Marcus Evans
consultant psychotherapist; author, Identity and the Foundational Myth: Psychoanalytic Insights into Gender Dysphoria

Marcus Evans is a fellow of the Institute of Psychoanalysis, a consultant psychotherapist, and a mental-health nurse with over 45 years of experience working in mental-health services. With Susan Evans, he has a practice, Evans Psychotherapy. He served as head of the nursing discipline at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Trust from 1998 to 2018. During his time at the Tavistock, he was also lead clinician in the Adult and Adolescent Department and a founding member of Fitzjohn’s Service, a specialist service for patients with severe and enduring mental-health conditions and personality disorders.

In 2019, he resigned as a governor of the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust over concerns about the clinical management of the Trust’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS).

Marcus has written and taught extensively on the application of psychoanalytic thinking within mental-health settings. His first book, Making Room for Madness in Mental Health: The Psychoanalytic Understanding of Psychotic Communications, was published by Karnac in 2016. His second book, Psychoanalytic Thinking in Mental Health Settings, published by Routledge in 2020, introduces frontline mental-health professionals to psychoanalytic approaches in clinical practice.

He has also written extensively on gender distress. His third book, Gender Dysphoria: A Therapeutic Model for Working with Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults, co-authored with Susan Evans, was published in 2025. His fourth book, Identity and the Foundational Myth: Psychoanalytic Insights into Gender Dysphoria, was published later the same year.

His fifth book, Thinking Under Pressure: A Psychoanalytic Approach to Adult Mental Health and Forensic Care is due to be published by Karnac later this year, to be followed by The Top Two Inches: What Sport Reveals About the Mind.

RELATED SESSIONS

Saturday 17 October, 14:45 Robert Runcie Room, Church House
Puberty-blockers scandal: the ethics of clinical trials