Now more than ever, we are seeing that human connection is vital for our thriving not just as individuals but also as a species.
Recently developments in the field of neuroscience and developmental psychology have confirmed that we are all creatures of attachment. Attachment theory helps us understand that human flourishing happens best when secure attachment is present. However, many of our clients are not thriving and may even seem developmentally stuck, due to unresolved attachment injuries or entrenched relational patterns that keep them from connecting deeply and growing in resilience. Instead of asking what is wrong with our clients, we can ask, what happened to them and equally importantly, who was there for them? This re-framing comes from a trauma-informed, strengths-based perspective.
This training will outline how healthy attachment develops across the lifespan, what happens when insecure attachment forms, and what clients may need to gain ‘earned’ secure attachment to start to flourish again.
When: 17 March 2025, 9am – 3.30pm
Where: Online via Zoom
Cost: $320 inc GST. The price stated is per person.
Contact: Faye Johnson – [email protected]
For more information and to register: please visit the website **Note our Special Offer***
NOTE – If your organisation is interested in having Ruth present face-face as a private workshop to 15 or more of your team, please contact Faye.
FAQs
Learning Outcomes
What material does this seminar cover?
- An introduction to the latest research on attachment.
- A presentation of the Attachment-based Developmental paradigm (Gabor Mate and Gordon Neufeld): how healthy attachment development across the lifespan progresses through 6 stages leading to full maturation (or the term self-actualisation used by Maslow and the humanistic psychologists).
- With more secure attachment, greater potential for human development occurs. The three processes of maturation (adaptation, integration and emergence) are explored through the lens of ‘what happened’ rather than ‘what’s wrong’ with this client, to impact their functioning?
Other key questions which will be addressed include:
- Can our clients be too attached?
- What leads to defensive detachment?
- What is involved in attachment healing?
- How can our clients gain earned secure attachment?
Ruth's presentation includes Māori and Pasifika cultural contexts, and communicates the Te Tiriti o Waitangi values in her teaching approach.
Who Should Attend
Mental health professionals, educators (teachers, teacher aides, RTLB’s, school counsellors), social workers, counsellors, Justice Dept staff (Corrections, Police). Those supporting both adults and children who are displaying attachment issues, or developmental trauma.
About the Presenter, Dr. Ruth Lawson-McConnell
Ruth Lawson-McConnell is a Registered Clinical Counsellor (Canada) and a member of the New Zealand Counselling Association and the NZ Psychological Society with nearly 30 years’ experience. She trained and worked in Scotland and Canada, and has been in New Zealand for the past 14 years. She has an MA (Honours) in Social Anthropology and Psychology (Aberdeen University) and a PhD (Counselling Psychology - Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland).
Ruth specialises in attachment issues both in adults and children. She works with a foster care agency supporting carers looking after children with complex developmental trauma. Ruth also has a private practice where she offers specialist supervision on attachment and trauma with adults, and parent consulting on children’s emotional and behavioural issues. Ruth has specialist training as a neuropsychotherapy practitioner and a trauma specialist working with partners of sex addicts. .
February, 2025
Saturday
August 26,2019
- Tuesday
- 9:00am - 10:00am
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