I am delighted to welcome readers to this book in which there is so much to learn from Stephen Briggs’ long clinical experience and academic immersion in the field of adolescent mental health. We were both fortunate to work for many years in the Adolescent Department of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, surrounded by colleagues with immense expertise in psychoanalytic approaches to understanding adolescence. This is a generous book which brings to a wider audience clinical insight and wisdom developed over decades in the Adolescent Department. Since the Department was established in 1959 there has been a growing recognition of the mental health needs of children and young people but sadly no sign that the prevalence of mental health difficulties is decreasing, nor of services being in a position to keep up with demand.