Adult Children of Alcoholics and Addiction Workshop – Free Training with Dr. Tian Dayton
Growing up in a family affected by addiction can shape how people relate, protect themselves, respond to shame, and navigate closeness long after childhood.
In the Adult Children of Alcoholics and Addiction (ACoA) Workshop, Tian Dayton, PhD, explores experiential approaches clinicians can use when working with developmental and relational trauma connected to addicted or chaotic family systems.
The training examines abandonment wounds, attachment injuries, codependent relationship patterns, toxic shame, parentification, nervous system dysregulation, and the survival adaptations that can continue into adult relationships.
You’ll also explore practical experiential methods—including role reversal, doubling, mirroring, empty-chair work, boundary rehearsal, relationship-pattern mapping, and self-reference journaling—that can support trauma-informed therapeutic work.
Why Attend “Adult Children of Alcoholics and Addiction (ACoA) Workshop”
Clients who grew up around addiction may arrive in therapy with relationship difficulties, over-functioning, caretaking, shame, fear of abandonment, difficulty identifying their own needs, or patterns of emotional disconnection. The workshop examines these concerns through the lens of developmental and relational trauma.
Tian Dayton, PhD, presents an experiential framework for helping clinicians look beyond symptoms to the family-system dynamics, attachment injuries, learned survival roles, and implicit emotional patterns that may be influencing a client’s present relationships.
The emphasis is on therapeutic experiences that allow clients to explore patterns directly rather than relying exclusively on intellectual understanding. Through structured exercises, clinicians can examine ways to support emotional expression, boundaries, self-awareness, grief, connection, and a more authentic sense of self.
Who Should Attend
This workshop is designed for mental health professionals who work with adults affected by addiction, developmental trauma, attachment injuries, shame, codependency, and difficult family-of-origin experiences.
It may be particularly useful for clinicians who want to expand their understanding of experiential approaches and explore practical ways to address relational patterns that can be difficult to reach through conversation alone.
- Counselors working with trauma, addiction, or family-of-origin concerns
- Social workers supporting adults affected by relational and developmental trauma
- Psychologists interested in experiential trauma interventions
- Marriage and family therapists working with attachment and relationship patterns
- Addiction counselors supporting clients affected by addicted family systems
- Registered psychotherapists incorporating trauma-informed approaches
- Nurses whose professional work includes behavioral or mental health care
- Other mental health professionals seeking practical ACoA-informed clinical tools
What You’ll Learn
The workshop begins by examining addiction as a family-system disorder and exploring how childhood adaptations developed in unpredictable or emotionally unsafe environments can influence adult relationships.
You’ll then look more closely at developmental and relational trauma, including attachment ruptures, emotional memory, nervous system dysregulation, dissociation, abandonment wounds, parentification, codependent patterns, and shame-based identity.
Throughout the training, Dr. Dayton introduces experiential interventions designed to help clinicians explore these patterns in an embodied and relational way while maintaining attention to research, risks, limitations, and appropriate clinical use.
- How addicted and chaotic family systems can shape adult relational patterns
- Ways to recognize survival roles and adaptations associated with ACoA experiences
- How attachment ruptures and abandonment wounds may influence trust and intimacy
- How parentification can affect adult relationships, responsibility, and self-concept
- Ways to identify caretaking, overgiving, rescuing, and compliance as learned relational strategies
- Approaches for helping clients explore grief connected to unmet developmental needs
- Experiential methods including role reversal, doubling, mirroring, and social atom work
- How empty-chair exercises can be used to explore relational roles and unresolved experiences
- Ways to externalize and dialogue with shame rather than treating it as an unquestioned identity
- Boundary rehearsal, relationship-pattern mapping, and self-reference journaling practices
Event Schedule
The workshop follows a structured progression from understanding addicted family systems and developmental trauma to examining specific experiential approaches for abandonment wounds, codependent patterns, and shame.
Each area builds on the previous material, connecting conceptual understanding with practical therapeutic exercises and examples.
Family Systems, Developmental Trauma & Relational Repair
- Addiction as a Family System DisorderChildhood pain, intergenerational trauma and coping patterns, survival roles, and adult relationship templates
- Developmental & Relational Trauma in the ACoA ClientAttachment ruptures, nervous system dysregulation, emotional memory, implicit trauma, dissociation, and emotional numbing
- Relational Trauma RepairExperiential processing, reenactment, role reversal, doubling, mirroring, social atom work, research, risks, and limitations
Abandonment, Codependency & Shame
- Abandonment Trauma & Attachment InjuryParentification, internalized abandonment, attachment hunger, avoidance, grief work, cognitive distortions, and empty-chair exercises
- Codependency & Survival AdaptationsCaretaking, control, loss of self, relationship-pattern mapping, boundary rehearsal, and self-reference journaling
- Shame & Relational IdentityToxic shame, the false self, vulnerability, dialoguing with shame, and role reversal between false and authentic self
About Tian Dayton, PhD
Dr. Tian Dayton is a clinical psychologist whose work focuses on trauma healing, addiction recovery, and experiential and embodied therapy. She is a Senior Fellow at The Meadows and the author of more than fifteen books, including Growing Up with Addiction and Treating Adult Children of Relational Trauma.
Her work brings together psychodrama, sociometry, and nervous system-informed approaches within a model she calls Relational Trauma Repair. The framework emphasizes the role of experiential and relational processes in working with the effects of early relational trauma.
Dr. Dayton serves on the scientific board of the National Association of Children of Alcoholics and has appeared as a guest expert on national media platforms including NBC, CNN, and MSNBC.
Free Gifts for Attendees
Downloadable Course Materials
- Course materials designed to accompany the training
- Resources you can revisit while reviewing the clinical concepts presented
- Support for organizing key ideas and experiential approaches from the workshop
Case Studies & Video Examples
- Clinical examples that illustrate the concepts discussed in the workshop
- Opportunities to see experiential approaches demonstrated in context
- Practical examples connecting the framework with therapeutic work
Frequently Asked Questions
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Join Tian Dayton, PhD, for a clinically focused workshop on family-system patterns, attachment injuries, abandonment, codependency, shame, and experiential methods for relational trauma work.
- Dec 01 2026
- 7:00 am - 3:00 pm
Local Time
- Timezone: America/New_York
- Date: Dec 01 2026
- Time: 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
More Info
- Worldwide
