Working Analytically With Couples: The Tavistock Model

This course will take place Tuesdays, February 3, 10, 17, and 24, 2026 from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm at St. Clement's Episcopal Church in Berkeley.

We can easily get lost amidst projections and anxieties when sitting with a couple in the consulting room. As analytic couple therapists, we aim to keep Enid Balint’s observation in mind, which extends one of Freud’s most important discoveries: we don’t remember our past; we repeat it.

“...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, “Unconscious Communications Between Husband and Wife,” Psychotherapy with Couples, p. 41)

Balint reminds us that the “repeating” occurring in the couple has a function. Holding the developmental strivings of the couple in mind can ground the analytic therapist in efforts to engage them, offering containment and the possibility of transformation.

This four-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.

For more details about this event, CE, and general information, please visit the "Working Analytically With Couples: The Tavistock Model" event page on our website.

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