Groups

      • How to join a SIG
      • Adolescent forensic psychiatry
      • Arts psychiatry
      • Digital psychiatry
      • Evolutionary psychiatry
      • History of psychiatry
      • Neurodevelopmental psychiatry
      • Occupational psychiatry
      • Philosophy
      • Private and independent practice PIPSIG
      • Rainbow SIG
      • Spirituality and Psychiatry 
      • Sport and exercise psychiatry (SEPSIG)
      • Transcultural psychiatry
      • Volunteering and international
      • Women and mental health
    • Committees of Council
    • RCPsych Insight magazine
    • Publications and books
    • Members' eNewsletters
    • Posts for members
    • Public members list
    • Jobs board
    • President's lectures

      President's lectures

      • Declaration of competing interests (President's lectures)
      • List of president's lectures competing interests
      • Past President's lectures
    • Retired members
    • New Members Ceremonies
    • Obituaries

      Obituaries

      • Submit an obituary
      • Remembering Dame Fiona Caldicott
    • 2021 membership survey
    • Mindmasters quiz

      Mindmasters quiz

      • About the quiz
      • Who won in 2022?
      • The rules of the quiz
      • Sample quiz questions 
    • eLearning Hub
    • Workforce Wellbeing Hub
      • Psychiatrists' Support Service
      • How the College supports workforce wellbeing
      • Top 10 tips for wellbeing
      • Mentoring and coaching
      • If a patient dies by suicide
      • If a patient commits homicide
    • Supporting your professional development
      • New consultants (StartWell)
      • Revalidation
      • Assessing and managing risk of patients causing harm
      • Leadership and management
      • Working less than full time
      • Writing clinic letters
    • CPD eLearning
    • Submitting your CPD
      • Alterations to CPD during coronavirus pandemic
    • Membership
      • Members login
      • Receipts
      • Pay Your Subscription
      • Direct Debit
      • Your subscription
      • Grades of membership
      • Benefits of membership
      • Fellowship and other Honours
      • Applying for Fellowship
      • Nominations for Honorary Fellows
      • Nominations for National Honours
    • Your Faculties
      • Academic psychiatry
      • Addictions psychiatry
      • Child and adolescent psychiatry
      • Eating disorders psychiatry
      • Forensic Psychiatry Faculty
      • General adult psychiatry
      • Intellectual disability psychiatry faculty
      • Liaison psychiatry faculty
      • Medical psychotherapy faculty
      • Neuropsychiatry faculty
      • Old age psychiatry faculty
      • Perinatal psychiatry faculty
      • Rehabilitation and social psychiatry faculty
      • Faculty job descriptions
    • Specialist and Associate Specialty Doctors
      • A message from the Chair
      • Who are SAS Doctors?
      • How to enter the SAS grade
      • SAS career development
      • SAS doctors resources
      • College SAS training and events
      • Startwell and Staywell
    • Devolved Nations
      • RCPsych in Scotland
      • RCPsych in Wales
      • Coleg Cymraeg
      • RCPsych in Northern Ireland
      • Executive Committee job descriptions
    • English Divisions
      • Eastern
      • London
      • Northern and Yorkshire
      • North West
      • South Eastern
      • Trent
      • West Midlands
      • South West
      • Executive Committee job descriptions
      • NW and NY mentorship
    • International members
    • Special Interest Groups
      • How to join a SIG
      • Adolescent forensic psychiatry
      • Arts psychiatry
      • Digital psychiatry
      • Evolutionary psychiatry
      • History of psychiatry
      • Neurodevelopmental psychiatry
      • Occupational psychiatry
      • Philosophy
      • Private and independent practice PIPSIG
      • Rainbow SIG
      • Spirituality and Psychiatry 
      • Sport and exercise psychiatry (SEPSIG)
      • Transcultural psychiatry
      • Volunteering and international
      • Women and mental health
    • Committees of Council
    • RCPsych Insight magazine
    • Publications and books
    • Members' eNewsletters
    • Posts for members
    • Public members list
    • Jobs board
    • President's lectures
      • Declaration of competing interests (President's lectures)
      • List of president's lectures competing interests
      • Past President's lectures
    • Retired members
    • New Members Ceremonies
    • Obituaries
      • Submit an obituary
      • Remembering Dame Fiona Caldicott
    • 2021 membership survey
    • Mindmasters quiz
      • About the quiz
      • Who won in 2022?
      • The rules of the quiz
      • Sample quiz questions 
    • eLearning Hub
  • Events

    Events

    • Conferences and training events

      Conferences and training events

      • Register your interest - CESR in Psychiatry Training
      • MHA Section 12 and Approved Clinician Training
      • Register your interest - Present State Examination Course 2022
      • Subscribe to receive the Events eNews
      • Register your interest - ICD-11 events
      • RCPsych Certificated Courses
      • Grand Rounds
    • International Congress 2022

      International Congress 2022

      • Congress 2022 FAQs
      • Congress Webinar Package
      • Poster Presentations 2022
      • Exhibition Opportunities 2022
      • Your guide to Congress
      • IC22 Keynote speakers
      • Programme
      • Speaker information
      • Travel and accommodation guidance 
      • Social and Fringe Events
      • #RCPsychIC
      • Rapid Fire and Poster Prize Winners
    • International Congress 2023

      International Congress 2023

      • Register your interest - Congress 2023 exhibitors
      • Travel and accommodation guidance 
      • Registration
      • Congress 2023 FAQs
      • Poster Presentations 2023
    • In-house training

      In-house training

      • In house training: working with us
      • Health of Nation Outcome Scales
      • Competing interests
    • Events held by other organisations
    • Free webinars

      Free webinars

      • Free webinars for members
    • Recruitment events
    • Claiming Expenses
    • Terms and conditions
    • Speaker guidance for online events
    • Conferences and training events
      • Register your interest - CESR in Psychiatry Training
      • MHA Section 12 and Approved Clinician Training
      • Register your interest - Present State Examination Course 2022
      • Subscribe to receive the Events eNews
      • Register your interest - ICD-11 events
      • RCPsych Certificated Courses
      • Grand Rounds
    • International Congress 2022
      • Congress 2022 FAQs
      • Congress Webinar Package
      • Poster Presentations 2022
      • Exhibition Opportunities 2022
      • Your guide to Congress
      • IC22 Keynote speakers
      • Programme
      • Speaker information
      • Travel and accommodation guidance 
      • Social and Fringe Events
      • #RCPsychIC
      • Rapid Fire and Poster Prize Winners
    • International Congress 2023
      • Register your interest - Congress 2023 exhibitors
      • Travel and accommodation guidance 
      • Registration
      • Congress 2023 FAQs
      • Poster Presentations 2023
    • In-house training
      • In house training: working with us
      • Health of Nation Outcome Scales
      • Competing interests
    • Events held by other organisations
    • Free webinars
      • Free webinars for members
    • Recruitment events
    • Claiming Expenses
    • Terms and conditions
    • Speaker guidance for online events
  • Improving care

    Improving care

    • College Centre for Quality Improvement (CCQI)

      College Centre for Quality Improvement (CCQI)

      • What we do in the CCQI
      • Quality Networks and Accreditation
      • National Clinical Audits
      • Multi-source feedback
      • CCQI resources
      • CCQI Who we are
      • Research and evaluation
      • CCQI news
    • Campaigning for better mental health policy

      Campaigning for better mental health policy

      • Five Year Forward View
      • Integrated care and mental health
      • Children and young people's mental health Green Paper
      • Cross-government mental health and wellbeing plan 
      • RCPsych in Parliament
      • Join our Research Panel
      • College Reports
      • Position Statements
      • Process for College publications
      • Other policy areas
      • Mental Health Watch
      • COVID-19: Guidance for clinicians
      • Reforming The Mental Health Act
      • Don't overlook mental health campaign
      • The Mental Health Policy Group (MHPG)
    • Planning the psychiatric workforce

      Planning the psychiatric workforce

      • About workforce
      • Job planning and recruitment
      • Our workforce census
      • Campaigning for the mental health workforce of the future
      • Workforce strategy
      • Job description approval process
    • Public Mental Health Implementation Centre

      Public Mental Health Implementation Centre

      • Our partners and first partnership activity 
      • How to work with the Public Mental Health Implementation Centre
      • Who's involved in the Public Mental Health Implementation Centre?
      • Aims and objectives
      • Reports
      • About public mental health
      • PMHIC Parliamentary Launch 
    • National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health

      National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health

      • About NCCMH and our work
      • Clinical guideline development
      • Competence frameworks
      • Quality improvement programmes
      • Reports and research
      • Service design and development
      • Work with us
    • Physician Associates

      Physician Associates

      • About Physician Associates
      • Employing Physician Associates
      • Becoming a Physician Associate
      • Support for Physician Associates
      • Physician Associates network
      • The Competence Framework for Physician Associates in Mental Health
    • Invited Review Service
    • Public Health and its role in mental heath
    • Sustainability and mental health

      Sustainability and mental health

      • In your community
      • In your practice
      • In your trust
      • Nature matters
      • Sustainability scholars
      • About sustainability in mental health care
      • Sustainability resources
      • College position on sustainability
      • Attending COP26
    • Using quality improvement
    • College Centre for Quality Improvement (CCQI)
      • What we do in the CCQI
      • Quality Networks and Accreditation
      • National Clinical Audits
      • Multi-source feedback
      • CCQI resources
      • CCQI Who we are
      • Research and evaluation
      • CCQI news
    • Campaigning for better mental health policy
      • Five Year Forward View
      • Integrated care and mental health
      • Children and young people's mental health Green Paper
      • Cross-government mental health and wellbeing plan 
      • RCPsych in Parliament
      • Join our Research Panel
      • College Reports
      • Position Statements
      • Process for College publications
      • Other policy areas
      • Mental Health Watch
      • COVID-19: Guidance for clinicians
      • Reforming The Mental Health Act
      • Don't overlook mental health campaign
      • The Mental Health Policy Group (MHPG)
    • Planning the psychiatric workforce
      • About workforce
      • Job planning and recruitment
      • Our workforce census
      • Campaigning for the mental health workforce of the future
      • Workforce strategy
      • Job description approval process
    • Public Mental Health Implementation Centre
      • Our partners and first partnership activity 
      • How to work with the Public Mental Health Implementation Centre
      • Who's involved in the Public Mental Health Implementation Centre?
      • Aims and objectives
      • Reports
      • About public mental health
      • PMHIC Parliamentary Launch 
    • National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health
      • About NCCMH and our work
      • Clinical guideline development
      • Competence frameworks
      • Quality improvement programmes
      • Reports and research
      • Service design and development
      • Work with us
    • Physician Associates
      • About Physician Associates
      • Employing Physician Associates
      • Becoming a Physician Associate
      • Support for Physician Associates
      • Physician Associates network
      • The Competence Framework for Physician Associates in Mental Health
    • Invited Review Service
    • Public Health and its role in mental heath
    • Sustainability and mental health
      • In your community
      • In your practice
      • In your trust
      • Nature matters
      • Sustainability scholars
      • About sustainability in mental health care
      • Sustainability resources
      • College position on sustainability
      • Attending COP26
    • Using quality improvement
  • Mental health

    Mental health

    • Problems and disorders

      Problems and disorders

      • ADHD in adults
      • Alcohol and depression
      • Alcohol and older people
      • Anorexia and bulimia
      • Anxiety and generalised anxiety disorder (GAD)
      • Anxiety, panic and phobias
      • Bereavement
      • Bipolar disorder
      • Cannabis
      • Catatonia
      • Club drugs
      • Coping after a traumatic event
      • Debt and mental health
      • Delirium
      • Depression
      • Depression in older adults
      • Feeling overwhelmed
      • Gambling disorder
      • Heroin dependence
      • Hoarding
      • Learning disabilities
      • Medically unexplained symptoms
      • Memory problems and dementia
      • Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
      • Perinatal OCD
      • Perinatal OCD for carers
      • Personality disorder
      • Physical illness
      • Postnatal depression
      • Postnatal depression key facts
      • Postnatal depression: information for carers
      • Postpartum psychosis
      • Postpartum Psychosis in Carers
      • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) 
      • Schizoaffective disorder
      • Schizophrenia
      • Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
      • Self-harm
      • Shyness and social phobia
      • Sleeping well
      • Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID)
      • Cocaine dependence
    • Support, care and treatment

      Support, care and treatment

      • Alzheimers drug treatments
      • Antidepressants
      • Antipsychotics
      • Antipsychotics in pregnancy
      • Being sectioned
      • Benzodiazepines
      • Children's social services and safeguarding
      • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
      • Complementary and alternative medicines: herbal remedies
      • Complementary and alternative medicines: physical treatments
      • Depot medication
      • Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards
      • Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
      • Guide to mental health tribunals
      • Liaison psychiatry services
      • Lithium in pregnancy and breastfeeding
      • Mental capacity and the law
      • Mental health in pregnancy
      • Mental health rehabilitation services
      • Mental health services and teams in the community
      • Mother and baby units (MBUs)
      • Neuromodulation
      • Perinatal mental health services: what are they?
      • Planning a pregnancy
      • Psychotherapies and psychological treatments
      • Social prescribing
      • Spirituality and mental health
      • Stopping antidepressants
      • Valproate in women and girls who could get pregnant
      • What to expect of your psychiatrist in the UK
      • COVID-19: Medication for mental health
      • COVID-19: Remote consultations
      • COVID-19: Going to hospital for a physical illness or injury
      • COVID-19: Eating disorders
      • COVID-19: Perinatal care
      • Hypnosis and hypnotherapy
      • Benefits, financial support and debt advice
    • Young people's mental health
    • Translations

      Translations

      • Arabic عربى
      • Bengali বাঙালি
      • Bulgarian български
      • Chinese 中文
      • French Français
      • German Deutsch
      • Greek Ελληνική γλώσσα
      • Gujurati ગુજરાતી
      • Hindi हिंदीहिंदी
      • Italian italiano
      • Japanese 日本語
      • Lithuanian Lietuvių kalba
      • Pashto پښتو
      • Persian (Farsi) فارسی
      • Polish Polski
      • Punjabi ਪੰਜਾਬੀ
      • Romanian Română
      • Russian Pусский
      • Somali
      • Spanish Español
      • Turkish
      • Tamil தமிழ்
      • Urdu اردو
      • Welsh Cymraeg
      • Sindhi سنڌي
      • Ukrainian украї́нська
      • Swahili Kiswahili
    • Mental health and psychiatry FAQs
    • Order mental health leaflets
    • About our mental health information
    • Disclaimer about our mental health information
    • Choosing Wisely - a national campaign
    • BSL translations
    • MindEd – free mental health eLearning
    • Order mental health packs for schools

      Order mental health packs for schools

      • Order form for mental health factsheets for young people
    • Audio resources
    • Veterans' mental health
    • Suicide resources
    • Problems and disorders
      • ADHD in adults
      • Alcohol and depression
      • Alcohol and older people
      • Anorexia and bulimia
      • Anxiety and generalised anxiety disorder (GAD)
      • Anxiety, panic and phobias
      • Bereavement
      • Bipolar disorder
      • Cannabis
      • Catatonia
      • Club drugs
      • Coping after a traumatic event
      • Debt and mental health
      • Delirium
      • Depression
      • Depression in older adults
      • Feeling overwhelmed
      • Gambling disorder
      • Heroin dependence
      • Hoarding
      • Learning disabilities
      • Medically unexplained symptoms
      • Memory problems and dementia
      • Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
      • Perinatal OCD
      • Perinatal OCD for carers
      • Personality disorder
      • Physical illness
      • Postnatal depression
      • Postnatal depression key facts
      • Postnatal depression: information for carers
      • Postpartum psychosis
      • Postpartum Psychosis in Carers
      • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) 
      • Schizoaffective disorder
      • Schizophrenia
      • Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
      • Self-harm
      • Shyness and social phobia
      • Sleeping well
      • Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID)
      • Cocaine dependence
    • Support, care and treatment
      • Alzheimers drug treatments
      • Antidepressants
      • Antipsychotics
      • Antipsychotics in pregnancy
      • Being sectioned
      • Benzodiazepines
      • Children's social services and safeguarding
      • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
      • Complementary and alternative medicines: herbal remedies
      • Complementary and alternative medicines: physical treatments
      • Depot medication
      • Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards
      • Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
      • Guide to mental health tribunals
      • Liaison psychiatry services
      • Lithium in pregnancy and breastfeeding
      • Mental capacity and the law
      • Mental health in pregnancy
      • Mental health rehabilitation services
      • Mental health services and teams in the community
      • Mother and baby units (MBUs)
      • Neuromodulation
      • Perinatal mental health services: what are they?
      • Planning a pregnancy
      • Psychotherapies and psychological treatments
      • Social prescribing
      • Spirituality and mental health
      • Stopping antidepressants
      • Valproate in women and girls who could get pregnant
      • What to expect of your psychiatrist in the UK
      • COVID-19: Medication for mental health
      • COVID-19: Remote consultations
      • COVID-19: Going to hospital for a physical illness or injury
      • COVID-19: Eating disorders
      • COVID-19: Perinatal care
      • Hypnosis and hypnotherapy
      • Benefits, financial support and debt advice
    • Young people's mental health
    • Translations
      • Arabic عربى
      • Bengali বাঙালি
      • Bulgarian български
      • Chinese 中文
      • French Français
      • German Deutsch
      • Greek Ελληνική γλώσσα
      • Gujurati ગુજરાતી
      • Hindi हिंदीहिंदी
      • Italian italiano
      • Japanese 日本語
      • Lithuanian Lietuvių kalba
      • Pashto پښتو
      • Persian (Farsi) فارسی
      • Polish Polski
      • Punjabi ਪੰਜਾਬੀ
      • Romanian Română
      • Russian Pусский
      • Somali
      • Spanish Español
      • Turkish
      • Tamil தமிழ்
      • Urdu اردو
      • Welsh Cymraeg
      • Sindhi سنڌي
      • Ukrainian украї́нська
      • Swahili Kiswahili
    • Mental health and psychiatry FAQs
    • Order mental health leaflets
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The Ballad of Shirley Collins

Minds in music

08 January, 2016

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Shirley Collins MBE is an English folksinger who was a significant contributor to the English Folk Revival of the 1960s and 1970s.  

Biography

In 1954, at a party hosted by Ewan MacColl, Shirley met Alan Lomax, the famous American folk collector. Together, they made a folk song collecting trip in the Southern states that lasted from July to November 1959, and resulted in many hours of recordings.

Many of these were issued by Atlantic Records under the title "Sounds of the South", and some were later re-enacted in the Coen brothers’ film ‘Oh Brother, Where Art Thou’. 

Shirley then went on to have a successful performing and recording career in the 1960s and 1970s.

She was influential in the folk music world, collaborating with key figures including Davy Graham and Ashely Hutchings of Steeleye Span and releasing several highly regarded albums, including Anthems in Eden, thought by many to be her finest work.

Loss of singing voice

The loss of her singing voice, which appears to have been a form of psychogenic dysphonia, meant that Shirley could not perform or record from 1982 onwards.

During this time, she raised her children and worked in several other jobs outside of the music industry.

Further biographical information is available through excellent resources here and in an article in The Guardian from last year, which details the traumatic break-up of her marriage to Huthchings and the subsequent loss of her singing voice.

Music revival 

In recent years, a new generation of artists, including musicians Graham Coxon, Jeff Tweedy and Will Oldham, and the comedian Stewart Lee, helped to generate a revival of interest in her music.

This has in turn led to the production of an upcoming documentary about her life, The Ballad of Shirley Collins.

Last year, I was approached by the film’s director, Rob Curry, to interview Shirley as part of the film. As well as this, Shirley kindly agreed to a written interview, which I am including below.

In our interviews, I found that Shirley, now 80, has maintained her sharp intellect and fiery character.

She continues to hold and express strong opinions about a range of subjects, including her distaste for a lot of contemporary music, particularly pale imitations of the folk tradition, and even jazz!

In a happy ending to her remarkable story, Shirley has now regained use of her singing voice and has begun to perform and record again.

Relevance to the field of mental health 

I believe Shirley’s story once again demonstrates how music is often closely entwined in our mental and emotional lives.

I hope this piece will contribute to the ongoing revival of interest in her work.

I think it can also shed some light on the serious impact and complexity of disorders of physical function that do not have an organic basis.

Many of Shirley’s songs are available to listen to here

Interview 

Can you tell us a little about your famous trip around the USA with Alan Lomax? What lessons did it teach, about music and about life?

It was in the autumn of 1959, and we recorded from both black and white singers and musicians in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and the Georgia Sea islands.They were field recordings of ordinary people – not professional singers, of course.

I already knew that the white mountain singers sang mostly songs and ballads from the British Isles that had gone to America with the early settlers; what delighted me was how intact they were, as far as the words went, but with a difference in the melodies that were totally American. 

The voices too, were different from British voices, a bit harsher, more strident, but I loved them.  I’d heard blues in England, mostly on recordings, but I wasn’t prepared for the age of some of the songs the black singers had – some that went back to before the American Civil War, and some that sounded incredibly African still. 

Most of the people we met were friendly and welcoming, especially to a girl who’d come from so far away as England. This was at a time when tourism to the States hadn’t begun.  And it confirmed my belief in the quality of the music that ‘ordinary’ people can make.

Lessons about life?  How people (and their music and songs) endure under harsh conditions. How kind most people are and how talented many of them.

Readers would be interested to know about the loss of your singing voice- can you describe what happened? What do you think was the cause of losing your voice?

My then husband left me for another woman, an actress he’d met while we were both working at in ‘Lark Rise’ at the National Theatre. He chose to do it the day after a wedding anniversary – a day we’d spent together, and walked back down the lane to our cottage hand in hand.

The next evening he came home and said he was leaving in the morning ‘consumed with love’.  The shock – and my grief – were considerable.

Also the problem was that he and I were working in the band at the same show, and I was the singer. It was a promenade show, the audience standing, and night after night the actress came and stood in front of me as I was singing, often wearing my husband’s sweaters.

It was unnecessarily cruel and provocative. I was having to sing through grief and anger, and sometimes tears, and I had no control over my voice. Some nights I could sing, sometimes my voice broke, and worst of all, sometimes when I opened my mouth, nothing would come out.

It was a double humiliation both private and public. This situation went on for far too long, but I was reluctant to leave the show, as a) I thought I deserved to be there, and 2) I needed the money, I had two children to support.   I completely lost confidence in my ability to sing, and as a woman to be loved.

Has your perspective changed on this over the years?

As I look back, I wish I had responded with anger rather than grief.

You have mentioned your regret at the loss of years of your career. Has the experience of losing your voice brought anything valuable?

At least I learned that I was resilient, and won through in the end.

And I found that many people had valued what I did. And I wrote a book, several shows and lectures, all helping to restore my self-confidence.

Did listening to music help you through harder times? Any artists or songs in particular?

On the whole I found listening to music painful.  I played a couple of Linda and Richard Thompson songs over and over, and I listened to Italian Renaissance and English Baroque music.

It’s full of beauty and vitality.

Things seem to have turned a corner now and you are back singing and making music. What do you think has made the difference?

Partly the passage of time – partly realising that I had been good at what I did – and that I was an original voice.

Also I was still championing English folk music and still believe I understand it better than most, and if it doesn’t sound too vain, that it needed me as much as I need it.

Can you select 2 or 3 lesser known songs from the folk tradition that you think all our readers should hear? Perhaps from both England and elsewhere.

I’d choose ‘Master Kilby’ by Nic Jones, ‘Gilderoy’ from me and my sister Dolly, and ‘Rainbow mid life’s Willows from Almeda Riddle of Arkansas. Three great songs.

Finally- why do you hate jazz so much?!

I find it too fidgety, tuneless and jazz musicians tend to wear silly hats!!!

Blog Author
Dr John Tully

Forensic psychiatrist and researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, London

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