Sue Gerhardt Audiobooks

Why Love Matters: how affection shapes a baby's brain, from a leading psychotherapist

1 audiobook reviewed

Who is Sue Gerhardt?

Sue Gerhardt came to psychotherapy the long way round. Born in Durban in 1953 and brought up in England, she read English literature at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she campaigned successfully to open the men’s colleges to women, then trained as a psychotherapist and took an MA in child observation at the Tavistock Clinic in London. She has practised privately since 1997 and lives in Oxfordshire.

In 1998 she co-founded the Oxford Parent Infant Project, a pioneering charity offering psychotherapeutic help to parents and babies, and a great deal of her thinking comes from that consulting room rather than from a laboratory. Her argument is straightforward and, when she first made it, distinctly unfashionable: the emotional quality of a baby’s earliest relationships is not merely nice to have, it physically shapes the developing brain and the stress systems that will run the rest of a life.

She writes for intelligent non-specialists, which is why clinicians, teachers and new parents all end up quoting her.

Sue Gerhardt in audiobooks

Few books about babies have aged as well as Why Love Matters, the title that made Gerhardt’s name and still sits on reading lists for health visitors, therapists and parents who want the science rather than the slogans. It sets out what cortisol, cuddles and consistent attention actually do to an infant’s developing brain, and it manages the whole argument without ever shaming the reader.

Phyllida Nash narrates, and she is a sensible choice: clear, warm and unhurried, the tone of a good tutor rather than a lecturer. Across roughly ten hours the case builds carefully, which suits patient listening far better than skimming.

It is a recent arrival on our shelves and has yet to gather listener ratings, so you can form your own view. Best taken in short stretches, a chapter at a time. It is waiting below.