SOLD OUT notice and Wedded couple with bride holding flowers and sunshine ray falling on them
CPD Credits
20
Event Type
Live In-Person Event
Location
10 New Street, London EC2M 4TP
Time (UK)
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Standard
£899.00
Trainee/NHS
£765.00
SOLD OUT notice and Wedded couple with bride holding flowers and sunshine ray falling on them
Tuesday, July 16, 2024 - Friday, July 19, 2024

Advanced Psychoanalytic Couple Therapy Summer School

With Ella Bahaire, Alison Bruce, Andrew Balfour, Martha Doniach, Krisztina Glausius, Sammantha Knight, Damian McCann, Stanley Ruszczynski, Elle Sidel, Catriona Wrottesley, Liz Hamlin & Judith Jamieson

The Psychoanalytic Couple Therapy Summer School is for couple-trained therapists already working in the field, and provides a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in cutting-edge thinking with a world-leading couple psychoanalytic psychotherapy institute. In order to join this course, you will need to apply by filling out the application form below. 

This course will explore the challenges to the couple relationship at key points in the life cycle; the developmental obstacles to the capacity to form and sustain intimate relationships, the difficulties of parenthood, and the move from two to three or more, the capacity to survive challenging life events, including illness, and, later in the life cycle, the difficulties inherent in retirement and old age.

You will learn and grow as a couple therapist through theoretical seminars and twice-daily intensive clinical discussion groups, and will study alongside like-minded people from the UK and around the world. Included in the course fee is the cost of a theatre ticket to see Slave Play, which will be attended as a group on the Wednesday evening, and discussed in a seminar the following day.

Seminars and clinical discussion groups will be led by experienced members of Tavistock Relationships. 

To make an application, please fill in this form: Summer School Application Form

Programme

10.00 Introductions
10.30 - 11.45  Sammantha Knight & Elle Sidel
Diversity, Difference and Couples Therapy

In this seminar, Sammantha Knight and Elle Sidel will invite participants to explore aspects and dynamics of working with ‘race’ and racism in couples therapy. Drawing on the TR model of psychoanalytic psychotherapy with couples, they will revisit some key concepts and approaches of working with difference, of encountering ‘the other,’ in couple relationships. Using clinical illustrations, they will investigate how and why this model may help therapists - in theory and practice - to work with racialised difference in couples treatment. Also, will explore difference and diversity in couple therapy, focusing on projections, the desire to relate to differences, and the perceived hatred of differences.

11.45 Break
12.00   Clinical Discussion Groups
Sammantha Knight - Elle Sidel - Andrew Balfour
13.15 Lunch
14.15  Catriona Wrottesley
Superego Deadlock

‘Superego deadlock’ is a form of projective gridlock, a concept elucidated in Mary Morgan's paper, "The Projective Gridlock: A Form of Projective Identification in Couple Relationships" (1995).  This is a destructive phenomenon whereby individuals, despite exhibiting sophisticated cognitive capacities in their professional spheres, unleash a primitive and aggressive superego dynamic within their intimate partnerships. This dynamic manifests as a fierce struggle for dominance and the reinforcement of perceived differences, epitomised by the declaration, "I am nothing like you!" Drawing upon Otto Kernberg's couple superego typology (1993) and illustrated with vignettes, this talk explores various manifestations of the couple superego system.

15.30 Break
15.45 Clinical Discussion Groups
Stanley Ruszczynski - Ella Bahaire - Elle Sidel
17.00 End

10.00 Damian McCann
All Change all Change: Couples responding to the transition to parenthood

In this talk, Damian McCann will explore motivations for parenthood and the range of emotions and challenges facing couples as they prepare for this transition. He will plot the developmental challenges facing couples through pregnancy, birth and beyond. Challenging the idealisation of motherhood, he will emphasise the role of the couple relationship and, crucially, the importance of the co-parental relationship in caring for their vulnerable infant. Damian will also consider the changing nature of intimate family relationships in the context of wider society. Through this expanded lens, he will reflect on the importance of more diverse representations of family life, contrasting these with traditional notions of family constellations which focus on the heterosexual conjugal unit, rooted in marriage and co-residence.

11.15 Break
11.45 Clinical Discussion Groups
Damian McCann - Judith Jamieson - Liz Hamlin
13.00 Lunch
14.00 Andrew Balfour
Developmental Challenges for the Couple in Later Life

In this seminar, Andrew Balfour will explore some of the challenges of ageing and of working with clients who are facing death. As is often remarked, it is powerfully the case that in our end is our beginning – as the anxieties of our earliest lives may be powerfully rekindled by the vulnerability and prospect of dependence on others that the end of life can bring. This seminar will focus on the impact of illness, such as dementia, and other possible fates of late life, on our relationships.

15.15 Break
15.45 Clinical Discussion Groups
Liz Hamlin - Stanley Ruszczynski - Andrew Balfour
17.00 End
19.30 Group Theatre Trip to Slave Play

10.00 Elle Sidel & Sammantha Knight
Slave Play Discussion
11.15 Break
11.45 Clinical Discussion Groups
Martha Doniach - Ella Bahaire - Damian McCann
13.00 Lunch
14.00 Martha Doniach
The impact of infertility and assisted reproductive technology (ART) on the couple relationship

This talk explores the profound emotional toll of infertility on couples, alongside the use of assisted reproductive technology (ART). Infertility can be a devastating experience for couples, and the accessibility of ART can often be a barrier for many.  The talk also highlights the different experiences of ART between straight and same-sex couples. By examining these themes, the discussion seeks to illuminate the complex interaction between emotional distress, medical interventions, and societal disparities in fertility treatment, emphasising the imperative for therapeutic support.

15.15 Break
15.45 Clinical Discussion Groups
Liz Hamlin - Ella Bahaire - Andrew Balfour
17.00 End

10.00  Katherine Astill
Obstacles to the Developmental Capacity to Form and Sustain Intimate Relationships

Abstract in development

11.15 Break
11.30 Clinical Discussion Groups
Stanley Ruszczynski - Alison Bruce - Krisztina Glausius
12.45 Lunch
13.15 Krisztina Glausius
Empty Nesters: Rethinking the Couple

In this lecture we consider some of the emotional storms parental couples need to weather as they negotiate yet another challenging transformation. Their children, freshly emerging from the all consuming rollercoaster ride of adolescence, now finding their feet and use them to leave the parental home. Whilst their young people are striking out on their ow, parents might fear leaving their most vital years behind them. Their idea of who they are as a couple might need to be reconsidered and as some things need to be let go of, there are considerable losses to bear along the way. Envy can emerge as a powerfully destructive force between the generations but, if managed, gratitude can also become part of the picture for all that has been managed throughout the life cycle of the parental couple

14.30  Break
14.45 Clinical Discussions Groups
Andrew Balfour - Krisztina Glausius - Alison Bruce
16.00 Certificates and Goodbyes

Krisztina Glausius

Krisztina Glausius is a couple and individual psychoanalytic psychotherapist and a visiting supervisor and lecturer at Tavistock Relationships where she has formerly worked as Head of Clinical Services.
Krisztina has developed several innovative approaches ranging from brief time-limited couple therapy through to services providing therapeutic support to adopting parents or conflicted separating couples. She has co-authored papers resulting from these and other projects. She has published guides to support parents who separate as well as for professionals who are looking for ways to understand and work with couples.
She has worked as a senior research psychotherapist on TR’s randomized controlled trial examining the effectiveness of its Parents in Conflict Service and was part of the clinical team delivering the Parents in Dispute Project, a Mentalization based intervention aimed at helping high conflict separated parental couples to ensure better outcomes for their children. Both of these roles involve a creative application of analytically informed therapeutic work with couples, groups and individuals.

Elle Sidel

Elle Sidel is a couple psychoanalytic and individual psychodynamic psychotherapist. She is a Tavistock Relationships faculty staff member and programme lead for the Psychodynamic Training as well as seminar leader, supervisor and tutor. An experienced Visiting Clinician at TR’s Clinical Services, she maintains a private practice in London. She is the current head of the Tavistock Relationships Association of Psychotherapists and Counsellors (TRAPC).

Damian McCann

Damian McCann D.Sys.Psych. is a psychoanalytic couple psychotherapist working as visiting lecturer at Tavistock Relationships, London, adjunct faculty member of the International Psychotherapy Institute (IPI) Washington, DC, an associate of Queen Anne Street Practice, London, and an editorial board member of Couple & Family Psychoanalysis, He is also a consultant systemic psychotherapist with many years of experience working with children, adolescents, and their families. He has a particular interest in working with gender and sexual diversity in psychoanalytic practice and has published and taught widely on this topic. His doctoral research was concerned with understanding the meaning and impact of violence in the couple relationships of gay men and is involved in developing approaches to working with couples more generally in which there is violence and abuse. His edited book ‘Same-Sex Couples and Other Identities: Psychoanalytic Perspectives’ was published by Routledge in 2021.

Ella Bahaire

Ella Bahaire is a psychoanalytic couple therapist and psychodynamic psychotherapist. She works in private practice and for Tavistock Relationships as a co-therapist and as a seminar leader on the psychodynamic training programme.

Sammantha Knight

Sammantha Knight is a psychodynamic psychotherapist who offers couple and individual therapy in her private practice located in London. She is also a tutor for students enrolled in the IAPT Level 7 High-Intensity Pilot and the Psychodynamic Training Course at Tavistock Relationships. Sammantha provides training and supervision to counsellors on the Couple Therapy for Depression course, as well as offering training to Local Authorities on Reducing Parental Conflict. She is particularly interested in promoting the importance of well-being in relationships and life and is committed to supporting trainees and clinicians with their professional development.

Catriona Wrottesley

Catriona Wrottesley is a senior couple psychoanalytic psychotherapist (Tavistock Relationships), Jungian analyst of the Society of Analytical Psychology (SAP), and psychodynamic psychotherapist (WPF Therapy). She joined Tavistock Relationships (TR) faculty as a clinical lecturer in 2012. She was Head of the MA in Couple and Individual Psychodynamic Counselling and Psychotherapy and MSc in Psychosexual and Relationship Therapy from 2016-2019, and then Head of Psychoanalytic Training until July 2020. She is currently a training supervisor on TR’s couple psychoanalytic training, an accredited training analyst for the Association of Child Psychotherapists and training therapist for the Society of Analytical Psychology’s Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Training. She writes and reviews for a wide range of journals.  Her particular interests are the nature of psychic reality and subjectivity, developmental psychopathology, transgenerational transmission and couple relationships. Her practice is in Enfield, North London, and online.

Judith Jamieson

Judith is a psychodynamic couple psychotherapist and psychosexual and relationship therapist. She is Joint Head of Clinical Services at Tavistock Relationships, having previously been a Visiting Clinician working with couples and individuals and a tutor, supervisor and clinical lecturer. She did an initial training outside the UK and worked with individuals, couples and families for a number of years. As a result she has a particular interest in cross cultural relationships. She is a member of BACP and COSRT. Judith joined Tavistock Relationships in 2010 to undertake further training in couple therapy and completed a Masters degree in psychosexual therapy. She has also worked as a psychosexual therapist in the NHS. Judith runs Tavistock Relationships’ Mentalization-Based Therapy for couples (MBT-CT) service with her colleague Perrine Moran, where a time-limited intervention is offered to couples who struggle with dysregulation.

Andrew Balfour

Andrew Balfour PhD is Chief Executive of Tavistock Relationships. He originally trained as a clinical psychologist at University College London and then as an adult psychoanalytic psychotherapist at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Trust, whilst in a staff post there. He subsequently trained as a couple psychotherapist at Tavistock Relationships, where for more than 10 years he was Clinical Director before becoming Chief Executive in 2016. He has many years’ experience of working psychotherapeutically with couples and conducting research, publishing numerous papers in the field and teaching widely both in Britain and abroad. He has co-edited two books How Couple Relationships Shape our World (edited by Andrew Balfour, Mary Morgan & Christopher Vincent, Routledge, 2012); Engaging Couples - New Directions in Therapeutic Work with Families (edited by Andrew Balfour, Christopher Clulow, & Kate Thompson, Routledge, 2019) and his latest book is Life and Death: Our Relationship with Ageing, Dementia and Other Fates of Time (Routledge, 2025).

Alison Bruce

Alison Bruce, is a Child, Adolescent and Couple Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist. Alison trained in New York City at NYU (New York University) and subsequently at IPTAR (Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research). She worked for thirteen years at a Child Guidance Center in Brooklyn where she ran a parent infant group. On returning to London in 2015 she worked for five years in a West London CAMHS team and established a parent infant group in the local community, now in its seventh year.  She completed further psychoanalytic training in couples work at Tavistock Relationships where she was subsequently a visiting clinician. Alison has taught, supervised and been infant observation lead for Masters programs at New York and Birkbeck Universities as well as co-led work discussion groups on the parental couple for the Association of Child Psychotherapists. She is currently a seminar lead and tutor for The Tavistock and Portman Trust and is a Supervisor for the National Centre for the Supervision of Parent Infant relationships. She has an independent practice in West London.

Martha Doniach

Martha Doniach, MA, UKCP, BPC, is an adult and couple psychoanalytic psychotherapist. She previously served as Principal Psychotherapist at East London NHS Foundation Trust, where she led the psychodynamic team and developed a highly regarded honorary training scheme for psychotherapists. Martha teaches, supervises, and consults widely, including for Tavistock Relationships, the British Psychotherapy Foundation, and the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. Her clinical and research interests include women’s hormonal and reproductive health, solo motherhood by choice, infertility, and the integration of medical and psychological approaches in assisted conception and hormonal care. She has recently written a journal article on solo motherhood (in press) and contributed to the book "Couples as Parents," edited by Kate Thompson and Damian McCann. Martha maintains a full-time private practice in London and serves on the editorial board of "Couple and Family Psychoanalysis."

Stanley Ruszczynski

Stanley Ruszczynski is a psychoanalyst and couple psychoanalytic psychotherapist in private practice and Senior Fellow of Tavistock Relationships. He was a Consultant Adult Psychotherapist in the Portman Clinic from 1997 until his retirement in 2021, including holding the post of Clinical Director between 2005 and 2016. He was a staff member at Tavistock Relationships between 1982 and 1997, including holding the posts of Clinical Co-ordinator, Training Co-ordinator and, between 1987 and 1993, Deputy Director. He has authored many book chapters and articles, and has been a contributing editor and co-editor of five books, including Psychotherapy with Couples (Karnac, 1993), Intrusiveness and Intimacy in the Couple (Karnac, 1995, with James Fisher) and Lectures on Violence, Perversion and Delinquency (Karnac, 2007, with David Morgan).

Liz Hamlin

Liz Hamlin is Couple Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council. She is a member of Tavistock Relationship's Alumni body and Chair of the BPC’s Professional Standards Committee. She has worked with couples since 1990 and qualified as a couple psychoanalytic psychotherapist in 2008. Liz was a Visiting Clinician at Tavistock Relationships for many years working with couples, supervising practitioners and delivering training. She has experience of managing an IAPT (NHS Talking Therapies) Service delivering therapy across 15 GP surgeries in the NHS. Liz has a special interest in working with couples and individuals facing divorce and separation and is involved in the Divorce and Separation Consultation Service at TR. She extended her initial training as a Couple Counsellor with East Kent Relate through helping to set up a service called Relateen for adolescents whose parents were going through divorce or separation. Liz has been an IAPT Couple Therapy for Depression Trainer and Supervisor having been involved in TR’s development of the training since its inception in 2010.