As part of a two-year professional training program entitled “Psychotherapeutic Counseling for Children and Adolescents at Community Mental Health Centers” organized by the Federal Ministry of Health, prof. Gordana Buljan Flander, Ph.D, Director of the Child and Youth Protection Center of Zagreb, held a three-day education on “Theory of personality and application of attachment theory in psychotherapy”(December 13th – December 15th, 2019) at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Zenica. The carrier of this two-year education is an Institution for Higher Education in partnership with BHIDAPA (Child and Adolescent Integrative Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina), and the project was supported by the BiH Mental Health Project.
Twenty psychologists from the Mental Health Center participated in the three-day training course as part of the Personality Theory course.
During the first day, Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory was elaborated through all eight developmental stages as part of personality theories as well as introductions to attachment theory. During the second and third day, Gordana Buljan Flander, Ph.D, spoke about the historical development of attachment theories, the role of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, or the most influential theoretical frameworks in contemporary developmental psychology, personality psychology, social and clinical psychology.
Also, during lecture the importance and function of neurobiology in the development of attachment were discussed, as well as the impact of trauma experience on attachment in children and the creation of internal working models which children later transfer to all other relationships as they grow up.
On the third day of education, special emphasis was placed on corrective attachment therapy, its specificities, method and stages in work. Also, practical guidelines for work depending on the competencies and characteristics of the therapist were discussed in detail.
Throughout experiential exercises during three days, the participants acquired theoretical and practical knowledge needed for future work.
