Couples as Parents

Couples as Parents: Explorations in Couple Therapy explores the complex task of parenting from the perspective of the couple relationship. A book for clinicians and parents alike, it describes problems that can occur during the transition to parenthood and the initial decision to have a child to raising young children and adolescents. The book offers a comprehensive exploration of the nature and patterns of intimate partner relationships and how they can be affected by such things as the loss of a baby, raising a child with autism or adoption. Chapters delve into issues unique to same-sex parents and those facing an empty nest. With moving clinical examples, it illustrates how a couple's sex life can be altered on becoming parents and describes how parents can best help their children as they separate. Couples as Parents explains how couple therapy has a unique stance with which to help parents and describes clinical vignettes that demonstrate how parents have been helped in the past. The book considers the historical context of couple relationships, utilises research and psychoanalytic ways of thinking to further understanding for psychotherapists and interested parents, as well as offering a variety of therapeutic approaches to the specific needs of parents, whether as a couple, separated or single.

Kate Thompson is a couple psychoanalytic psychotherapist and senior staff member at Tavistock Relationships (TR) with over 20 years' experience of therapy with couples and individuals. Currently heading up Couple Therapy for Depression Training of NHS practitioners, Kate is also clinical lead for TR's parenting services. Registered with BPC and BACP, Kate writes for a variety of publications; she co-edited Engaging Couples: New Directions in Therapeutic Work with Families (Routledge, 2018) and a special edition of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis on Divorce and Separation (2021). She is Co-editor in chief of Journal of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis. Damian McCann, DSysPsych, is a psychoanalytic couple psychotherapist working at Tavistock Relationships, London; adjunct faculty member of the International Psychotherapy Institute (IPI) Washington, DC; an associate of Queen Anne Street Practice, London; and an editorial board member of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis. He is also a consultant systemic psychotherapist with many years of experience working with children, adolescents and their families. He has a particular interest in working with gender and sexual diversity in psychoanalytic practice and has published and taught widely on this topic. His edited book Same-Sex Couples and Other Identities: Psychoanalytic Perspectives was published by Routledge in 2021.

Part 1 Preparation for Parenthood 1. All Change, All Change! Couples Responding to the Transition to Parenthood 2. Being a Couple and Developing the Capacity for Creative Parenting: A Psychoanalytic Perspective 3. Becoming Parents through ART: Infertility, Loss, and the Dilemmas of Assisted Reproductive Technology 4. Gay and Lesbian Parenting: Choices, Choices and More Choices Part 2 Developmental Stages of the Child 5. Perinatal Couple Psychotherapy and the Role of the Infant 6. Back to the Future, Together 7. No Sex Please; We're Parents 8. Falling or Flying: Managing the 'Emptying of the Nest' Part 3 Challenges to Parenting 9. Perinatal Loss: The Impact on the Couple and the Next Generation 10. Great Expectations: Blame, Shame, and Mourning in Work with Adoptive Couples 11. Holding the Line: An Exploration of the Difficulties in Maintaining a Boundary Around the Couple for Parents Raising a Child with a Disability Part 4 Conflicted Parents and their Children 12. "Good Cop - Bad Cop": The Challenge for Parents of Finding the Middle Ground 13. Mentalization-Based Therapy - Parenting Under Pressure (MBT-PP): What Does it Feel Like? Does it Work? How Can it Help? 14. From Partners to Co-Parents: Treading a New Landscape after Separation