Rachel Pinney

Rachel Pinney (born 11 July 1909 – 19 October 1995) was a British doctor who pioneered therapeutic approaches to children's development in the 1960s which she termed Creative Listening, and Children's Hours. She was also known as a peace activist.

Life

Her father was a Major-General in the British army. She obtained a medical degree and practiced as a GP until 1961. She worked with the distinguished child therapist Dr . Margaret Lowenfeld, but never trained formally. She pioneered 'methods for conflict understanding' which she called Creative Listening, and Children's Hours, the former incorporated as a limited company in 1967.^[1]

She toured Britain in the early 1960s inviting people to share their views on controversial subjects such as homosexual law reform and nuclear warfare while she used her structured listening technique.^[2]

Her child techniques were widely used by experts working therapeutically with children.^[1]

In 1977 Rachel went to New York and treated a four year old boy who had autism. This resulted in her publication 'Bobby, Breakthrough of an Autistic Child' (1983).^[1]

She was briefly married to Luigi Coccuzzi with whom she had one daughter and two sons. She was a Quaker and a member of CND from 1961 and openly declared herself a lesbian in 1989.^[1]

She died on 19 October 1995 aged 86.^[1]

Bibliography

• Bobby: Breakthrough of a Special Child, Rachel Pinney, Mcgraw-Hill Book Co (1986) ISBN 0070500924
• Creative Listening, by Rachel Pinney

References