[Pre-Order] Putting Attachment Theory into Practice

Session 1: Presenting Secure Attachment | Diane Poole Heller, Ph.D.

Explore practical techniques designed to offer clients with attachment injuries an emotionally corrective experience. You’ll learn how to:

• Identify and assess the different styles of troubled attachment
• Increase your nonverbal skills for creating a secure attachment bond and safety in the therapy room
• Create rapport with clients by speaking the distinctive “language” of the various attachment styles
• Incorporate well-timed humor and playfulness into your style

Session 2: When Is Attachment the Issue? | Bruce Ecker, M.A., L.M.F.T

Determine whether a client’s problems come from early childhood experiences or some other source by exploring:

• Techniques for making the underlying emotional learnings that maintain symptomatic behaviors explicit
• The principles of memory reconsolidation and the 3-step process necessary to dissolve problematic emotional learnings
• Juxtaposition interventions to dissolve destructive beliefs and symptoms
• The emotional necessity of any given symptom

Session 3: Hearts and Bones: Attachment and Sexuality | Susan Johnson, Ed.D.

Deepen your understanding of secure, integrated sexuality and how to address sexual issues in attachment-based couples therapy by exploring:

• The 3 primary styles of sexual relationship: sealed-off sex, solace sex, and synchrony sex
• How to listen with an attachment ear when couples present with sexual problems
• How to facilitate hold-me-tight conversations that enable couples to address longstanding attachment issues in their relationships
• How the methods of Emotionally Focused Therapy can help couples create greater intimacy

Session 4: Getting Through to Shutdown Children and Families | Daniel Hughes, Ph.D.

Get through to difficult children and their overstressed parents by:

• Applying the skills of PACE (play, acceptance, curiosity and empathy) in your therapeutic work
• Establishing verbal and nonverbal transparency as the foundation of your connection with troubled kids
• Focusing on a child’s interests while avoiding a premature exploration of symptoms and problems
• Taking the lead in actively involving parents in the therapeutic process

Session 5: Attachment Issues in Chronic Pain | Maggie Phillips, Ph.D.

Apply the latest discoveries connecting psychological trauma and chronic pain by learning to:

• Structure a first-session assessment of a client presenting with persistent, undiagnosable pain
• Distinguish the four layers of trauma that apply to chronic pain
• Explore for issues of abuse, abandonment, and neglect in determining the roots of chronic pain
• Apply a toolkit of mind-body techniques to dramatically increase a client’s ability to self-regulate
• Give clients new experiences early in treatment that increase hope and motivation for change

Session 6: Healing Attachment Wounds with Energy Psychology | David Feinstein, Ph.D.

Learn simple techniques for helping clients with childhood attachment wounds self-regulate and explore how to:

• Incorporate energy psychology into any therapeutic approach
• Neutralize the charge of unresolved attachment trauma through Emotional Freedom Techniques
• Use “tapping” and additional energy psychology techniques to affect the amygdala and other parts of the brain
• Structure an energy psychology intervention for a range of problems and assess its impact