A Psychobiological Framework for Working with Couples – Free 2-Day Workshop with Stan Tatkin
When a couple repeats the same fight, shutdown, or escalation in session, insight alone may not be enough to shift what is happening. Once both partners move into survival responses, the skills they understand intellectually can become difficult to access.
The Free PACT 2-Day Workshop with Stan Tatkin introduces a psychobiological framework for observing those patterns as they unfold. You will explore how nervous system states, attachment strategies, arousal, and moment-to-moment interaction can shape what happens between partners.
Rather than treating each person in isolation, the workshop examines the couple as a two-person system. The training focuses on clinical observation, therapist regulation, timing, and the conditions that may support more effective intervention.
This workshop offers a structured introduction to PACT concepts for clinicians who work with couples or are preparing to do so. It is professional education, not a shortcut or substitute for comprehensive training, supervision, or clinical judgment.
Why Attend “A Psychobiological Framework for Working with Couples”
Couples often enter therapy after repeating the same arguments, withdrawal patterns, and escalations many times. These interactions can become difficult to interrupt when stress responses reduce each partner’s ability to reflect, communicate, and use previously learned skills.
PACT directs attention to observable shifts in facial expression, voice, body, arousal, and interaction. This matters because the therapist may be able to notice escalation, collapse, or defensive strategies while the pattern is active rather than relying only on a retrospective account.
During this workshop, you will examine a framework for understanding the couple as an interconnected system. The material may support clearer assessment, more deliberate timing, and stronger clinical decisions while remaining grounded in professional scope, informed consent, and appropriate training.
Who Should Attend
This workshop is designed for mental health professionals who work with couples or want a clearer introduction to psychobiological and attachment-informed couples work. It may be especially relevant when familiar communication strategies are difficult for clients to use during moments of high arousal, withdrawal, or collapse.
The material is introductory and conceptual rather than a substitute for full PACT training, supervision, or certification. Clinicians should evaluate all approaches within their competence, professional standards, client needs, and applicable licensing requirements.
- Couples therapists seeking a real-time framework for observing interaction
- Marriage and family therapists working with conflict and attachment patterns
- Psychologists and counselors who support distressed couples
- Clinical social workers interested in nervous system responses in relationships
- Therapists who encounter repeated pursuit, withdrawal, or escalation cycles
- Clinicians exploring secure functioning as a two-person framework
- Professionals considering additional PACT education or certification
- Graduate-level clinicians evaluating approaches to couples work
What You’ll Learn
Throughout the workshop, you’ll explore why couples may lose access to insight, communication skills, and executive functioning when their nervous systems register threat. This creates a foundation for distinguishing unwillingness from limited capacity in the moment.
Along the way, you will examine attachment as a signal-response process and consider how pursuit, withdrawal, hyperarousal, hypoarousal, and collapse can shape a couple’s interaction. The emphasis remains on careful observation rather than assumptions about either partner’s intentions.
Finally, the training connects these concepts with therapist stance, regulation, timing, and clinical restraint. It also addresses the risks of partial or premature implementation so that further learning can be approached responsibly.
- How survival-based nervous system responses can shape intimate relationships
- Ways attachment strategies may appear during live couple interaction
- How stress can affect memory, perception, regulation, and executive functioning
- What hyperarousal, hypoarousal, and collapse may look like in session
- How secure functioning frames the relationship as a two-person system
- Why therapist regulation can influence the clinical environment
- How to observe somatic, autonomic, vocal, and behavioral cues
- Considerations related to conflict, betrayal, shame, and defensive responses
- Why informed consent, contraindications, and appropriate training matter
- The difference between conceptual understanding and clinical capacity
Event Schedule
The live virtual workshop takes place September 23–24, 2026. The published schedule runs from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM Central Time each day.
For participants in the Pacific Time Zone, the workshop runs from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM Pacific Time each day.
The schedule below reflects the topics supplied by the event host. Individual segment times, breaks, and presentation lengths have not been separately published.
Day 1 — September 23, 2026
- Why Couples Do What They DoSurvival-based nervous system responses in intimacy; attachment strategies as adaptive responses; developmental neuroscience and limits on adult regulation; memory, state, and perceptual bias under stress; why insight and skills fail without capacity
- Adult Attachment in Real TimeAttachment as a signal-response system; secure vs. insecure functioning as process; collision of attachment strategies under stress; behavioral patterns of pursuit, withdrawal, and escalation; clinical implications for assessment and timing
- Arousal Regulation in Couple TherapyHyperarousal, hypoarousal, and collapse; window of tolerance at the individual and couple level; stress-related developmental regression; loss of executive functioning under threat; clinical implications for timing and restraint
- Secure Functioning as a Clinical FrameworkSecure functioning as a two-person system; mutuality, fairness, and shared purpose; pro-self vs. pro-relationship behavior; relationship design as prevention
Day 2 — September 24, 2026
- The PACT Therapeutic StanceThe couple as the client; therapist stance beyond neutrality; therapist regulation as a system variable; pressure, leverage, and timing; avoiding common therapist errors
- Reading Couple InteractionSomatic and autonomic cues; observable interaction patterns; capacity vs. willingness under stress; tracking escalation, withdrawal, and collapse; therapist regulation and observational discipline
- Conflict, Thirds, and BetrayalWhy couples repeat the same fights; thirds that destabilize couple systems; betrayal as attachment and arousal injury; shame, collapse, and defensive responses; conditions required for stabilization
- From Understanding to PracticeConceptual understanding vs. clinical capacity; risks of partial or premature implementation; indications, contraindications, and informed consent; what PACT training develops without instruction; final synthesis and professional takeaways
About Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT and PACT
Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT is a clinician, researcher, teacher, and developer of the Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy. His work brings together developmental neuroscience, attachment theory, arousal regulation, and close observation of couple interaction.
Dr. Tatkin teaches and supervises family medicine residents at Kaiser Permanente in Woodland Hills, California. He is also an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine.
He co-founded the PACT Institute, which trains therapists in applying neuroscience and attachment principles to couples work. He is also the author of books including Wired for Love and We Do.
PESI is hosting this free virtual workshop with Dr. Tatkin as the course instructor. The event provides an introduction to the framework, while comprehensive clinical application and certification require further training through the PACT Institute.
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Join Stan Tatkin and PESI for a structured introduction to PACT, nervous system states, attachment strategies, arousal regulation, and the observation of live couple interaction.
- Sep 23 - 24 2026
- 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
More Info
- Worldwide
