Working with Couples – Disentangling the Secret Pact – Elana Leigh
Event Overview
The jo
urney from Myth to Reality, Hope to Disillusion, Longing to Grief.
In these series of webinars, Elana Leigh invites us to explore the complex and often unseen forces that shape couple relationships. Drawing on her recent Transactional Analysis Journal article of the same title, Elana proposes that couples form an unconscious pact—a mutual hope that the other will repair deep oedipal struggles and narcissistic wounds. This fantasy of repair, she suggests, can only transform when the pact itself is brought into awareness.
Through a deeply relational lens, Elana will consider how therapists can help couples disentangle the sustaining illusion—tracing its roots in personal history, significant relationships, and wider systems, including the therapeutic one. She will explore how the therapist’s own countertransference and personal history become vital instruments in understanding and working with the couple system.
Relational couple therapy, Elana argues, calls for the therapist’s courage to stay with disillusionment—both the couple’s and their own—as a gateway to genuine connection and growth. Together, we will examine the paper’s hypotheses and ways of working that illuminate how couple work differs so profoundly from individual therapy, offering fresh insight into one of the most challenging and rewarding areas of clinical practice.
Elana Leigh (TSTA MSC Integrative psychotherapy, B.Scs. SW). Elana has worked as a clinician, supervisor and trainer for the past 35 years. She is currently based in Sydney, Australia and Europe and has a great deal of experience working in many diverse cultures. She has a deep interest in the complexity and challenges of working with couples.
This webinar will focus on the psychotherapy field, although other fields may find the discussion of interest. Both sessions must be attended £48.00 members/£96.00 non-members.
PLEASE NOTE – A recording of the event will be made (with any shared client material edited out on request), which, once processed, can be purchased on the IARTA website.
Please do not sign up for the live webinar if you are unable to attend; instead, wait until the recording is ready and then make your purchase. You will receive a notification when we add a new recording.
Please note that payment cannot be transferred from one account to another, and in some cases, the recording may be edited to ensure confidentiality.
Ticket sales will end Monday, 4th May at noon.
The Zoom Link will be sent out to all participants the day before the event.
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