Attachment, Trauma, and Integrative Growth: A PDP Certification with Dr. Dan Siegel

CPD

Speaker

Daniel J. Siegel, MD Related seminars and products

Mindsight Institute

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Dr. Dan Siegel is the founder and director of education of the Mindsight Institute and founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA, where he was also co-principal investigator of the Center for Culture, Brain and Development and clinical professor of psychiatry at The School of Medicine.

An award-winning educator, Dan is the author of five New York Times bestsellers and over fifteen other books which have been translated into over forty languages. As the founding editor of the Norton Professional Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology (“IPNB”), Dan has overseen the publication of over one hundred books in the transdisciplinary IPNB frame which focuses on the mind and mental health.

A graduate of Harvard Medical School, Dan completed his postgraduate training at UCLA specializing in pediatrics, and adult, adolescent, and child psychiatry. He was trained in attachment research and narrative analysis through a National Institute of Mental Health research training fellowship focusing on how relationships shape our autobiographical ways of making sense of our lives and influence our development across the lifespan. Financial: Dr. Dan Siegel serves as the Medical Director at the Lifespan Learning Institute and is the Co-Founder and Director of Education at the Mindsight Institute. He is also the founding editor of the Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology. Dr. Siegel receives royalties as a published author and serves as a scientific advisor for the Inner Development Goals initiative and as an advisor for the Center for Child Well-Being. Additionally, he receives honoraria and recording royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. Dr. Siegel has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.

Speaker Disclosures
Financial: Dr. Dan Siegel serves as the Medical Director at the Lifespan Learning Institute and is the Co-Founder and Director of Education at the Mindsight Institute. He is also the founding editor of the Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology. Dr. Siegel receives royalties as a published author and serves as a scientific advisor for the Inner Development Goals initiative and as an advisor for the Center for Child Well-Being. Additionally, he receives honoraria and recording royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. Dr. Siegel has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Dan Siegel is an honorary member of the Austrian Federal Association for Mindfulness. He also serves on the Board of the Garrison Institute and as an advisory board member for both Gloo and Convergence.

 

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Objectives

1. Identify key dimensions of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and explain how patterns of coherence, narrative integration, and reflective functioning correspond with developmental pathways described in the PDP model.
2. Apply insights from AAI coding and interpretation to recognize how clients’ attachment narratives reveal underlying temperamental tendencies and adaptive strategies within the nine PDP patterns.
3. Integrate AAI-informed assessment findings into clinical case formulation using the PDP framework to develop targeted interventions that foster neural integration, emotional regulation, and relational flexibility.
4. Describe the interplay of temperament and attachment in the development of personality and human flourishing.
5. Identify nine Patterns of Developmental Pathways (PDPs) that help illuminate distinct growth-edges for lifelong development.
6. Explain how an individual’s insights into their own PDP and those of others can give powerful avenues for understanding life journeys and personal relationships illuminating the many ways we can be at risk of burnout and stress.
7. Outline nine patterns of personality and how these emerge from early temperament and are intensified by non-secure attachment experience.
8. Discuss how the neuroplasticity of the brain enables clinicians to support clients in reshaping maladaptive personality patterns through targeted interventions at PDP specific growth-edges.
9. Apply the Patterns of Developmental Pathways (PDP) framework to identify client-specific strategies for fostering emotional regulation and resilience.
10. Evaluate the influence of interpersonal neurobiology on therapeutic approaches to treating trauma-related constrictions in personality development.
11. Integrate the understanding of early temperament and attachment stances into the development of personalized treatment plans for diverse populations.
12. Demonstrate methods to facilitate client awareness of their own developmental patterns and utilize this insight for therapeutic breakthroughs.
13. Explore strategies for maintaining clinician well-being by recognizing how PDPs and attachment patterns affect therapist-client dynamics and countertransference.

Outline

Why Focus on Personality in Psychotherapy

• Expand your learning beyond traditional “Personality Disorders”
• Explore personality patterns emerging from temperament
• Attachment and how it can lead to a low or high level of each personality pattern
• Personality patterns, research on temperament, attachment and the Enneagram system

The Patterns of Developmental Pathways (PDP) Model

• Summary of current research, risks, and treatment limitations
• Neurobiologically informed framework of personality
• Lifespan model of personality
• Importance of seeking a sense of “wholeness”
• How temperament shapes the adaptive strategies underlying personality
• Role of trauma and attachment relationships

The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and the PDP Framework

Overview of the AAI as a Clinical and Research Tool

• Purpose: Assess attachment quality through the caregiver’s narrative coherence and state of mind regarding attachment
• Validity and reliability: Evidence supporting its use as a measure of internal working models and transgenerational attachment patterns
• Focus: Evaluates organization of discourse rather than factual accuracy of memories

Primary AAI Classifications and Clinical Implications

• Secure/Autonomous (F)
  • Coherent, balanced discourse; valuing of attachment
  • Linked to organized, secure child attachment and integrated emotion regulation
• Dismissing (Ds)
  • Minimizes or idealizes attachment; limited recall of emotion
  • Associated with avoidant attachment and emotional suppression
• Preoccupied (E)
  • Overinvolved or entangled in attachment experiences
  • Correlates with anxious/ambivalent child attachment; heightened affect dysregulation
• Unresolved/Disorganized (U)
  • Lapses in reasoning or discourse when discussing trauma or loss
  • Predicts disorganized child attachment and trauma-related dysregulation

Developmental Pathways and Intervention Insights

• Attachment organization shapes emotional regulation, mentalization, and neural integration
• Each classification offers insight into adaptive or defensive strategies shaped by early caregiving
• Clinical interventions can target specific relational patterns to enhance coherence and security

Integration of AAI Findings into Psychotherapeutic Formulation

• Use results to identify implicit attachment scripts and transgenerational patterns
• Guide treatment planning: strengthen reflective functioning, emotion regulation, and secure base narratives
• Within the PDP framework, apply findings to:
  • Promote neural integration across domains of experience
  • Support adaptive personality development through relational repair and coherence
  • Foster attachment security as a foundation for therapeutic change

Integrate Interpersonal Neurobiology Approach

• Integration of neuroscience into clinical practice to transform personality patterns
• Insights from interpersonal neurobiology to help clients cultivate a sense of well-being and connection
• Strategies to integrate the PDP framework into an interpersonal neurobiology model for effective treatment

Integrating the PDP Framework into Clinical Practice

• Outline the nine patterns of personality
• How these patterns emerge from early temperament and are intensified by nonsecure attachment experiences
• PDP to illuminate a client’s distinct growth-edges to move from low to high levels of functioning
• Help clients use their own PDP as a powerful tool to understand their risk for burnout and stress

Target Audience

• Counsellors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Addiction Counsellors
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Nurses
• Psychiatrists
• Physicians
• Other Mental Health Professionals