Title of “Ambassador of Clinical Psychology and Psychological Treatment” Awarded to Peter Fonagy Letter to the Editor, Commentary Title of “Ambassador of Clinical Psychology and Psychological Treatment” Awarded to Peter Fonagy Martin Debbané 1,2 [1] Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. [2] Department of Clinical, Educational, and Health Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom. Clinical Psychology in Europe, 2022, Vol. 4(1), Article e7781, https://doi.org/10.32872/cpe.7781 Published (VoR): 2022-03-31 Corresponding Author: Martin Debbané, University of Geneva - FPSE, Boulevard du Pont d'Arve 40, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland. E-mail: Martin.Debbane@unige.ch Professor Peter Fonagy (OBE) leads a career in clinical psychology that epitomizes an integrative approach to the psychological care for children, adolescents and adults, with a continued determination to alleviate mental pain in those suffering from often chronic psychological distress. Driven by the ambition of increasing access to quality care for the vulnerable, he has occupied a number of key national leadership positions in the UK, including Chair of the Outcomes Measurement Reference Group at the Department of Health, Chair of two NICE Guideline Development Groups, Chair of the Strategy Group for National Occupational Standards for Psychological Therapies and co-chaired the Department of Health's Expert Reference Group on Vulnerable Children. His clinical interests centre on issues of early attachment relationships, resilience, social cog­ nition, borderline personality disorder and vi­ olence. Drawing from psychoanalysis, develop­ mental psychology, attachment theory as well as cognitive and affective neuroscience, Peter Fona­ gy puts forward a clinical approach based on evidence as well as best practice, closely articula­ ted to the most recent developments in research on psychopathology and psychotherapy. A ma­ jor focus of his contribution has been an innova­ tive research-based psychodynamic therapeutic approach, mentalization-based treatment, which was developed in collaboration with a number of clinical sites in the UK and USA. He has Peter Fonagy (2013) This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction, provided the original work is properly cited. https://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.32872/cpe.7781&domain=pdf&date_stamp=2022-03-31 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4677-8753 https://cpe.psychopen.eu/ https://www.psychopen.eu/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ published over 500 scientific papers, 260 chapters and has authored or co-authored 19 books. Embracing communication and collaboration over competition and hostility be­ tween different theoretical frameworks in psychotherapy, his most popular books include “What Works for Whom” and “Affect regulation, mentalization and the development of the self”, which collectively have attracted over ten thousand citations. His recognition as a scientist include Fellow of the British Academy, the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Academy of Social Sciences and the American Association for Psychological Science, and he was elected to Honorary Fellowship by the American College of Psychiatrists. He has received Lifetime Achievement Awards from several national and international professional associations including the British Psychological Society, the International Society for the Study of Personality Disorder, the British and Irish Group for the Study of Personality Disorder, the World Association for Infant Mental Health and was in 2015 the first UK recipient of the Wiley Prize of the British Academy for Outstanding Achievements in Psychology by an international scholar. Peter Fonagy’s academic achievements are recognized not only in the UK and in Europe, but also at the international level. He is currently Head of the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences at University College London; Chief Executive of the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, London; Consultant to the Child and Family Programme at the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine; and holds visiting professorships at Yale and Harvard Medical Schools. Most importantly perhaps, Peter Fonagy’s work influences hundreds of clinical psy­ chologists across many different theoretical approaches to reflect on the common factors leading to salutogenesis, that is, the psychological mechanisms which sustain mental health in the face of the regular and more impactful challenges individuals face across the lifespan. Beyond individual and group psychotherapy, Peter Fonagy advocates for a social and political approach to mental health, and his work underlines the responsibili­ ties we carry as families, communities and political entities to strive to care for each other and be kind to one another. Profound humanism can be experienced from Peter Fonagy’s approach to clinical psychology. He has agreed to share and defend these values as a dedicated ambassador to the European Association for Clinical Psychology and Allied Disciplines. Details on his life and professional trajectories in the media • https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/27/peter-fonagy-refugee-child- psychologist-anna-freud-centre • https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000dpj2 Ambassador of Clinical Psychology and Psychological Treatment: Peter Fonagy 2 Clinical Psychology in Europe 2022, Vol. 4(1), Article e7781 https://doi.org/10.32872/cpe.7781 https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/27/peter-fonagy-refugee-child-psychologist-anna-freud-centre https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/27/peter-fonagy-refugee-child-psychologist-anna-freud-centre https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000dpj2 https://www.psychopen.eu/ Citation from an interview with E. L. Jurist (2010, p. 7) P. F.: (…) when we understand the mechanism of a disorder at the level of biology, at the level of neuroscience, we will also understand (…) that the only way to alter those things will be psychological. They will be much more targeted, better targeted, but they will be psychological interventions. E. L. J.: So there’s something ineradicable about the role of psychology. P. F.: We are here for the duration. Funding: The author has no funding to report. Acknowledgments: The author has no additional (i.e., non-financial) support to report. Competing Interests: The author has declared that no competing interests exist. R e f e r e n c e s Jurist, E. L. (2010). Elliot Jurist interviews Peter Fonagy. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 27(1), 2–7. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018636 Clinical Psychology in Europe (CPE) is the official journal of the European Association of Clinical Psychology and Psychological Treatment (EACLIPT). PsychOpen GOLD is a publishing service by Leibniz Institute for Psychology (ZPID), Germany. Debbané 3 Clinical Psychology in Europe 2022, Vol. 4(1), Article e7781 https://doi.org/10.32872/cpe.7781 https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018636 https://www.psychopen.eu/