Susanna Abse

Susanna Abse is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist who has worked in private practice with couples, parents and individuals since 1991. She was CEO of the charity Tavistock Relationships from 2006 until 2016 and now also works as an Executive Coach and Organisational Consultant. She is an accredited member of the British Psychoanalytic Council and serves as a member of its Executive Board.

Alongside her therapeutic practice, she specialises in conflict resolution; whether that be between separated couples or within organisations where teams and managers have conflicts and unresolved differences which interfere with productive relations.

Susanna is also a Senior Fellow of The Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology; a Fellow of the Centre for Social Policy at Dartington; a Leadership Fellow at St George’s House, Windsor Castle, as well as a Member of the Editorial Board of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis, and Series Co-Editor of “The Library of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis” for Karnac Books. She is currently a member of the policy commission, “Closing the Mental Health Treatment Gap” for the University of Birmingham, examining the best practice based evidence for a new paradigm for mental health that looks to the wider social determinants, adopts assets based approaches and early intervention across the life course.

Previously, she was a member of the Department of Health’s Action for Choice in Therapy Committee, and has sat as an expert advisor on many research and governmental advisory groups; most recently for the NSPCC’s project to develop an early intervention for families at risk of domestic violence. 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. Her many publications include writings for the New Statesman and for the Open Society European Policy Institute.