2019 Professional Development event

Attachment in Clinical Practice: Relational transformation and the psychology of the clinician

Attachment research has revolutionised our understanding of human development, the internal world and the consequences of development gone awry.  Above all the research demonstrates that we become who we are in the context of first relationships in which the influences that shape us are implicit and nonverbal. It also documents how it is that the psychology of the attachment figure becomes the psychology of the developing child – security in the parent begetting security in the child, and insecurity begetting insecurity. And just as surely as the parent’s psychology shapes parenting, the psychology of the clinician shapes therapy.  

In his acclaimed book, David Wallin spelled out the implications of integrating attachment research with neuroscience, relational psychoanalysis, mindfulness and a focus on the body to help clinicians become more effective facilitators of growth and healing.  

In this seminar he presents us with a distillation of the understandings obtained in his book but takes it a step further into also focusing on work within the relationship as the primary therapeutic intervention: the explicit and implicit ways that clinicians can facilitate healing, growth and change. 

Illustrating his approach with vivid case material and video examples, Dr Wallin illuminates a way of being a therapist in which we aim to know ourselves as part of the process of trying to know our clients. 

This will be of interest and practical value to psychotherapists, psychologists, counsellors, psychiatrists and mental health practitioners. Specific attachment issues in Aotearoa will also be addressed.  

David J Wallin, Ph.D

David J. Wallin PhD is a clinical psychologist in private practice in California. A graduate of Harvard who received his doctorate from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, he has been practising, teaching and writing about psychotherapy for more than three decades. His most recent book, Attachment in Psychotherapy, has been translated into eleven languages. Dr Wallin is a lively and engaging speaker who combines a scholarly perspective with unusual candour about his own experience as a therapist. He has lectured on attachment and psychotherapy in Europe, Australia, Canada and throughout the United States. For further information, visit his website at: www.attachmentinpsychotherapy.com

“With the clarity of a natural teacher and the wisdom of a seasoned clinician, Wallin not only elucidates the vast empirical literature on attachment but also makes such findings relevant to the complex challenges of practice. I am deeply grateful for Attachment in Psychotherapy” 

– Nancy McWilliams, PhD Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

“Simply the best integration of key advances in attachment theory and research and their applications to psychotherapy” 

– Peter Fonagy, PhD, FBA, Director, Child and Family Center The Menninger Clinic Author, Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis

“A well-written, easy-to-read, clinically relevant, and particularly pragmatic application of recent science to a variety of clinical problems.” 

– Allan N. Schore, PhD

Time and Place

Oceania Room, Te Papa Cable Street Wellington

Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 March 2019