A Psychobiological Approach
to Couples Therapy®:
A Year-Long Professional Training
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Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT |
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| Dates: | (Mondays and Tuesdays) September 19 and 20, 2011 November 7 and 8, 2011 March 19 and 20, 2012 June 11 and 12, 2012 |
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| Time: | 9:00 am to 4:30 pm | ||
| Location: | Koffler House/Multi-Faith Centre, University of Toronto 569 Spadina Avenue, Toronto (Click here for directions.) |
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| Fee: | $2,000 (+ HST) Payable in four installments |
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PACT (A Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy) is a new approach developed by Stan Tatkin that integrates the latest research in attachment theory, arousal regulation, and developmental neurobiology. The narratives that couples use to explain self-sabotaging and harmful behaviours are often unreliable. Focusing on them may not be helpful. PACT will offer you a method and skills to quickly, effectively, and accurately read and engage in the subtext of how your clients interact.
Emphasizing enactment of experience over cognition or psychological interpretation, this training hones in on moment-to-moment variations and shifts in affect and arousal as observed in the face, body, and voice. In couples work especially, these macro and micro state changes occur extremely fast. You will discover and analyze psychobiological cues, or “tells”, and other bottom-up (implicit) processes that reveal what top-down (explicit) approaches cannot. Armed with this level of insight, you will learn to therapeutically stage interventions that will trigger arousal and implicit somato-affective experience and memory.
This course will incorporate lecture, live demonstrations, interactive exercises, and practice sessions, as well as extensive video footage of Stan Tatkin in session with a wide range of clients. Outside of training sessions, you will have access to many online components such as tutorials, discussion groups, and two interactive meetings during the course period.
You will learn —
- The psychobiological principles underlying primary attachment relationships
- How to diagnose and treat all variants of arousal and affect regulation issues
- How to address maters related to early attachment and trauma
- How to set up your office to facilitate the PACT approach, and how to plan the length and timing of sessions to maximize effectiveness
- Interventions for working with highly avoidant/narcissistic partners and highly angry-resistant/borderline partners
At present, PACT training is presented only by its creator, author and therapist Stan Tatkin. Only a select number of practitioners are currently receiving this training. All participants who complete this year-long training will receive Level 1 certification once formal PACT certification becomes available.
How to Register
Please note that online registration is not available for this course.
Click here for payment options and to download a registration form.
Find out more about Stan Tatkin and PACT
For articles written about Stan, please click here.
The Welcome Home Exercise:
Reunion mishaps are a common cause of couple dysregulation and arguments. This exercise helps partners regulate one another quickly and easily. To see a video of this PACT intervention designed to harmonize arousal states between couples, please click here.
Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT, developer of A Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy® (PACT), integrates neuroscience, attachment, and arousal regulation and applies these disciplines to adult primary attachment relationships. In addition to his practice in Calabasas, California, he runs training programs for professional therapists in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Boulder, and Austin. He has also trained professionals in Spain and Russia.
Dr. Tatkin received his early training in developmental object relations (Masterson Institute), Gestalt, psychodrama, and family systems theory. His private practice specialized for some time in the treatment of adolescents and adults with personality disorders. Over the last decade, his interests branched into psycho-neurobiological theories of human relationship, and into integrating principles of early mother-infant attachment with adult romantic relationships. He speaks to professional audiences about couples therapy and preventive psychotherapy through early intervention with infants, children, and parents. He has published several articles on the psychobiology of couples therapy.
Dr. Tatkin was a primary inpatient group therapist at the John Bradshaw Center, where, among other things, he taught mindfulness to patients and staff. He was trained in Vipassana meditation by Shinzen Young, PhD, and was an experienced facilitator in Vipassana. He was also trained by David Reynolds, PhD, in two Japanese forms of psychotherapy: Morita and Naikan.
In addition to his private practice, he teaches and supervises first- through third-year family medicine residents at Kaiser Permanente, Woodland Hills, and is an assistant clinical professor at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine. He is also adjunct faculty for Antioch University, Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, and California Lutheran University.
Dr. Tatkin is a veteran member of Allan N. Schore's study group. He has trained in the Adult Attachment Interview through Mary Main and Erik Hesse's program at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a contributing editor on The Reader's Guide to Intersubjective Neurobiology with Allan Schore and is the coauthor of Love and War in Intimate Relationships with Marion Solomon. Dr. Tatkin's next book, Wired for Love: How Understanding Your Partner's Brain and Attachment Style Can Help You Defuse Conflicts and Spark Intimacy, will be released on Valentine’s Day 2012.