“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.

A joint manifesto, published the by Family Room coalition of charities, will be launched on Tuesday 10 February 2015 at a parliamentary reception co-hosted by Andrew Stephenson MP, Annette Brooke MP, and Alex Cunningham MP.

TCCR is one of the 18 leading not for profit organisations which make up the Family Room coalition, which supports millions of families each year and develops family policy across the UK.

As part of the Relationships Alliance's mission to champion the importance of relationships so that they are valued in all aspects of public policy, we were pleased to host a seminar on 'Love and Work' with speakers Jon Cruddas MP and Yvonne Roberts, journalist at The Observer.

– A New Policy Briefing from the Relationships Alliance

Following a meeting of the APPG for Strengthening Couple Relationships on this subject in November, the Relationships Alliance has prepared a policy briefing which explores the nature and effectiveness of relationship education for adults. Download the briefing here

The WHY? What's Happening for the Young? Festival, supported by law firm Mishcon de Rey, takes place from 23-26 October and is a series of events promoting children's and young people's rights in the UK. We're excited to announce that TCCR's Kate Thompson and Pierre Cachia are guest speakers at the festival's Resolving Parental Conflict seminar on Saturday 25 October.

Find out more and purchase tickets

On 20 October the Alliance launched its 12 policy recommendations in The Relationships Manifesto: Strengthening Relationships to an audience of MPs, including Rt. Hon. Iain Duncan Smith MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, civil servants and other charities at a reception in the House of Commons.

Download the Manifesto here

Watch our latest video seminar: Parental Conflict and the Effects on Children’s Development

Our latest video seminar is now available online.  Click here to watch Professor Gordon Harold and Leezah Hertzmann examine the impact that parental conflict has on children and young people.

TCCR has teamed up with the law firm to help address the need to offer alternative ways to resolve disputes for families, so that litigation can be the last, not the first resort for the resolution of parental disagreements.

Our CEO Susanna Abse was delighted to welcome David Cameron to the Relationship Alliance Summit on 18 August 2014.

The Prime Minister revealed how a range of measures will focus on ‘helping new parents, supporting couples to stay together and addressing the underlying causes of family breakdown'.

We are pleased to announce that Nick Pearce is now our new Chair of Trustees.  Nick, currently Director of the Institute for Public Policy, takes over from Dr Anton Obholzer, who has stepped down from the post after almost nine years of hard work for TCCR.

To read more on this story, click here