How Couple Relationships Shape our World

Andrew Balfour is director of clinical services at the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships. He originally studied English Literature before going on to train as a clinical psychologist at University College London and then as an adult psychotherapist at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, and as a couple psychotherapist at the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships (TCCR). He worked for many years in the adult department of the Tavistock Clinic where he specialised in old age and he has also been a staff member at TCCR since 2001. He has published a number of papers and has taught and lectured widely both in Britain and abroad. Mary Morgan is a couple psychoanalytic psychotherapist, psychoanalyst and member of the British Psychoanalytical Society. She has worked at the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships for over twenty years, where she currently holds the readership in couple psychoanalytic psychotherapy. She is head of the couple psychoanalytic psychotherapy training, MA and PD. She has a particular interest in the psychoanalytic understanding of couple relationships and the technique of couple psychoanalytic psychotherapy, about which she has published many papers. Christopher Vincent is a couple psychoanalytic psychotherapist in private practice. He was formerly a senior staff member and is now a visiting lecturer at the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships where he developed a research and clinical interest in couples who are divorcing. His current clinical practice is combined with a research project looking at the impact of a diagnosis of early onset dementia on couple relationships.

'This is a most welcome, twenty-first century updating of psychodynamic approaches to working with couples. The best minds in the field have contributed to this comprehensive consideration of key aspects of this most important domain of clinical activity. This book represents a genuine leap forward.'- Professor Peter Fonagy, PhD, FBA, Head of Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology and Chief Executive of the Anna Freud Centre'How Couple Relationships Shape Our World is a comprehensive, intelligent exposition of forces that impinge on today's marriages, the problems that ensue when they break down, and ways we can support couples and parents now and in the future. For too long, policies privileging children's health have overshadowed the importance of the psychological health of couples and parents, handicapping support for the family as a whole. To redress that split, this book argues convincingly that the well-being of the parental couple - intact or divorced - is crucial to children. Speaking from multiple perspectives, it offers the rationale, clinical theory, and technique for work with couples, and follows with research strategies and implications for social and governmental policy that will strengthen our efforts. In this way, the book delivers a uniquely informative cornucopia for clinicians, researchers, legal experts, and policy planners. I recommend this book enthusiastically to all those who care about the future of marriage, children, and families.'- David E. Scharff, MD, Chair of the Board and Former Director, International Psychotherapy Institute, Washington, DC'An excellent, authoritative, and long overdue book with an impressive range of highly respected contributors looking at the critical importance of the couple relationship to our society and overall well-being for both adults and children. It takes a wide-ranging look at the clinical practice and research across the field of couple therapy and its impact on the wider family. The book contains some much needed ideas of ways in which couple therapy can play a more beneficial role in reducing conflict when couples are splitting up, which are highly relevant to the current debate over the operation of the family courts. Each chapter of this book make critical links with key family and social policy dilemmas, with a refreshing emphasis on the importance of couple relationships to so many dimensions of our lives. In short, this book not only puts the couple relationship at the heart of our world, but also at the very heart of social policy thinking.'

- Claire Tyler, Baroness Tyler of Enfield, Chief Executive Officer,
 Relate'This fascinating book fills a large gap in understanding the key factors that support the healthy development of children. From an early intervention perspective the parental couple relationship is the missing link in making positive changes to children's outcomes but an authoritative analysis of the importance of this special connection has been lacking. This book fills that gap and is essential reading for those who work to support children and families.'- Graham Allen, MP, author of Early Intervention: The Next Steps and Early Intervention: Smart Investment, Massive Savings'This book covers enormous ground, from the intimacies of the couple relationship as brought to life in couple therapy, to the implications of the understanding of these processes for other arenas, such as the family court system and social policy. It will be indispensable reading not only for those working in the field and allied professions, but also for anyone wanting to understand current thinking in this area. An outstanding achievement.'- Dr David Bell, President, British Psychoanalytic Society

• INTRODUCTION How couple relationships shape our world: clinical practice, research and policy perspectives CHAPTER ONE Prevention: intervening with couples at challenging family transition points by Carolyn Pape Cowan and Philip A. Cowan COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER ONE by Leezah Hertzmann CHAPTER TWO Parents as partners: how the parental relationship affects children's psychological development by Gordon T. Harold and Leslie D. Leve COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER TWO by Susanna Abse CHAPTER THREE How couple therapists work with parenting issues by Mary Morgan COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER THREE by Lynne Cudmore CHAPTER FOUR The role of the family court system of England and Wales in child-related parental disputes: towards a new concept of the family justice process by Mervyn Murch COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER FOUR by Christopher Clulow CHAPTER FIVE Working therapeutically with high conflict divorce by Avi Shmueli COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER FIVE by Christopher Vincent CHAPTER SIX Depression, couple therapy, research, and government policy by Julian Leff, Eia Asen, and Felix Schwarzenbach COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER SIX by Christopher Clulow CHAPTER SEVEN Approaches to researching the evidence: an exploration of TCCR's research into couple relationships and couple therapy, past and present by David Hewison COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER SEVEN by Michael Rustin CHAPTER EIGHT Couple therapy - social engineering or psychological treatment? by Andrew Balfour COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER EIGHT by Philip Stokoe CHAPTER NINE Her Majesty's department of love? The state and support for couple and family relationships by Honor Rhodes COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER NINE by Janet Walker CHAPTER TEN Supervision: the interdependence of professional experience and organisational accountability by Lynette Hughes and Felicia Olney COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER TEN by David Lawlor