Susanna Abse

I am Co- Director of the Queen Anne Street Practice and have been practicing as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist for over 30 years. I specialise in working with couples, individuals and parents who are struggling with issues around their relationship. I believe our emotional and mental health is deeply affected by the health of our connections and bonds with others, whether those are with family, friends, work colleagues or partners. I have an open, enquiring approach and over my years of practice have come to see that development and change happens through the in-depth conversations I have with those who come for help. Though I will offer online sessions when necessary, I prefer to work face to face in my consulting room.

I also have a special interest in organisations and was from 2006-2016 the CEO of Tavistock Relationships, the leading centre for training, research and clinical services for couples. Since I left that post, I’ve worked as an organisational consultant and executive coach for senior leaders in the NHS, higher education, charities, the legal profession as well as the corporate sector. I was the Chair of the British Psychoanalytic Council from 2018-2021 and currently serve as a trustee for The Freud Museum in London.

Along with colleagues, I co-edited the Library of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis for Routledge Books for many years and have written extensively on relationship issues, family policy and psychotherapy for professional journals, books, magazines and newspapers. In 2019, I presented a series of films called Britain on the Couch for Channel 4 News and my book, Tell Me the Truth about Love was published by Penguin (Ebury Press) in May 2022.

I am a Senior Fellow of the Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology and a registered member of the British Psychoanalytic Council.