Wedded couple with bride holding flowers and sunshine ray falling on them
CPD Credits
24
Event Type
Live In-Person Event
Location
10 New Street, London EC2M 4TP
Time (UK)
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Standard
£980.00
Trainee/NHS
£833.00
Wedded couple with bride holding flowers and sunshine ray falling on them
Tuesday, July 21, 2026 - Friday, July 24, 2026

Tavistock Relationships Couple Therapy Summer School 2026

Couple and Family Life in Transition

With Andrew Balfour, Liz Hamlin, Stanley Ruszczynski , Perrine Moran, Martha Doniach, Susanna Abse, Amita Sehgal & Leezah Hertzmann

Join us for our annual Summer School, Couple and Family Life in Transition, exploring how intimate relationships and family structures are continually reshaped by social, cultural, and personal change. Alongside the diversification of family forms that challenge heteronormativity as an unexamined gold standard, we will broaden our focus to include the many transitions that affect relational life across the lifespan. These include living with long-term illness or disability, ageing, shifts in gender and identity, and the impact of care responsibilities within families.

Same-sex couples, solo parents, blended and step-parent families, assisted conception, and polyamorous constellations are not peripheral variations but integral to the contemporary relational landscape. At the same time, enduring unconscious ideals around exclusivity, complementarity, legitimacy, health, autonomy, and generational order continue to shape family life, institutional norms, and clinical thinking. How do these assumptions influence our formulations, stir our anxieties, and inform our therapeutic interventions, particularly when families are navigating profound change or vulnerability?

This Summer School offers couple therapists, from recently qualified to highly experienced, a reflective and challenging space to consider how psychoanalytic practice can engage sensitively and creatively with evolving relational realities without reverting to inherited hierarchies of value.

Designed for psychodynamic and psychoanalytic couple therapists already working in the field, the programme provides a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in contemporary thinking within a world-leading couple psychoanalytic psychotherapy institute. Through theoretical seminars and twice-daily intensive clinical discussion groups, you will deepen your understanding and develop your practice alongside colleagues from the UK and internationally.

The course fee includes a theatre visit to Cyrano de Bergerac, attended as a group, followed by a reflective discussion. Applications are now open; please complete the application form to register your interest here.

 

Programme

10.00 Arrival and Introductions
10.30 Perrine Moran
Couple and Family Life in Contemporary Film

In this seminar, I shall consider how couple and family life are represented in contemporary Film, and discuss how new areas of conflict and resolution emerge and evolve. Cultural differences in regard to the acceptance or tolerance of change will be considered. Thinking of various categories, such as gender, sexuality, culture and race, the focus will be on the experience of living “on the hyphen”, or being “in between”.  Film clips and discussion will illustrate how films provide useful material on which to base clinical reflection. Participants will be invited to speak of films that have been particularly relevant to their practice.

11.45 Break
12.00 Clinical Discussion Groups with Liz Hamlin and Stanley Ruszczynski 
13.15 Lunch
14.15 Martha Doniach 
Solo Motherhood: Desire, Loss, and the Reconfiguration of the Couple in Contemporary Psychoanalysis

This talk examines solo motherhood by choice through a contemporary psychoanalytic lens, situating it within changing cultural and reproductive contexts. Drawing on clinical material and theory, it explores how maternal desire, loss, and meaning are negotiated outside the traditional couple. It considers how concepts such as triangulation and “thirdness” are reconfigured through internal processes and wider networks. A clinical vignette traces one woman’s path from ambivalence to decision, highlighting longing and grief. The lecture also addresses assisted reproduction, clinician countertransference, and the child’s subjectivity, proposing solo motherhood as a site of psychic reorganisation rather than deficit.

15.30 Break
15.45 Clinical Discussion Groups with Liz Hamlin and Stanley Ruszczynski 
17.00 End

10.00 Susanna Abse 
Men in Love - Transformation or Repetition? 

The paper will look at the particular fragilities men struggle with in their couple relationship and how this can manifest in the consulting room. The talk will outline some of the key themes and preoccupations that men negotiate in becoming partners and fathers, examining both the threats and opportunities intimacy in adult life offers. The paper will also examine the way that women can collude with masculine defences, particularly those designed to avoid vulnerability and dependence.

11.15 Break
11.45 Clinical Discussion Groups with Liz Hamlin and Stanley Ruszczynski 
13.00 Lunch
14.00 Andrew Balfour 
15.15 Break
15.45 Clinical Discussion Groups with Liz Hamlin and Stanley Ruszczynski 
17.00 End
19.30 Theatre Visit to Cyrano de Bergerac

Cyrano de Bergerac tells the story of Cyrano, a brilliant poet, soldier, and philosopher whose wit and passion are matched only by his insecurity about his unusually large nose. Deeply in love with the beautiful Roxane but too proud to confess his feelings, Cyrano lends his eloquence to the handsome yet inarticulate Christian, helping him woo Roxane with words that are, in truth, his own. The result is a poignant and often humorous tale that celebrates not only love and longing but also the enduring power and beauty of language.

10.00 Theatre Discussion with Martha Doniach 
11.15 Break
11.45 Clinical Discussion Groups with Liz Hamlin and Stanley Ruszczynski
13.00 Lunch
14.00 TBC
15.15 Break
15.45 Clinical Discussion Groups with Liz Hamlin and Stanley Ruszczynski 
17.00 End

10.00 Amita Sehgal
The Couple and Assisted Reproduction
11.15 Break
11.30 Clinical Discussion Groups with Liz Hamlin and Stanley Ruszczynski 
12.45 Lunch
13.15 Leezah Hertzmann
Homophobia for everyone: The relevance of homophobia and shame for all sexualities

In this lecture, Leezah Hertzmann will describe some of her work in the area of contemporary psychoanalytic thinking about sexuality from a post-heteronormative standpoint. Psychoanalysis was previously prescribed to convert ‘the homosexual’ to ‘healthy heterosexuality.’ Leezah will discuss how psychoanalysis, having been part of the ‘disease’ of homophobia, can also contribute to its ‘cure’ by promoting a broader understanding of the conscious and unconscious nature of desire and identity. Through fictional clinical vignettes, Leezah will outline the centrality of theorising desire, internalised homophobia, and Oedipus in supporting clinicians in their work. She will illustrate the importance for clinicians to address where shame and homophobia lie within their own internal worlds.

14.30 Break
14.45 Clinical Discussion Groups with Liz Hamlin and Stanley Ruszczynski 
16.00 Cerificates and Goodbyes

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."

Liz Hamlin

Liz Hamlin is a Couple Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council and is a member of the BPC’s Professional Standards Committee. She is Joint Head of Clinical Services at Tavistock Relationships having been a Visiting Clinician in the organisation for many years working with couples, supervising practitioners and delivering training. Liz has a special interest in working with couples and individuals facing divorce and separation and co-leads the Divorce and Separation Consultation Service at TR. She extended her initial training as a Couple Counsellor with East Kent Relate in the 1990’s through her involvement in setting 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.

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).

Amita Sehgal

Amita Sehgal, PhD, is a couple psychoanalytic psychotherapist with almost 30 years of experience in the field of adult mental health. In her central London-based practice she works with adults, couples, and families. She also lectures and supervises nationally and internationally. Amita is widely published in the field of couple psychoanalysis. Her publications include articles, papers in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and an edited book, Sadism: Psychoanalytic Developmental Perspectives (published by Karnac-Routledge, 2018). Her latest book, Intimate Currencies: Understanding the Meaning of Money in Couple Relationships is currently in press (Karnac Books).

Perrine Moran

Perrine Moran is a psychodynamic psychotherapist and a couple psychoanalytic psychotherapist. She has taught internationally as well as at Tavistock and Portman NHS and the British Psychotherapy Foundation, and is a senior visiting lecturer and supervisor at Tavistock Relationships. She is the Arts Editor for Couple and Family Psychoanalysis, and a member of the editorial board of the journal of the International Association for Couple and Family Psychoanalysis. She is bilingual, works with individuals and couples in English and in French, and has a private practice in London. She has a particular interest in the links between popular culture and psychoanalysis. She co-edited a special issue of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis on “Couples and Families in Film” (Spring 2025) and is the author of a book: Love Songs. Listening to Couples (2025), Karnac.

Before training as a psychotherapist, Perrine Moran was a lecturer in French Literature, and an actress in Paris, where she ran a fringe theatre in the basement of a Cuban restaurant.

Susanna Abse

Susanna Abse is co-director of the Queen Anne St Practice in central London where she works with couples, individuals and parents. She has written widely on couples and relationships and is the author of Tell Me the Truth about Love (Ebury 2023). She was previously CEO of TR from 2006-16 and Chair of The British Psychoanalytic Council from 2018-2021. She is a Senior Fellow of the Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology and a previous Co-Editor of the Library 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).

Leezah Hertzmann

Leezah Hertzmann is principal couple and individual psychoanalytic psychotherapist at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and in private practice. She is Director of the BPF’s Couple Psychodynamic Psychotherapy training. Alongside her interest in training the next generation of psychotherapists, she has a career long interest in psychoanalytic theory and technique with LGBTQ+ individuals and Couples. She is a founding member of the British Psychoanalytic Council’s Committee on Sexual and Gender Diversity. Leezah has been the recipient of two British Psychoanalytic Council awards: in 2015 for Innovation in relation to developing the MBT evidence-based intervention couple conflict, and in 2019, for her contribution to the Psychoanalysis and Diversity. Leezah teaches and supervises both in the UK and abroad, and has published widely, including two books on psychoanalysis and sexuality.