What do parental relationships have to do with choldren's mental health

A blog by Susanna Abse, Chief Executive, Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships.

After 10 years leading TCCR, Susanna Abse is to stand down as CEO this Autumn.

Nick Pearce, Chair of the Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology, TCCR's parent body, said: "Susanna is an outstanding chief executive of TCCR and we will miss her greatly. She manages to combine deep professional expertise with political acumen, managerial flair and wide-ranging policy knowledge. TCCR has grown and flourished under her leadership and the respect in which the organisation is held is in no small part due to her. The trustees wish to acknowledge their huge gratitude to Susanna for her wonderful service to TCCR.

Entrenched parents participated in, and benefitted from, specialist therapy for the sake of themselves and their children. 

The Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships welcomes the announcement by the Government today to double the amount of funding available for relationship support over this Parliament. This increase, which TCCR has long called for, is more recognition that relationships matter. It highlights both the positive impact which training frontline practitioners to identify and support those experiencing relationship distress can have on the lives and life chances of adults, as well as their children; and how effective couple counselling can be for couples who are experiencing difficulties in their relationship.

Unique discussion forum for couple therapists and online seminars on couple psychodynamics available for limited number of participants

Couple and individual therapists have been offered the opportunity to participate in two ground breaking new interactive online services being launched in January.

For the first time ever, TCCR will be enabling practitioners to participate in a full online training. The course, entitled; The Psychodynamics of Couple Relationships: Readings in Love and Hate provides a term of live online seminars and video presentations which will explore the psychodynamics of couple relationships.

Return rate of TCCR client questionnaires nearly 10% higher than UK average 

Chief Executive Susanna Abse spoke at a CSJ fringe event at conference held by the Relationship Alliance, and attended by Rt Hon Priti Patel.

Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationship's Viveka Nyberg, Damian McCann & Krisztina Glausius have been published in the Journal of Couple Relationship Therapy, offering fascinating insight into the 'Well Being' Service. 

In the article the authors outline the development and evaluation of a well-being service for couples which offered a brief therapeutic intervention of four sessions and was primarily aimed at younger couples in the early stages of parenthood presenting with a focused concern. You can read more here under latest articles on the Journal's site.

Hear Susanna Abse of the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships talk on Radio 4 about why people risk it all to have an affair.

“For many years…recognition of the impact of poor quality relationships and family breakdown has been under-acknowledged by practitioners and policy makers alike.”

Susanna Abse, CEO Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships (TCCR)

TCCR’s What Works in Relationship Support: Evidence Review, published in July 2015, sets out what we know about the most efficacious practice in supporting couples. 

The evidence reported in this review is the product of a great many years’ worth of research and practice at TCCR and elsewhere in the world. It is presented here to help policymakers design better policies to support couple relationships. The review focuses on these areas:

• The policy landscape
• The size and scope of the evidence
• What constitutes a positive outcome?
• What works for whom
• Relationships as the mechanism of change
• The evidence gaps

You can download a pdf version here.

If you are interested in more information about the evidence review or TCCR’s clinical services contact:

Richard Meier, Policy and Communications Manager, rmeier@tccr.org.uk

For press enquiries contact:

John Fenna, Head of Marketing & Communications, jfenna@tccr.org.uk

Leading Child practitioner titles publish in depth features on TCCR’s pioneering programme

Our pioneering parenting programme is presented with a prestigous BPC award for innovation and excellence,

Read our joint submission on mental health submitted to Parliament.

We are delighted to announce a special guest Lecture, ‘Mapping the landscape: levels of transference interpretations’ at the TCCR International Summer School this year.

A SUMMARY of TCCR’s Sexual Orientations workshop presentation given by Juliet Newbigin and Leezah Hertzmann at the British Psychoanalytic Council Strategy Conference has been published in New Associations (The BPC’s publication) rethinking sexuality special issue.

The piece, a description of the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships’ journey in the exploration of theory and practice relating to the therapeutic needs of the LGBT community.

Aimed at developing further psychoanalytic thinking and practice in relation to sexualities more widely, the article showcases external work with PACE and features a practical element – a thought experiment used in the workshop.

You can read the full article here.

TCCR has secured a share of a £1.7 million fund to help couples who have adopted children.

TCCR was successfully selected to receive over £190,000 from the adoption tranche of the National Prospectus Grant, awarded by the Department for Education (DfE). The grant will enable TCCR to work with couples over the next 12 months, providing essential support and offering a variety of tailored therapeutic services specially designed for adoptive couples which have hitherto been unavailable.

Innovative group parenting programme reduces parents' psychological distress, improves relationship quality and parenting skills, helping participants and their children.

The Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships and Family Action have reported outstanding outcomes for the jointly-run group based parenting intervention, Parents as Partners, at the programme’s recent national conference.

As a resut of lobbying from TCCR and other professional bodies, counsellors or psychotherapists are now eligible to apply to join the NICE guideline development group

Watch Dr Christopher Clulow and Professors Carolyn and Philip Cowan discuss the impact of the transition to parenthood on couples’ relationships.

The Chief Executive and other senior members of staff from TCCR were delighted to meet today with Her Excellency the President of Malta.