The Integrative Attachment Family Therapy (IAFT) Training Course, developed by family therapy expert and attachment specialist Dafna Lender, is a powerful intervention approach that addresses a wide array of issues that make their way to a therapist’s office: difficult behaviors on the part of the child, such as frequent arguments and tantrums, disobedience, and indifference; and reactive behaviors on the part of the parents, such as yelling, pleading, threatening, and giving up or giving in.
Integrated Attachment Family Therapy Training Course
November 1 - November 29, 2023
Instead of viewing the child as the problem, IAFT addresses the crux of the issue: a misalignment in the parent-child relationship. In this training course, Dafna walks students through the IAFT framework, providing therapeutic insight and concrete strategies to help families achieve meaningful and lasting change.
Whether you’re a clinician, child welfare worker, educator, or professional working with children in any capacity, this must-have resource will allow you to:
- Create a strong alliance with parents―the crucial, and often missing, piece of therapeutic work with children
- Overcome a host of complex, off-putting defenses and dysfunctions that come with working directly with parents
- Uncover the reasons for the emotional misalignment between parent and child
- Guide families in looking at the source of the problem rather than at superficial behaviors
- Enhance children’s attachment security, resiliency, and sense of self
- With this course, you can truly help families transform into happy and well-functioning environments where children can thrive.
Learn through clinical case analysis, role-playing, and practical exercises you can integrate into your practice and use on your own.
This program is offered at the introductory level. It is suitable for graduate-level learning and accessible to anyone interested in the subject.
In preparation for the training, participants are encouraged to purchase and read the book Integrative Attachment Family Therapy: A Clinical Guide to Heal and Strengthen the Parent-Child Relationship through Play, Co-regulation, and Meaning-Making.
“Dafna Lender’s framework, Integrative Attachment Family Therapy (IAFT), uses the power of neuroplasticity to provide parents and children with new experiences of safety and connection that shift trauma-informed relationships. It offers a powerful mental health intervention that can help families to heal. If parents and therapists follow Dafna’s guidance, they can make significant progress in reducing attachment trauma in future generations.”
Bessel van der Kolk, MD
Virtual - Join from Home
6 hours of pre-recorded lectures & 6 hours of live practical sessions
Live session dates and times for November 2023
Sign up now and start the 6-hour didactic program on your own beginning October 18, then join Dafna for four weeks of live stream, online, active, and practical sessions.
Please note that there is no live session on November 22 as it is Thanksgiving week.
- Live Sessions are from noon-1:30 p.m. Eastern Time (and are recorded)
- Module 1 - November 1
- Module 2 - November 8
- Module 3 - November 15
- Module 4 - November 29
Breakdown by Session
1 - November 1st
In Module 1 we will: practice exercises for maximizing your social engagement system and participate in experiential exercises for learning about your own internal regulation system.
In this session, you will
- Learn techniques for transmitting trust and safety through body language
- Learn how to overcome your defensive reactions to clients who cause you discomfort by using guided imagery and self-regulation techniques
- See video of real client where parent and child have difficulty due to being mismatched in their nervous systems and how social engagement activities helped them become more attached and regulated
- Map out your own internal regulation system so you can become familiar with your own
- nervous system
- Learn to apply this same map with your clients
2 - November 8th
In Module 2, we will: learn how interpersonal play between parent and child builds trust, safety and connection. We will practice activities from the 4 Dimensions.
In this session, you will
- Learn about the 4 dimensions of Theraplay
- Learn which type of child behaviors need which of the Theraplay dimension
- Learn activities to use in sessions with your child and parent clients
- Practice activities in dyads
- Learn about the impact of pervasive shame and child misbehavior
- Learn how to repair shame
3 - November 15th
In Module 3, we will: learn how to help caregiver and child create safe dialogues. We will practice PACE for when a child is angry/defensive and when a child is passive/withdrawn/depressed.
In this session, you will
- Discover the power of the PACE attitude
- Learn to encourage and extend dialogue even if the child doesn’t talk
- Tools for titrating the intensity of interaction between parent and child to maintain optimal arousal
- Practice a position of radical acceptance of the client’s strong feelings
- Learn how to identify toxic shame as a reason for misbehavior
- Learn how to repair the pattern of the toxic shame response
4 - November 29th
In Module 4, we will: practice responding to defensive parents to help uncover non-conscious fears and facilitate mentalization skills. We will practice role play for parents who make blaming statements.
In this session, you will
- Assess when it is time to parent individual work
- Work with angry and uncooperative parents
- Help parents stay open and engaged
- Learn gentle ways to intervene and redirect a misattuned or critical parent
- Learn how to guide parents in helpful responses within session
Overall Course Objectives
Overall Course Learning Objectives
- Describe the principles of Attachment Theory
- List the areas of functioning that are affected by Complex Trauma
- Describe the intervention of PACE
- List 2 playful responses in a PACE dialogue
- List 2 accepting responses in a PACE dialogue
- List 2 empathic responses in a PACE dialogue
- List 2 curious responses in a PACE dialogue
- List 2 interventions for facilitating direct parent-child communication
- List 3 steps in preparing parents for working in an attachment-based model
- Explain the condition of Blocked Care
- List 2 possible reasons for a parent’s persistent defensive statements
- List 2 techniques for regulating a parent’s emotions in a session
- List 2 components of voice prosody
- Describe the social engagement system
What participants say...
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Presented by
Dafna Lender
Family therapy expert and attachment specialist Dafna Lender 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 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 the co-author of Theraplay the Practitioner’s Guide (2020). She teaches and supervises clinicians in 15 countries in 4 languages: English, Hebrew, French and Spanish.
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE
The Trauma Research Foundation is dedicated to an integrative approach to developing innovative treatments for traumatized children and adults, researching the efficacy of those methods, and to train students and clinicians from around the world in the science of treatment development, their clinical applications, and dissemination.
To ensure that our events are as accessible as possible, scholarships are available. Please apply below.
Reserve your place
Registration closes on October 31, 2023
Direct Registration
Integrated Attachment Family Therapy Training Course
$225.00
Your ticket includes:
- 12 hours of training
- 4 Weekly sessions
- Earn a certificate of completion
Purchase a single ticket for yourself
Direct Registration
Integrated Attachment Family Therapy Training Course With CE
$275.00
Your ticket includes:
- 12 hours of training
- 4 Weekly sessions
- Earn up to 12 CE Credits
Purchase a single ticket for yourself
Looking to purchase multiple tickets on one credit card?
If you would like to purchase one or more tickets for other attendees, use the registration buttons below. Please note you will need to provide registrant details (first name, last name, and email) for each ticket you wish to purchase.
Continuing Education (CE) Language
Trauma Research Foundation
2023 Integrated Attachment Family Therapy Series
November 1 – 29, 2023
Online
Joint Accreditation Statement
In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by Amedco LLC and Trauma Research Foundation. Amedco LLC is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
Psychologists (APA) Credit Designation
This course is co-sponsored by Amedco and Trauma Research Foundation. Amedco is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Amedco maintains responsibility for this program and its content. 12.00 hours.
The following state boards accept courses from APA providers for Counselors: AK, AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, MD, ME, MO, NC, ND, NH, NE, NJ, NM, NV, OK*, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WI, WY
MI: No CE requirements.
*OK: Accepts APA credit for live, in-person activities but not for ethics and/or online courses.
The following state boards accept courses from APA providers for MFTs: AK, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, IN, KS, MD, ME, MO, NE, NC, NH, NJ, NM, NV, OK*, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, WY
AL MFTs: Credits authorized by NBCC or any other state licensing agency will be accepted.
MA MFTs: Participants can self-submit courses not approved by the MAMFT board for review.
The following state boards accept courses from APA providers for Addictions Professionals: AK, AR, CO, CT, DC, DE, GA, IA, IN, KS, LA, MD, MO, MT, NC, ND, NE, NJ, NM, NY (held outside NY ONLY), OK*, OR, SC, UT, WA, WI, WY
The following state boards accept courses from APA providers for Social Workers: AK, AR, AZ, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IN, KY, ME, MN, MO, NE, NH, NM, OR, PA, VT, WI, WY
Social Workers (ASWB) Credit Designation
As a Jointly Accredited Organization, Amedco is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Amedco maintains responsibility for this course. Social Workers completing this course receive 12.00 GENERAL continuing education credits.
The following state boards accept courses offering ASWB ACE credit for Social Workers: AK, AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NM, NV, OH, OK*, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, WI, WV*, WY
*OK: Accepts ASWB ACE for live, in-person activities but not for ethics and/or online courses.
*WV: Accepts ASWB ACE unless activity is held live in West Virginia.
The following state boards accept courses offering ASWB ACE credit for Counselors: AK, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MA, MD, ME, MO, ND, NE, NM, NH, NV, OK*, OR, PA, TN, TX, UT, VA, WI, WY
AL: Activities without NBCC approval may be approved upon receipt of documentation prior to the activity BEFORE the event. No approvals afterward by the board.
MI: No CE requirement
The following state boards accept courses offering ASWB ACE credit for MFTs: AK, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, IA, ID, IN, KS, MD, ME, MO, NC, NE, NH, NM, NV, OK*, OR, PA, RI, TN, TX, UT, VA, WI, WY
AL MFTs: Credits authorized by NBCC or any other state licensing agency will be accepted.
MA MFTs: Participants can self-submit courses not approved by the MAMFT board for review.
MI: No CE requirement.
The following state boards accept ASWB ACE credit for Addictions Professionals: AK, CA, CO, CT, GA, IA, IN, KS, LA, MO, MT, ND, NM, NV, OK, OR, SC, WA, WI, WV, WY
