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30/10/2026

In this clip, Dr Aner Govrin and Dr Loray Daws explore clinical concepts of Dr Michael Eigen, psychic deadness and toxic nourishment.

From patients who feel deadened internally and bonds to the toxic object, Dr Eigen’s work invites clinicians to think more deeply about the contradictions that shape psychic life and the difficulties of relinquishing destructive attachments.

Join us on Friday, 6 November, from 2–5.30pm (UK time), for Dr Michael Eigen: The Contribution of a Remarkable Psychoanalyst. This special seminar offers a rare opportunity to hear Dr Michael Eigen himself share his thinking and ideas, alongside Dr Loray Daws, with Professor Aner Govrin as chair.

Explore the programme and book your place here: https://trtogether.com/events/michael-eigen

29/10/2026

How can psychoanalytic thinking help us understand why some relationships feel both nourishing and deeply damaging?

In this clip, Dr Aner Govrin and Dr Loray Daws explore the clinical contribution of Dr Michael Eigen, whose concepts of psychic deadness and toxic nourishment offer powerful ways of understanding complex internal worlds and troubled relational attachments.

From patients who feel emotionally deadened despite being physically alive, to relationships that provide essential emotional sustenance while exacting a painful psychological cost, Dr Eigen’s work invites clinicians to think more deeply about the contradictions that shape psychic life and the difficulties of relinquishing destructive attachments.

His ideas offer a distinctive lens through which to consider how we understand suffering, relational dependency and the complexities of therapeutic change.

Join us on 6 November, from 2–5.30pm (UK time), for Dr Michael Eigen: The Contribution of a Remarkable Psychoanalyst. This special seminar offers a rare opportunity to hear Dr Michael Eigen himself share his thinking and ideas, alongside Dr Loray Daws, with Professor Aner Govrin as chair.

Explore the programme and book your place: https://trtogether.com/events/michael-eigen

28/10/2026

What enables psychic life to survive profound emotional pain, and how can experiences of breakdown become openings for connection and transformation?

In this clip, Dr Loray Daws reflects on the distinctive contribution of Dr Michael Eigen to contemporary psychoanalytic thought. Bringing together the ideas of thinkers such as Winnicott and Lacan, Dr Eigen offers a deeply original way of understanding psychic survival, early states of mind and the human capacity to endure painful experience without losing the possibility of connection.

Central to his work is a rhythm of faith: a belief in the capacity to survive psychic rupture, recover through relationships with others, and find more creative ways of living with emotional wounds. Rather than assuming that painful experiences can simply be resolved, Dr Eigen attends to how the analytic relationship can create the conditions for new forms of relating to oneself and one's suffering.

How might this understanding of psychic survival and transformation inform our clinical work?

Join us for Dr Michael Eigen: The Contribution of a Remarkable Psychoanalyst. A rare opportunity to hear Dr Eigen speak about his work and ideas in his own words, alongside Dr Loray Daws, with Dr Aner Govrin as chair.

📅 6 November | 2–5.30pm (UK time) | Live Online | 3.5 CPD Points

Explore Dr Eigen’s distinctive contribution to psychoanalytic thinking and its implications for clinical practice.

Find out more and book your place here: https://trtogether.com/events/michael-eigen

27/10/2026

Interested in couple relationships and the theory behind therapeutic work?

Whether you’re considering a career in psychotherapy, looking to expand your existing clinical knowledge, or simply curious about what shapes relationships, Tavistock Relationships offers two courses to help you explore the world of couple therapy.

📚 An Introduction to Therapy with Couples

An 11-week online seminar series with Cass Vollmer and Catherine Rashid, exploring the unconscious dynamics that shape couple relationships. Through psychodynamic theory, clinical material and group discussion, discover concepts including couple fit, attachment, projective processes and unconscious phantasy.

🎓 Foundation Certificate in Couple Counselling and Psychotherapy

A 10-week in-person course with Jennifer Taylor and Rohina Ilyas, introducing counselling skills and the psychodynamic and psychoanalytic theories underpinning couple therapy. Develop your reflective practice, deepen your understanding of couple dynamics and explore whether this field is right for your future career.

Both courses offer valuable opportunities to develop your understanding of relationships, whether for personal interest, professional development or as a first step towards further clinical training.

Explore learning opportunities and discover your next step: https://trtogether.com/courses-and-series

26/10/2026

On Thursday 22 October, we welcomed over 400 participants to our Introductions to Contemporary Psychoanalysis series for a thought-provoking discussion on eating disorders.

A huge thank you to Tom Wooldridge for sharing his expertise and clinical insights, and to Aner Govrin for facilitating such an engaging discussion. Thank you also to everyone who joined us and contributed to the conversation.

Our Top 5 Takeaways from the Discussion

1. The defensive function of eating disorders

Eating disorder symptoms may protect against overwhelming affect and psychic conflict, providing a sense of control or containment. Understanding their unconscious meaning can help explain why relinquishing these defences may provoke anxiety.

2. The importance of psychodynamic formulation

Considering personality organisation, developmental history, object relations and characteristic defences helps illuminate the unconscious dynamics underpinning eating disorder symptoms and their place within the patient's internal world.

3. Affect, mentalisation and psychic experience

Eating disorder behaviours may regulate affect that cannot yet be adequately recognised or symbolised. Therapeutic work can help patients tolerate emotional distress and bring previously unmentalised experiences into thought and reflection.

4. The body as a psychic container

The body may become a means of managing overwhelming internal states. Exploring bodily containment, primitive anxieties and early object relations can deepen our understanding of the relationship between somatic experience and psychic life.

5. Mourning the symptom and the therapeutic relationship

Recovery may involve mourning the loss of an eating disorder that has served as a protective defence. The therapeutic relationship offers space to explore transference, countertransference and unconscious relational patterns, supporting alternative ways of managing internal conflict.

Sign up to the TR Together newsletter to be the first to hear about this upcoming seminar and receive further details: https://mailchi.mp/6e73e1b21bdb/trtogether

22/10/2026

FREE SEMINAR TODAY | Eating Disorders: A Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspective

There’s still time to join us this evening, 6.00–7.15pm (UK time), for the next session of our free series, Introductions to Contemporary Psychoanalysis, featuring Tom Wooldridge and Aner Govrin.

Drawing on Tom Wooldridge’s book, Eating Disorders: A Contemporary Introduction, this thought-provoking conversation will explore the relationship between trauma, primitive anxieties, body image, agency and emotional regulation, alongside Wooldridge’s concept of the ‘entropic body’ and its significance in understanding anorexia.

The discussion will also consider the clinical implications of these perspectives, examining how therapists can support emotional regulation and developmental growth while remaining attentive to patients’ underlying psychic structures and lived experiences.

Rather than a formal presentation, this session will offer an open, exploratory dialogue, with participants invited to contribute questions and reflections.

🎟️ Free to attend – sign up now: https://trtogether.com/events/eating-disorders

21/10/2026

When an eating disorder enters a relationship, what happens to the dynamics between partners?

Eating disorders can shape far more than an individual's relationship with food. They can also influence how care, dependency and aggression are experienced and negotiated within a couple.

In this clip, Tom Wooldridge explores how a caretaker dynamic can develop when one partner is struggling with an eating disorder, and how feelings of anger towards a partner they depend on may become difficult to express, instead being directed back towards the self.

These unconscious dynamics raise important questions about how eating disorders are understood within the wider relational context, and how patterns of care, dependency and aggression can become embedded in a couple's relationship.

If you're interested in hearing more from Tom Wooldridge on the psychoanalytic understanding and treatment of eating disorders, we are hosting a free seminar tomorrow, October 22, as part of our Introductions to Contemporary Psychoanalysis series.

🔗 You can find out more and sign up here: https://trtogether.com/events/eating-disorders

20/10/2026

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND | Psychoanalytic Field Theory in Action with Dr Giuseppe Civitarese

Following the success of his Psychoanalytic Field Theory seminar with TR Together in May, and in response to requests for more, Dr Giuseppe Civitarese returns for three immersive clinical workshops exploring psychoanalytic field theory in action.

Moving beyond theory, this three-day series will bring psychoanalytic field theory into the clinical encounter, using Dr Civitarese’s own published clinical cases to explore how the analytic field develops and transforms between patient and therapist.

How can we understand moments of impasse, enactment and intense affect through the lens of the analytic field? What can the analyst’s own reverie, feelings and bodily responses reveal about unconscious communication? And how might interpretation transform the shared emotional experience, opening new possibilities for thought, symbolisation and therapeutic change?

Across the three workshops, participants will engage closely with clinical material, following Dr Civitarese’s thinking as he explores the complexities of the analytic relationship and the clinical implications of the “unconscious we”.

An opportunity to move from conceptual understanding to clinical application, and to deepen your engagement with one of contemporary psychoanalysis’s distinctive approaches to the analytic encounter.

📅 6-8 January 2027 | 4.30-6.30pm

🔗 Discover the programme and book your place: https://trtogether.com/events/field-theory-at-work

19/10/2026

What a fantastic seminar!

On Friday 16 October, we welcomed Dr Otto Kernberg, Dr Frank Yeomans and Dr Diana Diamond back to TR Together for an insightful discussion exploring the treatment of narcissistic personality disorder. It was a rich and engaging session, filled with expert clinical insights, thought-provoking discussion and excellent questions from our international audience.

A huge thank you to our speakers and facilitator, Prof Aner Govrin, for such a stimulating discussion.

Here are our five key takeaways from the seminar:

1. The pathological grandiose self as an organising structure

The pathological grandiose self is not simply a defence against low self-esteem, but an organising structure that consolidates idealised self-representations while disavowing dependency, inferiority and aggression. By projecting unwanted aspects onto others, it sustains a precarious sense of superiority while obstructing the integration of contradictory self- and object representations.

2. Use the therapeutic relationship to reveal unconscious object relations

Transference-focused psychotherapy explores how internalised self–other relationships emerge in the consulting room. Recognising these patterns as they unfold can help patients integrate split-off aspects of themselves and others.

3. Attend to the timing and form of interpretation

Interpretations experienced as criticism can intensify resistance. Beginning with clarification and exploration of the patient's immediate experience of the therapist can build understanding before moving towards deeper interpretations.

4. Countertransference, projective identification and technical neutrality

The therapist's countertransference may provide an entry point into affects the patient cannot yet recognise or tolerate, particularly through projective identification. The challenge is to resist reciprocal devaluation or idealisation, maintaining technical neutrality while using these responses to inform the gradual clarification, confrontation and interpretation of the transference.

5. Recognise the challenges of relinquishing grandiosity & tolerating dependency

As grandiosity loosens, painful feelings of emptiness, vulnerability and dependency may emerge. Helping patients tolerate these experiences can support greater emotional integration and more realistic relationships with themselves and others.

Thank you again to everyone who joined us.

You can explore what's coming up next here: https://trtogether.com/events

16/10/2026

Join us at 2pm today (UK time) for an in-depth seminar on Treating Narcissistic Personality Disorder with Dr Otto Kernberg, Dr Diana Diamond and Dr Frank Yeomans.

How can we look beyond the visible features of narcissism to understand the underlying psychological organisation of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)? And how can these dynamics be understood and worked with within the therapeutic relationship?

Today's seminar explores contemporary psychoanalytic approaches to NPD, examining identity diffusion, splitting-based defences and the pathological grandiose self, alongside the complexities of narcissistic transference, resistance and countertransference.

The programme will also explore Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP), considering how this evidence-based approach can support therapeutic work with complex personality presentations, from the early stages of treatment through to deeper work with envy, dependency, loss and mourning.

For clinicians, this is an opportunity to deepen your understanding of narcissistic personality disorder and consider how contemporary psychoanalytic theory and technique can inform clinical practice.

📅 Today, 16 October | 2:00–6:00pm (UK)
💻 Live online
🎓 3.5 CPD points | Recording included

🔗 Book your place: https://trtogether.com/events/treating-narcissistic-pathology

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