Brief Encounters with Couples

Deriving from a conference organised by the Tavistock Marital Studies Institute, the present volume draws the main focus of its inquiry from a few fundamental questions. In its various brief encounters, and in disparate contexts, how effective can a psychoanalytic approach be when it addresses the parental/child or adult couple relationship? What specific quality of contact can be achieved in the relationship between client(s) and therapist in shorter-term work? This compilation of essays, written by experienced practitioners, engages directly and positively these, and other questions, demonstrating with clinical material the efficacious contribution of a psychoanalytic psychotherapy. In both the similarity and variety of responses to the complex issues explored the authors display a creative engagement and theoretical understanding that will be of great interest and stimulus to all professionals working in this field.

Francis Grier

Foreword , Introduction , First contacts: the therapist's "couple state of mind" as a factor in the containment of couples seen for consultations , Thoughts about the couple relationship following the death of a child , Brief encounters: work with parents and infants in an under-fives' counselling service , Brief work with parents of infants , Giving advice during consultations: unconscious enactment or thoughtful containment? , Emotional contact and containment in psychosexual medicine , A psychoanalytic approach to brief marital psychotherapy , The court, the couple, and the consultant: is there room for a third position?