The Misattuned Family: Techniques for Healing Attachment Trauma

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Dafna Lender, LCSW Related seminars and products

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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). 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 co-author of Theraplay: The Practitioner's Guide (2020). She teaches and supervises clinicians in 15 countries in 3 languages: English, Hebrew and French.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dafna Lender is the founder of Dafna Lender Psychotherapy Training and Consulting. She receives royalties as a published author. Dafna Lender 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 with ineligible organizations.

Additional Info

Program Information

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Objectives

1. Practice activities that increase a sense of well-being and connection between family members.
2. Facilitate active dialogue between parent and child using PACE to get at the dyad’s core issues.
3. Practice recognizing escalation in child and parent and employing strategies for de-escalating the situation.
4. Employ techniques to calm and refocus a parent’s energy and communicate messages in a constructive manner.

Outline

• Implement face-to-face between parent and child to create a sense of well-being, connection and joy 
  • Watch and practice activities that increase warm facial expressions, synchronized movement and rhythm 
  • Learn activities that work to calm a dysregulated child and engage a withdrawn child 
• Learn to facilitate active dialogue between parent and child that is both safe and gets at the dyad’s core issues.    
  • Practice using PACE-Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy 
  • Learn techniques to discern underlying motives/feelings underneath a child’s behaviors 
• Practice scenarios for de-escalating child and parent dysregulation optimal arousal and affect regulation,  
  • Detect and manage parent/child signs of escalation before they  sabotage the session 
  • Learn techniques for reducing intensity of content to allow child to stay with difficult content 
• Learn gentle ways to intervene and redirect a misattuned or critical parent  
  • Observe techniques for calming and refocusing parent’s energy 
  • Observe techniques for helping parent convey messages in a constructive manner 

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Psychotherapists
• Therapists
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Addiction Counselors
• Case Managers
• Physicians
• Nurses
• Other Mental Health Professionals