Published: October 2024

Keywords:
Elspeth McAdam, Peter Lang, K.A.H. Mirza, The Cradle of Dreams, Treasured Futures, Schools, Appreciative Inquiry, Systemics, Social Constructionism, Neurosciences, Learning, Families, Systems of Concern, Systems of Care, Language, Grammar of Words, Meanings, Non-blaming Collaborative Approach, Relationships, Social Networks, Positive Reinforcement, Questions, Witnessing, Positive Reinforcement, Appreciation, Dignity, Abilities’ Spotting, Dreaming, Possibilities, Strengths, Resources, Environmental Stressors, Complexity, Multi-Deterministic Causality

Abstract

Metalogos Editorial Team Comment: Many thanks to our dear Elspeth McAdam for again honouring Metalogos and trusting her new book to be published.

(We remind our Metalogos' friends that the previous book, The Smoke that Thunders: Releasing the Tangled Web of Incest: a Dignifying Way Forward for the Child, the Family and Professionals by Elspeth McAdam Peter Lang and Diane Henoa, was presented in Metalogos’ Issues 32-38.

We are thrilled to announce that the necessary preparations have started for the Greek edition of that book to be published in print!)

So, from the Issue 46 onwards, Metalogos will start uploading Elspeth McAdam's new book, "The Cradle of Dreams: Nurturing Precious Futures in the School Space: The Appreciative Inquiry to Schools."

This book is a continuation of the previous book, "Appreciative Inquiry in Schools" by Peter Lang & Elspeth McAdam, 2009.

Now, Dr. K.A.H Mirza is undertaking the task of creating it from scratch, in collaboration with Elspeth McAdam and with the support of her husband, Martin Watson, based on an earlier draft of this book created years ago by Elspeth McAdam and Peter Lang.

The new work is dedicated to Peter Lang, who continues to inspire us with his profound contributions to our field.

K.A.H Mirza

Dr Mirza is an eminent psychiatrist, researcher and academic with over thirty years of experience in the assessment and treatment of children, young people and adults with psychiatric disorders and substance misuse across different countries and cultures. After qualifying in Medicine in 1982, he worked in General Adult Psychiatry and Addiction Sciences for a decade before specializing in Child and adolescent psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital, London and the University of Cambridge, UK.

Currently, he is a Consultant Psychiatrist, head of the Complex ADHD pathway in East Hertfordshire CAMHS, and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire. Dr Mirza has held senior academic and clinical positions in major universities worldwide, including the University of Cambridge, UK, Dalhousie University, Canada, and the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College, London.

He was a clinical lecturer at the University of Cambridge, UK, from 1994 to 1996. In 1997, he was appointed as a Tenure-Track Associate Professor at Dalhousie University, Canada, with the expectation that he would move to Full Professorship in 2004. Unfortunately, he had to leave the above job and return to the UK in 1999 for personal reasons.

He held academic positions at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, and the University of Hertfordshire. Throughout his career in the UK, he maintained his interest in national and international research.

Dr Mirza has held research and educational grants and conducted research into the neurobiology of childhood maltreatment, substance misuse, ADHD, PTSD, depression psychopharmacology and the relationship between relationship between developmental trauma (Complex PTSD) and ADHD.

Dr Mirza has published several peer-reviewed articles, books and book chapters on ADHD, Depression, Substance misuse, PTSD and psychopharmacology. He has edited a special issue of the Journal of Family Therapy and served on the editorial board of prestigious journals.

Dr. Mirza has a distinguished track record in training undergraduate and postgraduate trainees in psychiatry and other disciplines. He was a member of the Curriculum Committee of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, which produced a competence-based curriculum for higher specialist training in child and adolescent psychiatry. He held the post of Postgraduate Training Programme director at the Institute of Psychiatry at the Maudsley, London. He has lectured to known societies worldwide, conducted international conferences and continues to teach at Universities in Japan, Ireland and India, as a visiting lecturer.

He was the lead for the Maudsley International Fellowship in Child Psychiatry, which helps build the capacity of child psychiatrists in developing countries.

Dr. Mirza has specialist expertise in psychopharmacology. He conducted the first clinical trial of Paroxetine in Adolescent Depression while working as a clinical lecturer at the University of Cambridge. He was a member of the Drugs and Therapeutic Committee at the Maudsley Hospital, which publishes the influential Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines.

Currently Mirza is the chair of the Special interest group of Adolescent Substance misuse at the Royal College of Psychiatrists and played a key role in publishing the Department of Health, UK/ Royal College of Psychiatrists Guidelines for assessing and treating young people with substance misuse in the UK.

He is a member of the Centre for Mindfulness, UK advisory board.

Dr Mirza has specialist experience and expertise in the assessment and treatment of ADHD in children and adults and provides training to consultant colleagues nationally and internationally in the assessment and treatment of ADHD across the lifespan. He is the Founder and Director of ADHD Academy Across the Life span, a centre aimed at treating ADHD across the life span in the independent sector. Dr Mirza is formally trained in psychotherapies, including Systemic therapy, Appreciative Inquiry, CBT, Mindfulness and other third-wave psychotherapies. He has pioneered the development of evidence-based talking therapies in the field of Adolescent substance misuse and ADHD. Having had a life-long interest in Arts and Literature, he firmly believes in the power of the narratives to change the lives of his patients.

Elspeth McAdam

Elspeth McAdam is a retired child and family psychiatrist and systemic therapist (after 30 years of work in the NHS in the U.K.).

With Peter Lang, she pioneered appreciative ways of working with children, their families, and their networks. With her experience as a systemic therapist and consultant psychiatrist, she has been on the cutting edge of therapeutic and organisational developments.

In her NHS work, she has used systemic, narrative, and appreciative practices in tough situations. She has specialised in working with children who are on the criminal edge and also families in which there has been violence or child sexual abuse. With Peter Lang, she has developed some unusual and very effective ways of working with these situations. She has been supervising complex situations all over Europe where therapists or families felt unable to move forward.

Elspeth has worked as an organisational consultant in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Southern Africa and Columbia.  She has been involved in organisational development programs of public and private sector organisations.  Her style of working is to validate and appreciate the strengths and skills of an organisation's personnel, recognising what each person can contribute and using these strengths and abilities to create dreams of a collaborative working situation. Practical plans are made to realise these visions.

Peter Lang

Peter Lang was a leading teacher and consultant with the Kensington Consulting Centre in London, U.K. His work spanned the European continent, emphasising constructionist and systemic orientations to organisational change.

He was one of the great pioneers of the Systemic Appreciative Approach. He defined that process as "exploring the richness of anything".

Peter Lang co-authored the book Appreciative Work in Schools with Elspeth McAdam.