PACT

PACT or Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy, developed by Dr Stan Tatkin, PsyD, LMFT, is a method to couples therapy integrating three cutting edge areas of research. The first, Neuroscience, is to understand the physiological basis of how partners act and react in relationships. For instance, some areas of our brain are wired for threat, danger and to seek safety/security. Other parts of our brain are wired for mutuality and loving connection. These parts of our brain often get triggered when we are interactions with people we are in relationships with.

Which leads to the importance of understanding another cutting edge area of research, Arousal Regulation or the Biology of Human Arousal. Here we look at alertness and readiness to engage when we hold are triggered to calmness, which is more beneficial to the relationship especially in interactions. And lastly, Attachment Theory which looks at our biological need to bond with others and how early experiences in relationships, such as caretakers, are a blueprint to current relationships. Insecurities that may have been developed earlier in life may wreak havoc for a couple if their issues are not resolved.

PACT trained therapists look at each partners relationship/attachment style based on early childhood relationships, how they are being triggered to toward feelings of insecurity in the interactions in their relationship with each other, and teach the couple to manage each other especially in distress and conflict. The couple creates a "couple bubble" or team.