The History and Development of Couples and Family Psychoanalysis in Australia

Timothy Keogh

APAS 50th Anniversary Conference 2023

Open Day Workshop

Identity is the history that has gone into bone and blood and reshaped the flesh. Identity is not what we were but what we have become and what we are at this moment.

(Nick Joaquin, Culture and History)

The following is a very brief overview of some of the history of couples and family psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in Australia. Due to its brevity, I may have not mentioned everyone who had a role in this history.

The development of couples and family psychotherapy as a sub-specialty in Australia, along with the establishment of related professional bodies, occurred as it did on most other parts of the western world in the last few decades. It developed much later than psychoanalysis proper. It happened in a context of intense social change beginning in the 1960s, one that challenged aspects of traditional marriage and gender roles and saw a significant increase in separations and divorce.

In the wake of this epoch several couple and family psychotherapy associations were established including the British Society of Couple Psychotherapists and Counsellors (BSCPC) in 1990, the International Association of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis in 2006, and the Section of Couples and Family Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy of the European Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Federation (EPPF) in 2010, with its inaugural conference in Florence. In Australia the New South Wales Institute of Family Therapy, which later became the Couple and Family Psychotherapy of Australasia (CAFPAA), was established in 1997. Agencies set up to deal with couple psychopathology were of course set up even earlier. The Tavistock Clinic, Marriage Referral Bureau, for example, was initially established in 1948.

There are currently at least 12 psychoanalysts in Australia who identify as practicing couples and family psychoanalysts, seven in Sydney and five in Melbourne. In addition, there are approximately 20 psychoanalytic psychotherapists within the PPAA who identify as couples and or family psychotherapists.

Initinally two groupings of couple and family therapist developed, one in Sydney and one Melbourne. In Melbourne the group that developed comprised a mixture of psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists. Two of the analysts involved (Roslyn Glickfeld and Peter Fullerton) had a background in marriage guidance prior to their psychoanalytic training and wove this into their psychoanalytic training. An additional two analysts, Milena Mirabelli and Liz Orr, both had backgrounds in couples work prior to their analytic training. Peter Fullerton trained with the Society for Analytical Psychology in London. He returned to Melbourne in 1989 and during the 1990s the peer group which ultimately became known as the “Vivaldi Group” was formed. Throughout the 1990s Peter taught in the marriage guidance association the analytic model of couples and family work. A number of group members operated from the Drummond Street practice, which offered analytically-oriented couples and family-based services. The Melbourne-based group has over time sponsored a number of visits of couples and family psychoanalysts and psychotherapists in an effort to promote the specialty.

The Sydney-based group formalised itself into an institution under the direction of Dr Charles Enfield (a psychiatrist and psychotherapist). Charles had trained under luminaries such as John Byng Hall and John Bowlby at the Tavistock in London. With colleagues Noela Byrne, Kerry Gee, Charles and Sylvia Enfield and Tim Keogh, Charles established the Sydney Centre for Family Therapy in 1989, which provided low-cost family and couples psychotherapy. In 1997 the New South Wales Institute for Family Psychotherapy (NSWIFP) was formed with Dr Enfield as its inaugural President. The NSWIFP was renamed in 2012 as the Couples and Family Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Association of Australasia (CAFPAA) and later, as its scope broadened to include child psychotherapy, it was renamed again to reflect that change. Sadly, the Association disbanded last year. I note that Dr Jenny Berg had been a stalwart in that organisation and became a name synonymous with couple and family psychotherapy in Sydney.

Dr Enfield also trained several social workers and psychologists who worked in the Psychiatry Department of the then Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, who all went on to play significant roles in the development of this practice. They included Mee Mee Lee, Ms. Annette McInerny, Cynthia Gregory-Roberts, Noela Byrne and Penny Jools. Charles Enfield also supervised a number of community-based couples therapists in then Sydney Health Service including Meredith Waugh, Kerrod Gee, Timothy Keogh and Noela Byrne at the Jesmond Street Child and Family Service.

Through his connections at the Tavistock Dr Enfield had a professional connection with Dr Jill Scharff. In 2003 Dr Enfield encouraged me to make contact with David and Jill Scharff on a visit to the United States. This visit established the link with David and Jill Scharff and other members of their International Psychoanalytic Institute (IPI). This led to a group of couples psychotherapists who were all senior members and executive office bearers of the then NSWIFP (Jenny Berg, Penny Jools and Noela Byrne) accepting an invitation attend one of the IPI conferences in 2004 and develop these links further. Further connections were then made with couples psychoanalysts and psychotherapists at the Tavistock Centre for Couples Relationships (TCCR) and subsequently Scottish Institute of Human Relations (SIHR). SIHR hosted a conference in Edinburgh in 2005, at which a large group of Australian colleagues presented, including those abovementioned Institute members and another member Maria Kourt. Networking next led to an NSWIFP-sponsored invitations to a number of IPI-linked couples psychoanalysts visiting Sydney, including Jill and David Scharff in 2008, who were guest speakers at well-attended weekend CAFPAA hosted conference in Sydney. At this time several couples and family psychotherapists were operating out of a private practice known as Calliope. These therapists offered their Centre for meetings and workshops which became a hub for the promotion of couple and family psychotherapy in Sydney.

Another aspect of the development of the discipline in Australia was the forging of links within Asia, initially notably with China. An initial link was made between Australia and China when, as an IPA member, I invited Jenny Berg and Penny Jools to co-present a session on couples psychotherapy at the Freud in Asia Conference in 2010. This was the historic first IPA-sponsored psychoanalytic conference in China. Much later I was asked to lecture at the Couple and Family Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy Training Program in Wuhan and to be the head of the International Faculty for the Program. This in turn led to invitations to represent Australia at the Couple and Family Psychoanalysis section of the Psychotherapy Conference in Shanghai in 2018 and at the First Couple and Family Psychoanalysis Conference in Beijing in 2020.

APAS was also invited to join the IPA Couple and Family Psychoanalysis Committee (COFAP). This formalized the representation of Australian Couple and Family Psychoanalysis within the IPA. It also forged other important connections with international colleagues including Dr Lin Tao, the TCCR (and in particular Mary Morgan), Monica Voichiemer in Argentina and Dr Anna Maria Niccolo, and subsequently Dr Elizabeth Palalcios and others in Europe. It also resulted in Australia being linked to several IPA Working group events, including pre-congress and congress workshops featuring cutting edge theoretical practice developments at IPA Congresses in Prague (2010) and Boston (2015), as well as the historic IPA-FEPAL-hosted, first ever Couples and Family Psychoanalysis Conference in Buenos Aires in 2015. In 2017 a Couple and Family Psychoanalysis Interest Group was also established within APAS with the support of Ken Israelstam, Ros Glickfeld and Kaye Nelson. Australia was also represented in various roles including as Secretary and as Vice President in the International Association of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis.

In addition, there are a number Australian representatives on the International Advisory Board of the Couples and Family Psychoanalysis Journal, notably Jenny Berg, Penny Jools, Julia Meyerowitz Katz, Judith Pickering and me. These therapists and others have all contributed to the literature on Couple and Family Psychotherapy. In this regard I note the substantial contribution of Judith Pickering.

More recently a Sydney-based psychoanalytic charity Penthos has had a role in promoting couple psychotherapy by offering a short-term Psychotherapeutic Intervention to couples experiencing un-resolved grief.

Finally and importantly, given the Australian Society’s pivotal role in the development of the proposed IPA Asia-Pacific region, I wanted to highlight the increasing interest in couple and family psychoanalysis throughout this region. This will be reflected in the range of presentations planned for a COFAP Pre-IPA Asia Conference workshop to be held in Sydney on the 30th April 2024.

References

Jaoquin, N. (1988). In Culture and Histroy: Occasional Notes on the Process of Philippine Becoming. Anvil Press: Manila.

Keogh, T (2017). Couple and Family Psychoanalysis in Oceania (In Chapter 1) In David E Scharff and Elizabeth Palacios (Eds.) Couple and Family Psychoanalysis: Global Perspectives. pp 33-39. Karnac: London.