Divorce and Separation: Clinical Perspectives

Organised by:

Tavistock Relationships

Description

The Divorce and Separation Consultation Service at Tavistock Relationships offers therapeutic help for couples and individuals going through separation, divorce or civil partnership dissolution, often at times of immense crisis and psychological distress.

In this four-hour online workshop, the approach that has been developed over many years at Tavistock Relationships will be explored. The workshop will be rich in clinical material, including presentations from Dr Damian McCann and Katherine Astill, experienced couple psychoanalytic psychotherapists who work within this service at TR. Attendees are also invited to bring their own experiences of work in this area for discussion in the group.

There will be presentations from Dr Avi Shmueli, psychoanalyst and couple psychoanalytic psychotherapist and head of the Divorce and Separation Consultation Service, and from Professor Brett Kahr, couple and individual psychotherapist and senior fellow at the Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology.

Dr Avi Shmueli will present his thinking on the nature of this particular therapeutic intervention, and its inherent stresses, for therapists working in the field as much as for the patients who seek consultation. Therapists are often required to adopt different and sometimes conflicting clinical perspectives simultaneously. His presentation aims to identify the nature of the stresses upon the therapist and how these may be borne and even utilised in the course of working with divorcing couples.

Professor Brett Kahr will explore the pathogenic effect of what he has termed ‘micro-separations’ upon couple mental health. Although many couples suffer tremendous devastation in the wake of explosive events, such as extramarital affairs or bereavements, many others struggle with the almost invisible cumulative trauma which develop in the wake of multiple brief separations such as neglect and misattunement.

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