Full text unavailable

You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.

CFP 16(1):vii-xi (2026)

Couples as Parents in Families

Authors: Kate Thompson, Damian McCann DSysPsych

Kate Thompson

Couple psychoanalytic psychotherapist with twenty-seven years of experience working with couples and individuals. She adapted the Couple Therapy for Depression model to work within perinatal services and for couples where there is substance misuse, having led the TR's CTfD training within the NHS for over ten years. Alongside running TR's parenting workshop, Kate co-facilitated Parents as Partners groups for families with disabled children and is particularly interested in how the couple relationship intersects with the parenting one. This interest grew through her funded pilots focusing on parents caught in conflictual separation and adoption. Kate is co-editor-in-chief of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis, co-edited and co-authored Couples as Parents (Routledge, 2024); Engaging Couples: New Directions in Therapeutic Work with Families (Routledge, 2018), and two special editions of this journal on “Divorce and separation” and “Parenting”. Kate writes for a variety of publications, lectures in the UK and abroad, is registered with BPC and BACP, and has a private practice in South West London.

Damian McCann DSysPsych

Psychoanalytic couple psychotherapist; visiting clinician at Tavistock Relationships, London; adjunct faculty member of the International Psychotherapy Institute (IPI), Washington, DC; an associate of Queen Anne Street Practice, London; and an editorial board member of Couple & Family Psychoanalysis. He is also a consultant systemic psychotherapist with many years of experience working with children, adolescents, and their families. He has a particular interest in working with gender and sexual diversity in psychoanalytic practice and has published and taught widely on this topic. His doctoral research was concerned with understanding the meaning and impact of violence in the couple relationships of gay men and he is involved in developing approaches to working with couples more generally in which there is violence and abuse. His edited book was published by Routledge in 2021 and his co-edited book, with Kate Thompson, entitled was also published by Routledge in 2024.

Abstract

The voice of parents is the voice of gods, for to their children they are heaven's lieutenants.
Double Falsehood (Theobald, 1727)

We are pleased to present seven fascinating articles in this special edition of the journal on couples and parents in families, extending the complex landscape of couple and family relationships first presented in the book, Couples as Parents: Explorations in Couple Therapy (2025).

In this set of articles, we have attempted to broaden the focus beyond couples as parents into the individual and family domains. They speak to the delicate balance and ongoing negotiation of the conscious and unconscious relationships between the individuals, the couple, parents, the needs of children, and ultimately the needs of the family system as a whole. Oftentimes, when the balance between these competing forces is out of sync, stress and distress ensue. Yet, in the absence of hard and fast rules that guarantee positive outcomes, and subject to changing societal forces, families are often required to intuitively manage the demands of family life, and can be left feeling exposed, ashamed, and without nourishment.

We acknowledge there are many more areas to explore and regret insufficient room or time to include articles exploring subject matter such as the unique needs of stepfamilies or the whole-family relationship with the internet and modern technologies such as AI. There are also many more articles to be written about the changing nature of family life in many cultures and cultural difference itself and how this affects couples as parents in families.

In the meantime, however, we are pleased to introduce you to the seven articles contained within this edition. First off comes Martha Doniach's excellent article which considers solo parenting by choice amongst cisgender heterosexual women. Due to contemporary cultural and demographic shifts in the concept of family and advances in artificial reproduction technology, Doniach's piece looks at this phenomenon