Tailoring Treatment to Attachment Patterns: Healing Trauma in Relationship Seminar Series

Presented by Karen Pando-Mars

October 15, 2025 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM EST Chapter 1: The Move to Attachment and Representation

Session I: Building Blocks of Attachment Theory (11:30 AM – 12:30 PM) Main Topic: Building blocks of attachment theory: research & implications for psychotherapy

  • Course overview
  • The growth of love: secure base and safe haven (Ainsworth)
  • Sensitivity & responsiveness: Caregiver-Infant interactions (Ainsworth)
  • Patterns of Secure and Insecure attachment (Ainsworth)

Session II: The Growth of Attachment Theory (12:30 PM – 1:00 PM) Main Topic: The growth of attachment theory: research & implications for psychotherapy

  • The biological systems of attachment behavior (Bowlby)
  • How attachment experiences are represented: the internal working model (Bowlby)
  • How attachment is protected: defensive exclusion (Bowlby)

Break (1:00 PM – 1:15 PM)

Session III: Adult State of Mind (1:15 PM – 1:30 PM)

  • Shift in the level of representation: the adult state of mind (M. Main et al.)

Session IV: Integration with Grid Rows (1:30 PM – 2:30 PM) Main Topic: How early attachment research is woven through the grid rows

  • Caregiver behavioral hallmarks and Caregiver State of mind
  • Response to Arousal of the attachment system
  • Therapist Common Reactivities and Therapist Metaskills
  • Large group discussion: Q & A

November 12, 2025 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM EST Chapter 2: The Move to Regulation and Coordination

Session I: Regulation and Neural Circuitry (11:30 AM – 12:30 PM) Main Topic: Regulation: How attachment experiences become part of our neural circuitry

  • Reflections from the previous month, Q&A, Session overview
  • Right-brain to right brain attunement
  • The felt sense of the insula
  • Emotion from “adaptive action” to “ancestral tools for living”

Session II: Coordination Between Caregivers and Infants (12:30 PM – 1:00 PM) Main Topic: Coordination: the psychophysiological meeting ground between caregivers and infants

  • Attunement, disruption and repair and the dyadic expansion of consciousness (Tronick)
  • Moment-to-moment dyadic experience: Facial mirroring infant studies (Beebe et al.)
  • How the brain processes threat, stress and safety: Polyvagal theory

Break (1:00 PM – 1:15 PM)

Session III: Neuroplasticity (1:15 PM – 1:30 PM)

  • Positive Neuroplasticity: Experience and conditions that foster it

Session IV: Grid Rows Integration (1:30 PM – 2:30 PM) Main Topic: How regulation and coordination is represented in the grid rows

  • Characteristic defenses and Characteristic anxiety
  • Patterns of Affective Competence
  • Self-Other relational patterning
  • Large group discussion: Q & A

December 10, 2025 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM EST Chapter 3: The Move to Experience and Transformation

Session I: Building a Secure Base with AEDP (11:30 AM – 12:30 PM) Main Topic: Building a secure base with AEDP and rewiring the internal working model

  • Reflections from the previous month, Q&A
  • AEDP’s Four State transformational phenomenology: a guiding map
  • Emotion regulation: The Triangle of Experience. Internal working model: Self-Other-Emotion triangle
  • How people change: The Triangle of Relational Comparisons

Session II: Healing Mechanisms in AEDP (12:30 PM – 1:00 PM) Main Topic: Healing mechanisms that underlie the process of change and transformation in AEDP

  • Establishing safety and undoing aloneness: the AEDP therapist stance
  • Dyadic regulation and processing emotional experience
  • AEDP Maxims: key aspects of AEDP to guide treatment

Break (1:00 PM – 1:15 PM)

Session III: Secure Functioning (1:15 PM – 1:30 PM)

  • Secure functioning: Restoring naturally occurring mechanisms in the brain (Lion)

Session IV: AEDP and Grid 3 (1:30 PM – 2:30 PM) Main Topic: How AEDP informs the clinical markers and interventions in Grid 3

  • Secure Attachment in Therapy: Grid 1
  • Compare and contrast markers of insecure attachment patterns: Grid 2
  • Compare and contrast interventions with insecure attachment patterns: Grid 3
  • Large group discussion: Q & A

January 7, 2026 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM EST Chapter 7: The Formation of Avoidant Attachment

Session I: Avoidant Attachment Research (11:30 AM – 12:30 PM) Main Topic: Avoidant attachment through the lens of research

  • Reflections from the previous month, Q&A, Session overview
  • Avoidant pattern through the lens of the Strange Situation procedure
  • Caregiver-infant observations that reveal the avoidant pattern in the making
  • Language and communication in the context of the Adult Attachment Interview

Session II: Avoidant Attachment in Treatment (12:30 PM – 1:00 PM) Main Topic: How patients with avoidant attachment show up for treatment

  • The dismissive state of mind with respect to attachment
  • The deactivating strategy with respect to attachment
  • Self-reliance vs pseudo self-reliance

Break (1:00 PM – 1:15 PM)

Session III: Therapist Reactivities (1:15 PM – 1:30 PM)

  • Common therapist reactivities encountered with avoidant attachment

Session IV: Clinical Vignettes (1:30 PM – 2:30 PM) Main Topic: Pre-selected vignettes from seminar participants that highlight a specific area of challenge working with a patient with avoidant attachment

  • Participant comment/question with video illustration
  • Large group discussion: Q&A
  • Participant comment/question with video illustration
  • Large group discussion: Q & A

February 4, 2026 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM EST Chapter 8: Working to Transform Patterns of Avoidant Attachment

Session I: Healing Conditions for Avoidant Attachment (11:30 AM – 12:30 PM) Main Topic: Establishing conditions for healing avoidant attachment

  • Reflections from the previous month, Q&A
  • The configuration of the avoidant attachment pattern with clinical markers & interventions
  • Goals of treatment: relational action tendencies
  • The brave therapist stance: Therapist common reactivities and metaskills

Session II: Organizing Schemas (12:30 PM – 1:00 PM) Main Topic: Organizing schemas of avoidant attachment

  • Intervening with defenses against emotion: the avoidant Triangle of Experience
  • Intervening with defenses against relatedness: the avoidant Self-Other-Emotion triangle
  • Getting to the roots of avoidant attachment: video illustration

Break (1:00 PM – 1:15 PM)

Session III: Video Illustration (1:15 PM – 1:30 PM)

  • Video illustration and Discussion

Session IV: Transformation Factors (1:30 PM – 2:30 PM) Main Topic: Key factors of working to transform avoidant attachment

  • Transform the use of auto-regulation and self-reliance to dyadic regulation
  • Befriending vulnerability and relatedness
  • Video illustrations
  • Large group discussion: Q & A

March 4, 2026 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM EST Chapter 9: The Formation of Ambivalent Resistant Attachment

Session I: Ambivalent/Resistant Attachment Research (11:30 AM – 12:30 PM) Main Topic: Ambivalent/Resistant attachment through the lens of research

  • Reflections from the previous month, Q&A, Session overview
  • Ambivalent/Resistant pattern through the lens of the Strange Situation procedure
  • Caregiver-infant observations that reveal the ambivalent/resistant pattern in the making
  • Language and communication in the context of the Adult Attachment Interview

Session II: Ambivalent/Resistant Attachment in Treatment (12:30 PM – 1:00 PM) Main Topic: How patients with ambivalent/resistant attachment show up for treatment

  • The preoccupied state of mind with respect to attachment
  • The hyperactivating strategy with respect to attachment
  • Emotion vs emotionality, relatedness vs pseudo-relatedness

Break (1:00 PM – 1:15 PM)

Session III: Therapist Reactivities (1:15 PM – 1:30 PM)

  • Common therapist reactivities encountered with ambivalent/resistant attachment

Session IV: Clinical Vignettes (1:30 PM – 2:30 PM) Main Topic: Pre-selected vignettes from seminar participants that highlight a specific area of challenge working with a patient with ambivalent/resistant attachment

  • Participant comment/question with video illustration
  • Large group discussion: Q&A
  • Participant comment/question with video illustration
  • Large group discussion: Q & A

April 1, 2026 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM EST Chapter 10: Working to Transform Patterns of Ambivalent/Resistant Attachment

Session I: Healing Conditions (11:30 AM – 12:30 PM) Main Topic: Establishing the conditions to heal ambivalent/resistant attachment

  • Reflections from the previous month, Q&A
  • The configuration of the ambivalent/resistant attachment pattern with clinical markers & interventions
  • Goals of treatment: relational action tendencies
  • The active therapist stance: Therapist common reactivities and metaskills

Session II: Organizing Schemas (12:30 PM – 1:00 PM) Main Topic: Organizing schemas of ambivalent/resistant attachment

  • Intervening with defenses against emotion: the ambivalent/resistant Triangle of Experience
  • Intervening with defenses against relatedness: the ambivalent/resistant Self-Other-Emotion triangle
  • Getting to the roots of ambivalent/resistant attachment: video illustration

Break (1:00 PM – 1:15 PM)

Session III: Video Illustration (1:15 PM – 1:30 PM)

  • Video illustration and Discussion

Session IV: Transformation Factors (1:30 PM – 2:30 PM) Main Topic: Key factors of working to transform ambivalent/resistant attachment

  • Transforming the use of external-regulation and other reliance to dyadic and self regulation
  • Connecting with the younger self who has been abandoned by caregiver or patient’s self
  • Video illustrations
  • Large group discussion: Q & A

April 29, 2026 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM EST Chapter 11: The History of the Disorganization Category

Session I: Disorganized Attachment Research (11:30 AM – 12:30 PM) Main Topic: Disorganized attachment through the lens of research

  • Reflections from the previous month, Q&A, Session overview
  • How the category of disorganization came to be
  • Caregiver-infant face-to-face communications in disorganized attachment (Beebe et al.)
  • Disrupted/Disordered communications in disorganized attachment (Lyons-Ruth et al.)

Session II: Disorganized Attachment in Treatment (12:30 PM – 1:00 PM) Main Topic: How patients with disorganized attachment show up for treatment

  • The unresolved state of mind with respect to attachment
  • The collapse in strategy and the strategy of collapse with respect to attachment
  • Fright without Solution and Attachment without Solution

Break (1:00 PM – 1:15 PM)

Session III: Therapist Reactivities (1:15 PM – 1:30 PM)

  • Common therapist reactivities encountered with disorganized attachment

Session IV: Clinical Vignettes (1:30 PM – 2:30 PM) Main Topic: Pre-selected vignettes from seminar participants that highlight a specific area of challenge working with a patient with disorganized attachment

  • Participant comment/question with video illustration
  • Large group discussion: Q&A
  • Participant comment/question with video illustration
  • Large group discussion: Q & A

May 27, 2026 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM EST Chapter 12: Working to Transform Patterns of Disorganized Attachment

Session I: Healing Conditions (11:30 AM – 12:30 PM) Main Topic: Establishing the conditions to heal disorganized attachment

  • Reflections from the previous month, Q&A
  • The configuration of the disorganized attachment pattern with clinical markers & interventions
  • Goals of treatment: self, relational and categorical emotion action tendencies
  • The collaborative therapist stance: Therapist common reactivities and metaskills

Session II: Organizing Schemas (12:30 PM – 1:00 PM) Main Topic: Organizing schemas of disorganized attachment

  • Intervening with defenses against emotion: the disorganized Triangle of Experience
  • Intervening with defenses against relatedness: the disorganized Self-Other-Emotion triangle
  • Getting to the roots of disorganized attachment: video illustration

Break (1:00 PM – 1:15 PM)

Session III: Video Illustration (1:15 PM – 1:30 PM)

  • Video illustration and Discussion

Session IV: Transformation Factors (1:30 PM – 2:30 PM) Main Topic: Key factors of working to transform disorganized attachment

  • Building collaboration with therapist and between parts of self
  • Tending to the missing attachment experiences
  • Video illustrations
  • Large group discussion: Q & A

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