This summer Cherry Potter attended the 2024 Advanced Psychoanalytic Couple Therapy Summer School at TR Together (Tavistock Relationships) in London. The theme of the four-day workshop was the life cycle of the couple.

The workshop covered many of the difficult challenges faced by couples in their relationship journey. We explored the transition to becoming parents, the idealisation of motherhood, the difficulties of fatherhood, and the challenges to intimacy of a growing family.

We explored the emotional toll of infertility, the impact of infertility treatment on a couple, and the challenges of starting a family faced by same sex couples.

We discussed ‘empty nesters’ – the emotional storm experienced by some couples when their children leave home and it’s just the two of them again.

Finally, we looked at the anxiety of aging, facing dependency, vulnerability, our own death or the death of our partner and being alone again.  Each participant gave a presentation to the workshop. Cherry presented a case study on the theme of aging and surviving the loss of one’s partner. It was a fascinating and stimulating week.