Integrative Attachment Family Therapy: Interventions for Improving Parent-Child Connection and Attunement

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Faculty

Dafna Lender, LCSW Related seminars and products

The Theraplay Institute

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Dafna Lender, LCSW, is an international trainer and supervisor for practitioners who work with children and families. She is a certified trainer and supervisor/consultant in both Theraplay and Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) and an EMDR therapist. Dafna’s expertise is drawn from 25 years of working with families with attachment in many settings: at-risk after school programs, therapeutic foster care, in-home crisis stabilization, residential care and private practice. Dafna’s style, whether as a therapist or teacher, is combining the light-hearted with the profound by bringing a playful, intense and passionate presence to every encounter. Dafna is the author of Integrative Attachment Family Therapy (2023) and co-author of Theraplay® - The Practitioner’s Guide (2020).

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dafna Lender maintains a private practice. She is a published author and receives royalties. She receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dafna Lender has no relevant non-financial relationships.

Additional Info

Access never expires for this product.

For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepesi@pesi.com.

Outline

Attachment-Based Treatment:  Principles and Goals

• Attachment Theory – and what it means for trauma-informed treatment
• Elements of the social engagement system
• Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy
• Theraplay: Structure, Engagement, Nurture & Challenge

Getting Started:  Assessment and Engagement

• Discern underlying motives/feelings underneath a child’s behaviors
• Facilitating a safe, active dialogue between parent and child
• How to engage caregivers who are traumatized, too reduce defensiveness and increase empathy

Clinical Interventions to Create Connection, Regulation, and Attunement

• PACE - Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy
• In-SENC based on individual child’s needs (Structure, Engagement, Nurture, Challenge)
• How to gently redirect mis-attuned or critical caregivers
• Facilitating face-to-face interactions between parent and child
• Increase warm facial expressions, synchronized movement and rhythm
• Calm a dysregulated child and engage a withdrawn child
• Activities to increase warm facial expressions and synchronized, rhythmic movement      

Objectives

1. Determine the principles of Attachment Theory.
2. Demonstrate the PACE model to engage caregivers in effectively responding to their child(ren).
3. Determine the elements of the social engagement system as it pertains to the parent child relationship.

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Psychiatrists
• Psychotherapists
• Occupational Therapists
• Speech Language Pathologists
• Therapists
• Case Managers
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Other Mental Health Professionals