Dr Matt Woolgar (MA, PhD, DClinPsy) is Consultant Clinical Psychologist in the National Adoption & Fostering Service Maudsley Hospital, London and is an academic at King’s College London focusing on attachment, parenting and developmental psychopathology [you can read his CV here]
Matt has a particular interest in the assessment and treatment of complex presentations of adopted children or children from the care system, especially with regard to disentangling the effects of biological and neurodevelopmental factors from attachment, trauma and behavioural issues. Matt has had a long-standing research interest in the impact of parental psychopathology on infant and child attachment and the measurement of attachment security beyond infancy. Matt recently edited a special edition of Adoption & Fostering collecting a series of papers on the implication of the latest research on the neurobiological legacy of maltreatment and neglect for practitioners [find it here].
This collection highlighted the biological reasons for expecting that early adversity is likely to lead to a wide diversity in outcomes, even for children apparently exposed to the ‘same kinds’ of early adversity. No one size assessment or treatment is likely to fit all children and they will usually require individual understanding and personalised care plans – although common themes will still likely emerge. And this influences all his clinical work.
Matt’s clinical specialisms also include the comprehensive assessment of child behavioural problems and associated comorbidities from toddler tantrums through to teenagers with severe behavioural problems and offending. He can provide individually tailored treatments for challenging child challenging behaviours for pre and primary school-aged children remotely using live video based sessions. Matt’s research has also had a strong focus on evidence-based parenting approaches, especially the value of personalising such interventions to individual children, rather than off the shelf approaches.
Matt has supervised over a dozen PhD and DClinPsy theses, looking at various aspects of adoption, looked after children, callous-unemotional traits and aspects of parenting and parenting interventions.
Career journey
Matt did his first degree at Cambridge University (first class), before working as a research assistant at the Winnicott Research Unit in the Department of Psychiatry in Cambridge University on a study of the impact of maternal mental illness on infant attachment and social development. He moved to London to complete a PhD at University College London and the Anna Freud Centre, studying the impact of infant attachment on 5 year-olds current attachment, and their social and moral development, using ‘gold standard’ attachment measures and projective doll play techniques.
After his PhD he returned to the Winnicott Research Unit, spending 6 years as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow investigating the impact of parental mental health, from the first few days of the neonatal period through infancy and into later childhood, on a range of child social, emotional and attachment outcomes.
Matt then moved back to London to start his clinical career at KCL’s Institute of Psychiatry (now Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience) and since qualifying he has worked in the National Adoption and Fostering Service and National Conduct Problems Clinic, bringing his research on the impact of early non-optimal parenting environments on attachment outcomes and child well-being into his clinical practice, and tailoring interventions to suit the needs of complex children.
