Working Analytically With Couples: The Tavistock Model
As analytic couple therapists, we can easily get lost amidst projections and anxieties. Yet we aim to hold Enid Balint’s observation in mind when sitting with couples:
“...people never give up trying to put things right for themselves and for the people they love. Even when they may appear to be doing the reverse, we often discover that what appears to be the most desperate and useless behavior can be understood as an attempt to get back something that was good in the past, or to put right something that was unsatisfactory…” (Balint, 1993, p. 41)
Extending Freud's important discovery of the "repetition compulsion," Balint teaches that a couple’s ‘repeating’ has a function. Understanding the developmental strivings of the couple can ground the analytic therapist and help to support therapeutic engagement, containment, and transformation.
This 4-week course introduces Tavistock Relationships’ analytic approach to couples through foundational readings on developmental underpinnings, the “couple state of mind,” shared unconscious anxieties and defences, and tensions between narcissism and marriage.
NCSPP is aware that historically psychoanalysis has either excluded or pathologized groups outside the dominant population in terms of age, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, disability, and size. As an organization, we are committed to bringing awareness to matters of anti-oppression, inequity, inequality, diversity, and inclusion as they pertain to our educational offerings, our theoretical orientation, our community, and the broader world we all inhabit.
Presenter's Response:
One of the inherent challenges of being in a couple is navigating the inevitable differences of another person, and learning how to tolerate differences while also staying true to oneself. A healthy dyad must incorporate and respect human diversity - the diversity of two different people's perspectives, identities, and backgrounds. This course will help to train therapists in thinking about and working with human diversity -- both in the more obvious manifestations of cultural identity (gender, race, class, etc.), and also in the ways in which culture can influence personality organization and relationship dynamics. We will consider case examples of couples from diverse backgrounds, and learn to apply the Tavistock model with sensitivity to cultural dynamics.
At the end of this course participants will be able to:
- describe one concept, namely, unconscious choice of partner/marital fit, and in what way it is central to understanding the shape of the couple’s unconscious life.
- describe two key analytic concepts developed at Tavistock Relations, applied to the work of couples.
- describe the two reasons why we strive toward a “couple state of mind” in work with couples.
- discuss two developmental achievements or lack thereof that contribute to the couple’s ability to function as a creative couple.
- identify the two differences between the concepts of holding and containing, and name one example of each in a couple relationship.
- name two aspects of the definition of the ‘marital container’.
- describe two instances of defensive modes of projective identification from Coleman's paper.
- describe two modes of intervention that take into account Coleman’s alternative model of projective identification in couples.
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Abram, J. (2022). The surviving object: Psychoanalytic clinical essays on psychic survival-of-the-object. Routledge
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Kirson-Trilling, O. (2022) The Binds That Bond: Disavowed Vulnerability in Couples with Early Relational Trauma. Couple and Family Psychoanalysis 12:119-129
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Morgan, M. (2019). “A couple state of mind”, in A Couple State of Mind. p. xxi-xxiv. Routledge.
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Morgan, M. (2019). “Unconscious phantasy, shared unconscious phantasy and shared defence, unconscious beliefs and fantasy”, in A Couple State of Mind. 54-72. Routledge.
- Nathans, S. (2017). “Introduction: core concepts of the Tavistock couple psychotherapy model,” in Couples on the Couch: Psychoanalytic Couple Therapy and the Tavistock Method, by S. Nathans and M. Schaefer, (Eds.), p. 1-29. Routledge.
Ortal Kirson-Trilling, Psy.D., is a personal and supervising analyst trained at the PINC. Dr. Kirson-Trilling is on the editorial board of the Journal of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis and is the Director of the Intensive Study Program for the Psychoanalytic Couple Psychotherapy Group (PCPG). She is a faculty member of PCPG and the SFCP. She teaches analytic couple theory, practice, and technique locally, nationally, and internationally and maintains a private practice in Oakland, California.
This intermediate-level course is for clinicians who are interested in learning the foundational underpinnings of working analytically with couples. Some knowledge of psychoanalytic concepts, such as projective identification, would be helpful.
LCSW/MFTs: Course meets the requirements for 6 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs and/or LEPS, as required by the CA Board of Behavioral Sciences. NCSPP is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (Provider Number 57020), to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCS, and/or LEPs. NCSPP maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content.
Psychologists: Division 39 is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Division 39 maintains responsibility for these programs and their content.
Certificates of Attendance for CE credits will be sent to those participants who attend the entire workshop and return a completed course evaluation.
Enrollees who cancel at least SEVEN DAYS prior to the event date will receive a refund minus a $35 administrative charge. No refunds will be allowed after this time. Transfer of registrations are not allowed.
For program related questions, contact Natasha Oxenburgh, Psy.D., at NOxenburgh@ncspp.org.
For questions related to enrollment, locations, CE credit, special needs, course availability, to obtain the grievance policy or report a grievance, or any other administrative issues contact Niki Clay by email or 415-496-9949.
Education Committee
The Education Committee is responsible for the development of a variety of courses and workshops given throughout the year in San Francisco and the East Bay.