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Attachment, MBT & Toxic Couple Relationships e-learning course
Attachment, MBT & Toxic Couple Relationships e-learning course
Toxicity in Couple Relationships is often the underlying factor in a number of manifestations – in visible forms including physical, sexual and emotional abuse and in not so apparent linkages with chronic depression, habitual anxiety and individual psychological morbidity. When toxicity is manifest as violence in intimate relationships, it is also a key risk factor for serious harm including child maltreatment and fatal violence.
Instructions on how to access the e-learning course will be included in a downloadable document in your booking confirmation email (under ‘Download’). The e-learning course becomes available within 24 hours from placing the order and online access remains available for 2 years from the date you receive the e-learning course.
There is no known commercial support for this programme.
This course does not qualify for CE credits.
$157.94
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Course Credits
Speaker(s)
Course length in hours
Full course information
At this practical and intellectually stimulating e-learning course, which is aimed at therapists working with couples whose relationships have turned toxic, as well as victims and perpetrators of intimate partner violence, Dr Gwen Adshead and Gerry Byrne integrate psychological and criminological data with clinical illustrations to examine the complex manifestations and specific causes of toxicity in couple relationships. The course draws on perspectives from Attachment Theory to evaluate the roles played by the individuals involved and examines the addictive nature of these damaging relationships; while demonstrating and explaining mentalisation based therapeutic techniques that we can use, when working with couples. Looking through examples and discussing specific case examples, our aim is to assimilate the therapeutic approaches that work best in such cases. Interactive exercises will also allow delegates to evaluate their own case materials.
Key discussion themes for the day include:
- A review of theories that explain how intimate relationships develop in humans; with particular reference to Attachment Theory and the development of mentalisation skills
- The effect of intimate relationships on affect regulation and how this explains linkages between personal and social identities
- The influence of cultural and social stereotypes on how intimacy is conceived and perceived – and how this affects couples
- The addictive force and power of violent relationships – the roles of passion, destructiveness, jealousy and a wish to control one’s partner
- The forces that keep toxic relationships going, with reference to intra-psychic as well as social factors
- How early experiences of disturbed attachments are repeated and re-enacted in toxic relationships
- We discuss a typology of violent relationships, looking at the destructive dynamics that maintain these and the unconscious fantasies of security and love that underlie them
Using illustrative case vignettes and discussions, this e-learning course offers clinical examples of therapy and examines the evidence base for interventions with violent couples, specifically drawing on MBT and psychoanalytic couple therapy.
What's included in this course
- Presented by world-class speaker(s)
- Handouts and video recording
- 5 hrs of professionally produced lessons
- 2 years access to the e-learning course
- CPD Certificate
- Join from anywhere in the world
At this practical and intellectually stimulating workshop, which is aimed at therapists working with couples whose relationships have turned toxic, as well as victims and perpetrators of intimate partner violence, Dr Gwen Adshead and Gerry Byrne integrate psychological and criminological data with clinical illustrations to examine the complex manifestations and specific causes of toxicity in couple relationships. The workshop draws on perspectives from Attachment Theory to evaluate the roles played by the individuals involved and examines the addictive nature of these damaging relationships; while demonstrating and explaining mentalisation based therapeutic techniques that we can use, when working with couples.
Learning objectives
- Explain how intimate relationships develop in humans; with particular reference to Attachment Theory and the development of mentalisation skills
- Describe the effect of intimate relationships on affect regulation and how this explains linkages between personal and social identities
- Discuss the addictive force and power of violent relationships – the roles of passion, destructiveness, jealousy and a wish to control one’s partner
- Describe how early experiences of disturbed attachments are repeated and re-enacted in toxic relationships
Overall, the aim is to facilitate reconnection of mind, body and brain and integration of disavowed parts, to restore presence and embodiment in both client and therapist.
Dr Gwen Adshead is a psychotherapist, group analyst and forensic psychiatrist. She trained as a psychiatrist, and then as a forensic psychiatrist after completing a master’s Degree in medical law and ethics at King’s College, London. She was lecturer in victimology at the Institute of Psychiatry, where she studied interpersonal trauma and its effects; then trained as a psychotherapist, with a particular interest in Attachment Theory. She first started work at Broadmoor Hospital as a senior psychiatric trainee in 1990; and over the last twenty years has worked as a responsible clinician, as well as a consultant psychotherapist.
Her research interests include moral reasoning in psychopaths and antisocial men; the attachment narratives of abusive mothers; and how psychotherapies work with violent people. Gwen has published over 100 papers, book chapters and commissioned papers; co-edited three books and is working on three more.
Gwen’s principle training is group dynamic; but she also has experience of cognitive approaches to therapy, DBT, and mentalization based therapies.
Gerry Byrne is Head of Attachment and Perinatal Services for Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, including the Family Assessment & Safeguarding Service (FASS Oxford, Wiltshire and Bath & North East Somerset), the Infant Parent Perinatal Service (IPPS) and the ReConnect Service (Buckinghamshire). The FASS and ReConnect services offer multidisciplinary, expert witness assessments and NHS treatments for severe parenting problems, including child abuse and neglect (physical, sexual, psychological maltreatment, and fabricated and induced illness). Gerry is also Clinical Lead for Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy for the Trust for Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. He has worked in CAMHS for over 30 years, and since 1990 he has specialised in the assessment of parent-infant relationships and attachment, and the individual assessment and treatment of parents who have abused their infants/children.
He is the originator of the Lighthouse Mentalization Based Treatment-Parenting Programme, an innovative application of MBT, which aims to prevent child maltreatment by promoting sensitive caregiving in parents. He has trained clinicians in the programme in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Denmark and Australia.
3 reasons why you should attend this course
- Join from anywhere: we provide online streaming as well as access to a video recording after the event
- Courses delivered by internationally renowned experts
- Our courses are stimulating, relevant and actionable and wide-ranging
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Join from anywhere
All timings for our physical events (plus live streaming) and online webinars are shown in London, UK time. Depending on where you are in the world, all you need to do is check the time difference and if the timings of the live event don’t work for you, your ticket includes a 1-year access to the full video recording of the session and a full set of handouts. You can watch the programme at the time of your convenience after the event date. Whether you opt for live attendance or video recording, you will still receive a certificate of completion!
Yes, delegates join our training programmes from all over the world. Whether you are in Europe, Americas, Asia or Australia, you can watch our courses both live or you can opt for a video recorded version. All you need is reliable internet access! Our online webinars are conducted on Zoom and all our physical events are live streamed so you can join these from anywhere in the world. We also make video recordings of all our events, so if you are not able to join live, all tickets include access to the video recorded version for 1 year.
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