This four part webinar series provides an introduction to attachment theory and how it can be applied to the family treatment of children and adolescents with serious social and emotional issues. The first module describes the role of an attachment focus in the operationalized version of ESFT and identifies clinical competencies involved in helping caregivers become a more reliable source of emotional support to their children. The second module describes the nature of attachment problems. In the third module, the attachment system and how it creates an internal working model is explained. The fourth module focuses on the nature of secure attachments, with a particular emphasis on how the concepts of attunement and intersubjectivity can be utilized to deepen therapeutic relationships.
This is a Beginning Level course. The target audience is all behavioral health professionals working with children and adolescents.
Learning Objectives
1. Describe the attachment system and how it creates an internal working model
2. Explain the reasons working with attachment is critical in the treatment of children with SED and their families.
3. Describe the features of a secure and insecure attachment patterns in families.
4. Describe the concepts of affect attunement and miscuing emotional needs.
This course uses an online distance-learning self-paced format. It includes recorded audio, recorded video-based webinars, and selected readings. There are post-tests to ensure comprehension of the material. Participants can communicate with the instructors via the online moodle interface. Real-time communication with the instructor in our online, self-paced distance learning courses is not possible. However, participants can send an email to the instructor via the online moodle interface within the course and expect to receive a response within 48 hours. All course content, including post-tests, should take approximately six hours to complete.
Course Outline
- Unit 1: The Role of an Attachment Focus in Family Based Treatment (90 minutes)
- Readings on communal rituals, attachment process in family therapy, and the influence of attachment on treatment
- Webinar: The Role of Attachment in Family Based Treatment
- Unit 2: The Nature of Attachment Problems (60 minutes)
- Webinar: Differentiating Attachment Problems from Attachment Disorder
- Unit 3: Attachment and the Attachment System (90 minutes)
- Webinar: Defining Attachment and It’s Relationship to the Internal Working Model Video on the Strange Situation experiment
- Reading on attachment patterns from Setting the Stage for Change
- Unit 4: What Secure Attachments Can Teach Us About Treatment (90 minutes)
- Reading on attachment-focused parenting
- Video on attachment theory
- Webinar: Applying the concepts of affect attunement and miscuing to Treatment
Frequently Asked Questions
Visit our Self-Paced, Online Continuing Education Policies & FAQs for additional information regarding the CFBT online learning center, accommodations for disabilities, reporting problems with the course, instructions for viewing webinars, etc.