The Puget Sound Group Therapy Network presents “Treating Insecure Attachment in Group Psychotherapy”
Presented by Aaron E. Black, PhD, CGP, FAGPA
Attachment theory is applicable to all forms of psychotherapy. The concepts of the secure base, emotional self-regulation and mentalization provide a powerful lens to understand how relational capacity develops in childhood and manifests within the therapy group. Utilizing a Modern Psychoanalytic approach, Dr. Black will provide applications for integrating theory, and techniques that can help groups heal attachment insecurity.
Through didactic and experiential learning, this conference will take an in-depth look at factors that contribute to the development of earned secure attachment in psychotherapy. This integrative approach provides the opportunity to gain insight, self-awareness, and group leadership skills, including cognitive, emotional, and behavioral elements. Developmentally appropriate intervention strategies that aim to remove barriers to the expression of secure attachment behavior in group therapy will be described and demonstrated. We will learn how to enhance the leader’s ability to effectively attend to insecure attachment through awareness of and sensitivity to insecure self-states, rather than classification of attachment styles. The specific psychological features of insecurely attached self-states will be described as they shape both the group leader’s countertransference as well as client resistances to emotional contact and immediacy. The capacity to mentalize, an achievement of secure attachment, will be explored in order to craft effective interventions for the individual, subgroup, and group-as-a-whole.
About the Presenter: Aaron Black, PHD, CGP, FAGPA has been in a full-time private practice in Rochester, NY, for 25 years, working with individuals, couples, and groups in psychotherapy, and providing clinical supervision and consultation to mental health professionals. His current professional teaching activities include running local and national training groups, as well as writing and presenting about group psychotherapy. He is on the governing Board of AGPA and the faculty of the Center for Group Studies in NYC. He has written numerous papers on psychological trauma, attachment theory, modern psychoanalysis, and group psychotherapy. His most recent publication appears in the July issue of the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy and is entitled “Treating insecure attachment in group psychotherapy: Attachment theory meets modern psychoanalytic technique.”
