Creating Secure Attachment in Teens: Balancing Interdependence & Autonomy

CPD

Speaker

Christina Reese, PhD, LCPC Related seminars and products

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Christina Reese, LCPC, PhD, has been working with children impacted by trauma and their families for the last 20 years. She is a licensed clinical counselor in Maine, Maryland, and Pennsylvania and is a licensed clinical supervisor. Dr. Reese is an internationally recognized trainer for mental health professionals in creating trauma-informed schools, working with mental health in the classroom and attachment and trauma in children. She is a TBRI practitioner and owns Felicity Counseling Services. Dr. Reese authored the books Attachment, Puzzle Pieces, The Attachment Connection, Trauma and Attachment, The Socially Confident Teen, and Leveling Up.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Christina Reese maintains a private practice and has an employment relationship with Sheppard Pratt Health System. She receives royalties as a published author. Dr. Reese receives a speaking honorarium, recording, and book royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Christina Reese has no relevant non-financial relationships.

Objectives

1. Recognize how maladaptive attachment impacts clients’ connections and exacerbates mental health symptoms including anxiety, depression, opposition, defiance and mood stability.
2. Determine the risk factors of developing insecure attachment: parental substance misuse or abuse, a mental health diagnosis in the parent or child, a child with a history of abuse or neglect, and more.
3. Distinguish attachment patterns that are healthy versus those that are rooted in trauma.
4. Demonstrate strategies to meet physical, emotional and mental needs to build attunement.

Outline

The Art of Compromise

• Parents Promoting Interdependence – Being the Safe Place and Secure Base
  • Recognizing when Attachment with Parents has been Impacted by Trauma
  • Relationship between Attachment and Mental Health
• Avoiding Attachment Ruptures
  • Encouraging interdependence and autonomy
  • Understanding needs
• Exploring and Expanding Peer Relationships
  • Healthy and positive attachments
  • Compromise and other social skills

Power Sharing, not Power Struggling

• Timeline for Success
  • Parents moving into the consultant role
  • Teens earning freedom by being responsible and earning trust
  • Teaching recovery and problem solving

Target Audience

• Psychologists
• Social Workers
• Counselors
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Educators
• Other Mental Health Professionals
• Occupational Therapists