This four-session course (available in online lecture video format only) unfolds Dr. Neufeld's brilliant breakthrough model of attachment – inspired by the physical and natural sciences and built upon the most recent understandings of the brain, emotion and development. In distilling the drive for togetherness to its essence, it expands into a comprehensive model that applies universally to every human arena where relationship exists or should exist.
Course Description
Reaching deep into the physical and natural sciences, Dr. Neufeld's brilliant breakthrough model of attachment is inspired by two of the most powerful illustrations of attachment in the natural world - the atom and the plant - and built upon a solid conceptual foundation provided by current understandings of the brain, emotion and development. Once attachment is distilled to the essence, a comprehensive model unfolds to capture all the dynamics and nuances of the drive for togetherness as applied to the human experience. Neufeld's model offers a refreshing alternative to more restricted typology models of attachment as well as to the prevailing non-attachment models of learning and disorder. What is surprising is how easy Neufeld's model of attachment is to use, both for making sense of ourselves and others, as well as for guiding effective interaction.
Attachment has always been our primary drive as well as the primary context for living, but like any context, is seldom put into the kind of words that can generate insight and interaction. As science continues to confirm over and over again, there is no more important factor in parenting, teaching or treatment, than relationship. Dr. Neufeld's model of attachment brings what was previously only in our instinctive unconscious or stored as cultural wisdom, into the forefront of our consciousness where we can harness its phenomenal power to fulfill our responsibilities. The time for a consciousness of attachment is now, and this course promises to bring the best of the science of relationship to those who should be in the know.
Models of human behaviour are evaluated not only upon a lack of conflicting evidence, but also upon their power to explain and predict, and the clarity of implications for practice. This model has received high praise on all accounts. The implications for implementation are certainly clear and, in many cases, surprisingly opposite to current practice. In addition, this model of attachment sheds light on various dynamics and phenomena that have puzzled experts for years.
Suitability/Applicability
These insights and resulting practices are applicable to every venue – home, school and treatment, as well as every age group – infancy through old age. As always, Dr. Neufeld focuses on how problems develop in childhood and adolescence as a way of creating a foundation for healing and treatment throughout the lifespan. The material is highly relevant to all those involved with children: educators, helping professions and parents. The material can also be used for self-understanding and healing.
Formats & Fees
This course is available in Lecture Video Format only – filmed lectures or presentations that can be streamed online without having to access our virtual campus. See Course Format Options for format delivery, access, and content details.
Topics/Objectives
TOPICS TO BE COVERED INCLUDE:
• the essence of threat in the stress response
• the emotional impact of facing separation
• the nature of the separation complex and how to recognize it
• the role of attachment in anxiety and aggression
• how attachment becomes sexualized and what can go wrong
• the nature of emotional turbulence and its role in mental illness
• the construct of counterwill as an instinct of attachment
• the role of shyness in attachment
• how the quest for sameness is a derivative of attachment
• how the capacity for relationship is developed
• how relationship is the intended answer for holding on when apart
• how the quest for significance is a derivative of attachment
• the phenomenon of peer orientation and its impact
• how social media is a derivative of attachment
• how attachment becomes depersonalized into fixes and fixations
• how bullying can result from alpha attachment instincts
• the role of defensive detachment and shyness in reactive attachment disorder
Course Outline
This six-hour course is divided into four sessions of approximately 1.5 hours each.
Session 1 – The WORK of Attachment
There is no way of truly making sense of attachment – and what can go wrong - without having a sense of its purpose in our lives. In this session we uncover the foundational role of attachment in survival, in caring, in stress and in the spontaneous unfolding of human potential. We also look to how attachment does its work, via instinct and emotion, identifying the primal instincts and emotions involved. Among the topics discussed are the nature of the essential threat in stress and the makings of a perfect psychological storm. The separation complex is introduced as a syndrome that underlies most troubling problems in childhood and adulthood.
Session 2 – The NATURE of Attachment
There are three basic properties of attachment that must be understood to truly make sense of human behaviour: its developmental nature, its hierarchical nature, and its polarized nature. When the focus is on early experience and attachment types, these fundamental attributes are often overlooked. In this session Dr. Neufeld will present his six roots of attachment – a developmental model that is extremely helpful when working with children. He will also shed light on the archetypal attachment dance of alpha and dependence as well as the dynamics of shyness and defensive detachment.
Session 3 – The POWER of Attachment
Attachment is the most powerful force in the universe. This is obvious when thinking of the physical forces of attachment: gravity, fusion and magnetism. This is less obvious when invisible in human relationships, but no less true, for better or for worse. Attachment has the power to wound but also to heal; to block learning and influence as well as to facilitate it; to empower adults or to render them relatively impotent. The challenge is to harness the power of attachment in benevolent way in order to fulfill our responsibilities as teachers, therapists, caregivers, parents and grandparents.
Session 4 – The INSTRUMENTS of Attachment
A viable model of attachment should not only provide insight into ourselves and others, but also have clear implications for implementation and practice. In this session we discuss three effective instruments of attachment that can be used in any setting or venue, regardless of the attachment history of the person one is working with. We will also discuss the special challenges involved in dealing with resistance to attachment or where troubling syndromes exist.