March 4 | 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm (Webinar)
March 10 | 8:00 am - 11:45 am (In-Person)
Presenters:
Carol George, PhD | Mills College- Oakland
Melissa Lehmann, PhD | Private Practice, Center for Therapeutic Assessment
Workshop Information:
This collaborative workshop will demonstrate the application of the AAP in treating a client whose attachment classification is Failure to Mourn. It begins with a brief orientation to the attachment theory approach to incomplete mourning and Failure to Mourn to fortify the developmental connections between grief and early attachment experience. The presenters will provide a “live” AAP case consultation and participants will have the opportunity to collaborate in small groups to analyze AAP stories and other test data, develop a case conceptualization, plan assessment interventions, and collaborate in creating written feedback incorporating the AAP. The “hands on” workshop gives participants deeper clinical understanding of the challenges of treating clients in failed mourning, assessment of this pattern using the AAP, and practical ideas for assessment interventions and written feedback for future clients.
Goals and Objectives:
1. Become aware of attachment theory conceptualizations of trauma and defensive processing thumbprints that will influence treatment planning and therapeutic approaches to mourning.
2. Identify developmental attachment “red flags” to help clinicians understand the origins and relationship implications of Failure to Mourn in their clients.
3. Use this foundation to deepen one’s understanding of the role of the AAP in assessing Failure to Mourn.
4. Demonstrate integrating attachment assessment of Failure to Mourn in a multimodal assessment framework to maximize developing a treatment plan.
5. Design client feedback that is appropriately relevant and respectful so that the clinician and client can co-create a path to address psychological distress and the importance of grieving attachment trauma.
Skill Level:
Intermediate. Participants should have some knowledge of attachment theory and the AAP.
Available Bios
Carol George, PhD is Professor Emerita of Psychology at Mills College in Oakland, CA. She is co-originator of the AAP, with Malcolm West, Ph.D. Dr. George in an internationally renowned attachment expert and teaches courses and trainings in attachment theory and assessment. She received her doctorate in developmental psychology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1984. Dr. George has authored numerous papers and book chapters on adult and child attachment and caregiving. In addition to the AAP, her books include (with Dr. Judith Solomon the books, Attachment Disorganization (1999), Disorganized Attachment and Caregiving (2011), and a forthcoming book on the clinical application of the AAP (due out in 2022). She is Assistant Editor and on the editorial board of Attachment and Human Development. She does extensive consultation in for clinical application of attachment and developmental psychopathology, integrating attachment in treatment for professionals working with clients across the life span.
Melissa Lehmann, PhD is a licensed psychologist in private practice at the Center for Therapeutic Assessment in Austin, Texas. She received her degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin where she became focused on Therapeutic Assessment and Attachment theory. Her dissertation research used the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System (AAP) in a study of juvenile sex offenders. She is a founding member of the Therapeutic Assessment Institute, and part of the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System training consortium. She is also a long-standing member of the Society of Personality Assessment.
In her current practice, she codes AAPs for professionals from around the world and trains other clinicians in this particular measure. Melissa’s clinical work involves conducting Therapeutic Assessments with adults, adolescents and families, as well as long-term therapy with clients who have experienced childhood attachment trauma. She also presents workshops and seminars focused on the AAP, attachment trauma and mourning loss.