Susanna Abse
- Tell Me the Truth About Love
- Susanna Abse
- ‘A must-read for everyone wanting to understand more about what makes us fall in – and out – of love’ Philippa Perry
‘A charming, useful, kind book about the pains and hopes of relationships’ Alain de Botton
‘Wonderfully wise… Susanna writes with clarity and warmth in a voice that is steeped in decades of experience and means we trust her. Her gentle humour is also a joy.’ Julia Samuel
Drawing on over 30 years of therapeutic encounters with people facing hurdles in their love lives, former Chair of the British Psychoanalytic Council Susanna Abse takes us deep inside one of the most fascinating realms there is: other people’s relationships.
Candid and captivating, each chapter is inspired by a classic, timeless story. Parents blow their straw house down; Rapunzel yearns for companionship but remains trapped in her castle. Couples strive to navigate the fall from Eden, the bitter taste of the poison apple and strangers in their beds.
From dealing with infidelity to navigating our changing role within a single relationship over the course of a lifetime, Tell Me the Truth About Love sheds vivid light on the human heart, and its struggle to both embrace life’s greatest gift and protect itself from pain. Inside, you will find solace, wisdom and unparalleled insight into how, and why, we love.
Susanna Abse is a psychoanalytic therapist who has worked in private practice with couples, individuals and parents since 1991. She is the former chair of The British Psychoanalytic Council and was CEO of the charity Tavistock Relationships from 2006 until 2016. She has also recently been presenting Britain on the Couch for Channel 4 News. She has published widely on couple therapy, parenting, and family policy and how these areas need to be at the heart of progressive welfare provision, a subject on which she lectures and teaches. Susanna is a Senior Fellow of the Tavistock Institute for Medical Psychology, a fellow of the Centre for Social Policy at Dartington; a previous Leadership Fellow at St George’s House, Windsor Castle, as well as a Member of the Advisory Board of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis. She is also Co-Editor of The Library of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis for Routledge Books. Between 2016-18, she was a member of the University of Birmingham mental health policy commission, “Investing in a Resilient Generation”.
Falling and staying in love: An interactive workshop with Susanna Abse
Psychoanalytic psychotherapist Susanna Abse leads a fascinating masterclass that examines the truth behind why we fall in love, and what makes it last
Online workshop
Date: Wednesday 15 June 2022
Time: 6.30pm-8.30pm BST
Wed 20 Apr 2022 13.56 BST
Couple relationships are compelling, mysterious things. Many of us yearn for a happy romantic relationship, and yet, as literature and music has been telling us for centuries, this longing can prove to be elusive, confusing, overwhelming or unrequited.
How we choose our partners, and how we form and maintain relationships is deeply influenced by our past. Everything from our upbringing, including our parents’ or carers’ relationships with one another, to how we interact with others in the playground, structures our deepest beliefs about intimacy. The partners we choose, and the longevity and happiness of these partnerships, shape what we call our ‘love life’.https://1ab62de4eb8ab6dfd048a2a67ae10c01.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html?n=0
In this lively, informative masterclass Susanna Abse, psychoanalytic psychotherapist for couples, will explore what makes us fall in love – and what makes it last.
You will discover how what draws us together can also be the thing that drives us apart, and why this is. You will also learn what we mean when we say ‘healthy relationships’, and how our family history shapes our love life. Susanna will teach you how to draw your own genogram and investigate the links between your past and present relationships, in this illuminating class.
Guardian Masterclass
This course is for …
- Anyone with an interest in relationships – what makes us fall in love and what makes love last
- Those interested in a career as a relationship therapist
Course content
- The process of falling in love and getting committed
- What influences are at work in our choice of partners?
- What do we mean when we talk about ‘healthy relationships’?
- Understand how our family history shapes our love life
- Draw your own genogram