About this webinar
Date: August 10 and 11, 2026
Time: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET
Facilitator: Devra Igra, MSW, RSW
This training is suitable for:
- Mental Health Professionals: psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, social workers.
- Medical Professionals: nurses, psychiatrists, family doctors.
- Direct Service Workers: drop in workers, shelter and hostel workers.
Level of training: Introductory
Client age category: For professionals who work with adult clients.
Description: The theory of attachment clearly describes attachment as a lifelong phenomenon. For adults, early attachment experiences continue to impact adult relationships and self-perception. However, most therapy for adults don’t incorporate an understanding of attachment and therapeutic interventions based on attachment principles.
This training will teach you the categories of adult attachment and how to assist your adult clients to progress from being insecurely attached adults to securely attached adults. This training will present a model of therapy that will shift your theoretical framework to attachment-focused therapy. This model will help you assess adult attachment categories, recognize the impact of early childhood attachment experiences on the personality development of your clients, guide your clients through the process of understanding their adult attachment, mourn their losses and longings, and risk change to develop secure/autonomous adult attachments.
As a therapist, you will develop awareness of your own attachment style and its importance in the reparative process of therapy.
"Deepen your therapeutic impact by integrating adult attachment principles into your practice. Learn practical, evidence-based strategies and how an adult attachment lens can transform therapy. Create secure attachment in your clients by building stronger therapeutic alliances and developing understanding and awareness in your clients to create lasting change." - Devra Igra, MSW, RSW.
Learning objectives:
- Recognize adult attachment categories.
- Assess adult attachment using patterns of behaviour.
- Introduction to a modified form of the adult attachment interview.
- Use attachment as a paradigm for understanding mental health diagnoses.
- Recognize the adult brain and attachment.
- Introduction on how to use the model of attachment-focused therapy for adults.
- Make attachment the paradigm for therapeutic change.
Take your attachment training to the next level! Upon completion of this attachment training, remember to reserve your spot for our Certificate in attachment focused adult psychotherapy: Advanced course - Next cohort starts November 26, 2026. Contact Mary Anne VanRooyen for more information or visit: https://cvent.me/QyRPDZ
Continuing Education (CE) Information: SickKids Centre for Community Mental Health Learning Institute is approved by the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) to offer continuing education (CE) hours. Full-day programs equal six CE hours; half-day programs equal three CE hours; for less than half-day programs, one hour of programming equals one CE hour. SickKids Centre for Community Mental Health Learning Institute maintains responsibility for the programs.
Other licensing boards and professional organizations will grant continuing education credits for attendance at their own discretion; participants will need to submit the course outline and Certificate of Participation for their consideration.
Registration closes
If registration has closed and you're still interested in joining this course, please contact Mary Anne at mvanrooyen@sickkidscmhlearning.ca
Accessibility
We strive to ensure our online learning programs are easy for everyone, everywhere. If you have any accessibility requirements (automatic transcripts, closed-captioning, ASL interpreters, advanced access to program materials), please email Mary Anne Van Rooyen at mvanrooyen@sickkidscmhlearning.ca to let us know how we can best support your learning experience.
Photography is being used for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted in the content is a model, except where indicated.