Healing Relational Trauma III: Sensitivity and Blind Spots Across Patterns of Attachment

DATE(S): COURSE AVAILABLE ON-DEMAND
LOCATION: Online Webinar
PRESENTER(S): Karen Pando-Mars, LMFT 

Course Information

Sensitivity and responsiveness are key to establishing attachment security. In this seminar we will explore how attachment theory and caregiver-infant interaction studies inform the therapist stance in AEDP. When we recognize the individual differences that arise with insecure patterns of attachment, in light of the fact that attunement is based on the dyadic interaction of the patient and the therapist, we can be better prepared to help each patient transform their suffering from relational wounding. Sometimes the pattern of attachment at play can challenge our capacity to be present, responsive, attuned and empathic. I propose that it is not actually the pattern itself that challenges us to feel inadequate or unable to empathize or triggers our self-at-worst attachment strategy. Rather, our reaction to the specific behavior that is manifesting in the moment may drive us outside our capacity to respond with the help that is needed. This seminar is about expanding the clinician’s capacity to respond moment-to-moment to an interaction that is co-created and informed not only by the pattern of attachment, but also by the various intersectionalities that both therapist and patient bring to the dyad. This seminar will identify classic blind spots that may arise with each attachment pattern. We will break down the configuration of each pattern into its affect regulation strategies and defenses, caregiver’s state of mind and its impact on self-other relational patterning, and the seeds of resilience. Video of psychotherapy sessions will illustrate how these strategies can be depicted on AEDP’s representational schemas and how we can intervene experientially to engage positive neuroplasticity. We will explore the way therapist’s sensitivity plays a part in enhancing attachment security and how metaskills can be chosen in service of the patient’s therapy. AEDP’s Training Description: interventions about making the implicit explicit and making the explicit relational can be helpful to apply with specificity to each pattern of attachment. The aim of this workshop is to move towards strengthening a base of safety and connection through which our patient’s self-at-best can be engaged to gain traction and momentum for treatment.
 

Presenter

Karen Pando-Mars, MFT, is a psychotherapist in San Rafael, California, and Senior Faculty of the AEDP Institute. She was irresistibly drawn to AEDP in 2005 and captivated by the depth and breadth of this transformational model. She immersed herself in training and consultation with Dr. Fosha and three years of core training with Dr. Frederick. Ms. Pando-Mars is one of the founders of AEDP West and chaired the AEDP Institute Education Committee from 2011-2018. Ms. Pando-Mars' passionate interest in what cultivates deep connection between Self and Other has been furthered by attachment theory and related neuroscience. She is known for her presence, warmth, and the clarity of her presentations. Videotapes of her clinical work are moving and inspiring examples of how AEDP’s explicit relational and experiential practices can help patients heal from relational trauma. Ms. Pando-Mars arrived to AEDP with background in somatic and experiential therapies, including Focusing, Biofeedback, Process-Oriented Psychotherapy, Sandtray-Worldplay, EMDR, and Authentic Movement. These influences are deeply woven throughout her work. She was a founder of The Sandtray Network and a contributing editor of its journal. As adjunct faculty at Dominican University, in San Rafael, California, she taught AEDP as the overarching theoretical model in the Alternative and Innovative Psychotherapies course. She presents workshops on AEDP,  teaches and leads Essential and Advanced Skills courses, Core training and supervision across the United States and internationally.  Her publication “Tailoring AEDP interventions to attachment style,” 2016 Transformance Journal, 6 (2) is the basis for her upcoming book, which will be co-authored with Diana Fosha and published by Norton & Co.