Francoise Hivernel

Early life

Hivernel was born to Raymonde Beque and André Hivernel in Versailles during the 2nd world war. Her brother Jacques Hivernel was born in 1945.

Education

She attended the lycée in Versailles and achieved the Baccalaureat 1st and 2nd part. In 1974 she was awarded an MA and then a PhD in 1979 from the UCL Institute of Archaeology, London. She also trained in Contemporary Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy through the West Midlands Institute for Psychotherapy in Birmingham.

Travels

She has travelled widely in Europe, Africa, America and Asia. She conducted archaeological fieldwork in Ethiopia, Lebanon, Jordan and Kenya. She has often visited her elder son Christophe in some of the countries where he worked including Botswana, Ghana and Senegal.

Careers

Hivernel worked first as an archaeologist in France were she belonged to the National Scientific Research Centre, Laboratory of Quaternary Geology. She dug in Ethiopiaand Lebanon. Then she went to the UK, whence she dug in Jordan and Kenya. She excavated in Ngenyn, a site initially discovered by Louis Leakey, as part of research towards her PhD. She has also contributed to learned papers on other African archaeological sites and published on the archaeology of Britain. Subsequently she worked for Cambridgeshire County Council and next the Cambridge City Council. She then had a career in Psychoanalytic-Psychotherapy.

Writing

Hivernel has written extensively on archaeology and psychotherapy and has been published in an array of academic journals and books. She has followed the work of Francoise Dolto and (with F. Sinclair) translated Dolto's seminal book from French into English. This work has brought Dolto to the attention of English speaking clinicians.

Hivernel has also published the travel narrative Safartu. She is a member of Cambridge Writers.