Naomi Stadlen
Naomi Stadlen was a British therapist and writer. She was known for writing What Mothers Do: Especially When it Looks Like Nothing.
Early life and education
Stadlen was born in 1942 in London. When she was two, her father, Hans, died. Her parents were both Jewish graphologists, and they had escaped from Germany before the war. Her mother, Marianne, had just given birth to her younger brother when she became a single parent.Her mother became a Jungian analyst and she studied at North London Collegiate school, the University of Sussex and she then trained at Goldsmiths as a psychoanalytic counsellor. However she took work editing books, as a social worker and supervising post-graduate students to obtain masters and PhD qualifications which were awarded by Middlesex University.
Career
In 1997 she began leading a module at the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling the existential therapy based school founded by Emmy van Deurzen. Stadlen was a visiting lecturer for the module she designed called "Families and Family Systems". During one session the idea of What Mothers Do: Especially When it Looks Like Nothing was mentioned. It inspired her to write.What Mothers Do: Especially When it Looks Like Nothing was published in 2004 and was described as "the best parenting book you've never heard of". Hilary Mantel was one of her fans. The book drew upon her own experience and she took pride in never giving specific advice. She wrote about the transition of a woman into a mother and the invaluable contribution which could appear to observers as "nothing".