Barbara Kathleen Dearnley (3 July 1928-6 February 2014): An Appreciation by Christopher Clulow and Christopher Vincent

Barbara Dearnley, a long-standing staff member of the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships and member of the British Society of Couple Psychotherapists and Counsellors, died at her home on 6 February, 2014, aged eighty-five. She joined what was then called the Family Discussion Bureau in 1960, and retired from the Institute of Marital Studies (IMS, which the Family Discussion Bureau became) in 1988. Christopher Clulow and Christopher Vincent were colleagues and friends, and among others spoke at her funeral, which was held at St Barnabas Church, Dulwich, on 7 March. Their tributes capture something of Barbara's spirit, energy, and creativeness. While she continued to work after leaving the IMS she also painted and wrote poetry. Two poems that particularly catch the connections she drew between creativity and loss, as well as her humour, are reproduced below.