Susanna Abse

I have been a psychoanalytic psychotherapist for over 30 years. I specialise in working with people with relationship issues with couples, individuals and parents. I believe our emotional and mental health depends on the health of our relationships, 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 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 rooms.

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 then, I’ve continued my interest in organisations by working 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 of both the Association for Infant Mental Health and The Freud Museum.

Along with colleagues, I co-edit the Library of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis for Routledge Books and have written quite 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