What Every Therapist Ought to Know: Attachment, Arousal Regulation, and Clinical Techniques in Couple Therapy

by Stan Tatkin

Expand and enhance your skills as a therapist with the guidance of an internationally respected clinician

Couple therapy combines the intense work of one-on-one sessions with the need for close mediation skills - which is why the practice can be twice as difficult and emotionally draining. This is why Stan Tatkin put together What Every Therapist Ought to Know - a comprehensive guide to the psychobiological approach to couple therapy.

Over the course of eight in-depth sessions, Tatkin will lead you in an exploration of the theory and clinical tools you need to work effectively with couples who are seeking more intimate, connected, and fulfilling relationships. Through both theoretical and experiential-based learning approaches, Stan will provide a foundational training in each of the primary attachment styles, as well as how knowledge of our own and our partners' attachment histories is essential for a healthy communication.

What Every Therapist Ought to Know will teach you:

Anchors, Islands, and Waves: different attachment styles and how they affect relational thinking
Specific interview techniques to soothe clients’ activation, encourage closer engagement, and elicit deeper insights
How to guide couples out of disordered communication and into secure functioning
Why monitoring and teaching arousal regulation during sessions yields future benefits
How to refocus clients after disruptions in the process
Why the psychobiological approach to therapy requires you to acknowledge when you’re wrong and investigate deeply how to change course
How to self-inquire as a therapist and avoid jumping to premature conclusions
The most common pitfalls in the couple therapy process and how to sidestep them
“Obviously, this is a career that is very different than most,” says Tatkin. “This process can be painful at times, but the struggle is an integral part of this very complex set of theories. It takes time and patience. If you do it a lot, you will eventually feel very comfortable in your practice."

Audible Audio

Published January 1, 2021

About the author

Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT, is a clinician, teacher, and developer of A Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy® (PACT). He has a clinical practice in Calabasas, CA, where he has specialized for the last 15 years in working with couples and individuals who wish to be in relationships. He and his wife, Tracey Boldemann-Tatkin, developed the PACT Institute for the purpose of training other psychotherapists to use this method in their clinical practice.

Reviews

[Jenelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Tatkin’s insightful guide into the world of relational therapy is a useful bonus read for therapists, students or individuals interested in the brain, attachment, and relationship dynamics that can enhance therapy. Attachment styles, neurobiology and their impact on relationships is Tatkin’s strong suit, providing experience with a relatable framework in understanding the diversity of the human experience and useful brain science data.

[Elyse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, thought-provoking book about couples therapy. Had to bookmark and go back and re-listen to some parts so I could take notes. I definitely want to read the other books Mr. Tatkin has written as I learned a lot in this one.

[Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good primer to PACT couples therapy for the interested therapist getting into couples work using PACT.

[Karencita Chu · Rating 4 out of 5]

一位諮商師的經驗總結，很隨性的口吻，但是很真切！這次是聽有聲書版本的，感覺值得抄個筆記。