Breaking Through Severe Attachment Challenges
What Truly Helps Families Heal
- Speaker:
- Dafna Lender, LCSW
- Duration:
- 1 Hour 32 Minutes
- Format:
- Audio and Video
- Copyright:
-
Mar 26, 2026
- Product Code:
- POS150626
- Media Type:
- Digital Seminar
Description
Raising a child with severe attachment problems and dysregulation is one of the hardest and loneliest experiences a parent can face. While many therapies claim to work from an attachment perspective, they often offer overly simplistic techniques, place blame on parental deficiencies, and fall short in support families through the realities of daily struggles.
In this workshop, you will learn how to:
- Recognize why standard attachment models are not always enough
- Apply strategies that combine love and boundaries for real progress
- Identify elements that make therapy effective with struggling families
- Integrate techniques drawn from 28 years of experience working with severe attachment problems
You’ll leave with a deeper understanding of what truly helps families move toward hope, healing, and lasting change.
Credit
Handouts/Brochure
| File type | File name | Number of pages | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manual - Breaking Through Severe Attachment Challenges (1019.1 KB) | 25 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Transcript - Breaking Through Severe Attachment (1 MB) | 22 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Manual - Breaking Through Severe Attachment Challenges - French (1019.1 KB) | 25 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Transcript - Breaking Through Severe Attachment - French (1 MB) | 22 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Manual - Breaking Through Severe Attachment Challenges - Italian (1019.1 KB) | 25 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Transcript - Breaking Through Severe Attachment - Italian (1 MB) | 22 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Manual - Breaking Through Severe Attachment Challenges - German (1019.1 KB) | 25 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Transcript - Breaking Through Severe Attachment - German (1 MB) | 22 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Manual - Breaking Through Severe Attachment Challenges - Spanish (1019.1 KB) | 25 Pages | Available after Purchase | |
| Transcript - Breaking Through Severe Attachment - Spanish (1 MB) | 22 Pages | Available after Purchase |
Speaker
Dafna Lender, LCSW Related seminars and products
The Theraplay Institute
Dafna Lender, LCSW, is an international trainer and supervisor for practitioners who work with children and families. She is a certified trainer and supervisor/consultant in both Theraplay and Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) and an EMDR therapist. Dafna’s expertise is drawn from 25 years of working with families with attachment in many settings: at-risk after school programs, therapeutic foster care, in-home crisis stabilization, residential care and private practice. Dafna’s style, whether as a therapist or teacher, is combining the light-hearted with the profound by bringing a playful, intense and passionate presence to every encounter. Dafna is the author of Integrative Attachment Family Therapy (2023) and co-author of Theraplay® - The Practitioner’s Guide (2020).
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dafna Lender maintains a private practice. She is a published author and receives royalties. She receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dafna Lender has no relevant non-financial relationships.
Additional Info
Access for Self-Study (Non-Interactive)Access never expires for this product.
For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepepesi.com
Questions?
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Objectives
- Identify three inherent contradictions in attachment issues that make it hard to parent a child.
- Select three techniques for parents to achieve greater states of regulation, calmness and compassion for themselves and their child.
- List three techniques for parents to implement affective attunement alongside strong boundaries.
Outline
- The False Ideal Parent – Why the concept of being a therapeutic parent has backfired
- What does supportive, effective attachment-focused therapy actually mean?
- The paradoxes of attachment injuries: inner conflicts within attachment trauma that impede trust, emotional regulation and connection
- Redefining attachment focused therapy
- Focus on realistic parenting (rather than an ideal parent)
- Taking “The Long View” of child development
- Support for parent detachment – letting go of validation-seeking, outcomes and control
- The importance of community and a spiritual approach to parenting
- Focus in therapy on radical empathy with strong boundaries, for both child and parent
- Limitations of the research and potential risks
Target Audience
- Counselors
- Social Workers
- Marriage & Family Therapists
- Physicians
- Psychologists
- Other Mental Health Professionals
Reviews
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