Attachment and the Human Condition: A Circle of Security Perspective

Sunday, April 13. 4:00pm-5:30pm. Olympic Room.

Description 

This workshop will offer a user-friendly overview of attachment theory and its personal and social implications, based on the work of the Circle of Security Project – an internationally-acclaimed intervention protocol designed to support secure attachment in children. Through video, we will utilize the Circle of Security approach to clarify the specific ways a child’s secure attachment to caregivers supports the development of capacities for emotional health later in life. We’ll also examine the impact of unhealthy attachments, focus upon the tension inherent in our need for both autonomy and relatedness, and observe how these core themes impact our personal and our shared social order/disorder. Join us, and learn how to approach life with a sense of security and trust, and explore how to help others do the same. 

Presenter Bio 

Dr. Kent T. Hoffman, Marycliff Institute

Kent T. Hoffman, PhD, has been a psychotherapist and university educator since 1973. Since 1991, Dr. Hoffman has been co-originator of the Circle of Security Project, an early intervention program currently being used throughout the world to support healthy parenting for high-risk infants and young children.

Dr. Hoffman is a clinical consultant for Tulane University and the University of Maryland and is on the adjunct faculty in the Department of Psychology at Gonzaga University. He is also a training and supervising psychotherapist with the Center for Clinical Intervention at Marycliff Institute in Spokane, Washington. Dr. Hoffman currently works extensively with street-dependent (homeless) teen parents.

Dr. Hoffman has published numerous journal articles and is currently writing a book on the Circle of Security approach to attachment theory. He leads training workshops throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia for psychotherapists, educators, social workers, clergy, and parents with an emphasis upon the developmental needs of infants and children. It is his belief that a better understanding of these needs will lead to a greater prioritizing of children in their earliest years. From this priority the foundation of genuine and lasting social change can be established.