PACT COUPLES/PARTNER THERAPY
Utilizing PACT, great care and consideration is taken to support, repair and heal your dynamic, while you move toward deeper intimacy in a neutral (I don't take sides), safe environment. Pair bonding is not random - partners chose each other for a reason. Understanding and managing triggers while also gaining new skills and insights can unlock powerful healing and provide a path toward greater understanding, connection, growth and harmony in your relationship and your life. (PACT offers longer initial and follow-up sessions to allow for stabilization, in-depth support, understanding and shifting the dynamic)
PACT COUPLES THERAPY
PACT -A Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy
PACT was developed by Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT and is grounded in 3 theoretical areas of study:
Neuroscience, Attachment, Arousal Regulation.
Neuroscience teaches us a great deal about how we behave in relationships. Understanding how our brains are wired to reduce threat/danger as well as to establish connection and mutuality is fundamental to lead us to secure functioning in our relationships.
Attachment theory explains our need to deeply connect to a primary caregiver for our physical and emotional development. Our early attachments imprint into our bodies and brain circuitry and impact our behavior in subsequent relationships - the more intimitate, the greater the impact. Identifying and understanding attachment styles unlocks the key to secure functioning as we learn to utilize our adult attachments for safety/security.
Arousal regulation refers to the management of our body's energy and resources. This area relates to our alterness, awareness, information processing and attention. Our arousal regulation informs how we engage with people and our environment.
With PACT, we bring together these 3 areas to move toward secure functioning in the context of intimate relationships.
WHAT MAKES PACT DIFFERENT?
SESSION LENGTH/DURATION OF THERAPY
Those seeking relationship therapy are often experiencing a crisis. In most cases, a 50 minute session will barely touch the surface of long-standing issues. PACT offers longer initial and follow-up sessions (when appropriate) to allow for stabilization and in-depth support to get past the crisis as soon as possible. Generally, fewer sessions are required, although post-stabilization, "tune-ups" are recommended and offered as needed.
ATTENTION TO NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
Misunderstanding has been found to have a significant negative impact on relationships. Special attention to facial expressions, eye contact, tone of voice, body language and proximity are considered extremely important to building intimacy within the PACT model.
IN-SESSION FEEDBACK
PACT therapy sessions are video taped for educational and therapeutic purposes (with consent only). This gives the participants immediate feedback and has been shown to have a profoundly positive impact on helping participants move forward securely and confidently.