Pat Land, who has died aged 72, was a member of our long-running feminist group of older female psychotherapists. There were many facets to Pat's life. Her love of her sons, David and Ben, and their families was central. She loved her work as a teacher and later as a social worker and psychoanalytic psychotherapist. She was a passionate political activist, Labour party member and participant in her local community. She was also a poet and wrote articles, many letters to the press and a novel.
She was born Patricia Griffiths in Southampton; her family subsequently emigrated to Canada. She married Thomas Orszag-Land in 1961 and returned to the UK, settling in London. They divorced in 1975.
In the North Islington Labour party Pat is particularly remembered for her strength in supporting people, and in spotting need, yet she was never self-righteous, nor did she moralise. Jeremy Corbyn MP says: "Pat was an extraordinary woman who gave so much support to so many, and worked towards peace and justice in our troubled world. he made us all think positively about ourselves and our lives. She was a great inspiration to me."
Pat trained at the Tavistock Clinic in London and developed an undogmatic, broadly Kleinian approach to psychotherapy. She ran workshops at the Women's Therapy Centre in north London on sexuality and ageing. With Sue Krzowski she edited the anthology In Our Experience: Workshops at the Women's Therapy Centre (1988), to which she contributed a chapter on intimacy.
As well as practising privately, Pat worked as a psychoanalytic consultant to the staff group on the eating disorders unit at St Ann's hospital, Tottenham. In a published article, Thinking About Feelings, she wrote movingly and insightfully about the demands on the staff working with severely anorexic patients.
In 2004, Pat became a trustee of the Maya Centre, which provides free year-long psychodynamic therapy to economically and socially deprived women. Many of the trustees have said how valuable Pat's clinical experience and her thoughtfulness were; she characteristically would wait a long time in a discussion before making a carefully considered contribution. In her retirement, she worked as a volunteer at the Refugee Therapy Centre.
Pat was a woman of immense kindness, courage and optimism, who persisted in her political commitments right up to her death.
She is survived by Ben and David, her daughters-in-law, Amanda and Rebecca, and four grandsons, Isaac, Jude, Ethan and Joseph.