IAN International

International collaboration is at the heart of what we do. Our international network of IAN chapters continues to grow, promoting attachment theory developments and application to the public and professionals in twenty-three countries across four continents. Under the banner of IAN our colleagues research and publish, and train psychiatrists, psychotherapists, psychologists and allied professions in the latest developments in attachment theory, inform the public on the benefits of attachment theory findings, and develop and implement new attachment theory treatment initiatives.  IAN’s international initiatives include courses, conferences, study groups and, in some cases, research projects. Topics vary around psychotherapy, interventions in mental health and mental health promotion (including working with parents and families), and often activities are in collaboration with clinical, academic and professional institutions and are “transnational” involving colleagues and groups from other countries.

IAN Mexico’s Dr Vanessa Nahoul Serio interviews IAN United States’ Dr Howard Steele on his latest publication: ‘COVID-19, Fear and the Future: an attachment perspective’. Clinical Neuropsychiatry (2020) 17, 2, 97-99

‘Covid-19, Help the Helper’ IAN UK, IAN Mexico and IAN China train China’s Covid-19 Support Workers

In response to the Covid-19 crisis in China, IAN Executive Committee members Mario Marrone, Roxana Para, Nicola Diamond and Christian Herreman ran a series of workshops to support the crisis team led by Xiao Bin, the Director of the Mental Health Education Centre in the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, (UCAS) and Chairman of IAN China. This was organized as a response to their plea for support and urgent need to manage their schools’ psychological assistance program. Their centre at UCAS established a remote psychological service to serve nearly 50,000 people, including all the teachers, students and staff. The seminars delivered by the International Attachment Network aimed to assist the volunteers’ crisis support roles.

IAN UK in its Spain workshop series brings together trauma clinicians to learn about Attachment, Trauma and the Emotional Regulation Techniques of yoga and cyclical meditation.

In spring/summer of this year IAN UK’s Mario Marrone (psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and group therapist, co-founder and former Chairman of the IAN – UK) and Carolina Frontini (psychologist and yoga instructor, member of the Executive Committee of the IAN – UK) held workshops in Elche and Valencia, Spain on the Attachment Adult Interview, trauma and emotional regulation.

The courses integrated theory, experiential practices and group discussion and combined the basic principles of attachment theory, relational trauma, neuroscience, the Attachment Adult Interview (AAI) and the practices of yoga and meditation.

The attendees, clinical psychologists trained in EMDR, trauma therapy and dissociation, and who work with patients who suffer from trauma, shared professional and personal experience and discussed clinical cases and how body-based interventions for trauma can complement verbal psychotherapy.

Using the AAI questionnaire they explored together how their early experiences with both parents, specifically around rejection may have affected the development of their personality and their capacity for emotional regulation. Then focusing on the emotions this exercise may have elicited, in the latter half of the workshops participants experienced practically in a teacher led session, how the techniques of Cyclic Meditation (CM) technique and Trauma Center-Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TC-TSY) encourage emotional regulation. Cyclic Meditation is a moving meditation which stimulates the body and mind using relaxation and calming techniques. It is designed to reduce psycho-physiological arousal and promote emotional self-regulation. Whereas the Trauma Center-Trauma Sensitive Yoga focuses on bottom-up processing of experience. With an emphasis on movement, breath and bodily sensations it helps manage affective arousal by raising the practitioner’s awareness of their internal states thus improving interoception function, essential in trauma-focused psychotherapy.

Both the participants and facilitators reported that they enjoyed and found clinically relevant the creative in vivo experimentation, and that was an inspiring learning experience for the growing practice of integrating body and mind approaches.

If your organisation is interested in hosting one of this series of IAN Workshops, please get in touch with us.

ILC CHAIR           

Mario Marrone (UK)

ARGENTINA       

Chair & ILC Representative: Elsa Wolfberg

BRAZIL                 

ILC Representative: Valeria Tinoco

CANADA           

ILC Representative: Marlene Moretti

CHILE                   

ILC Representative: Christian Thomas

COLOMBIA         

ILC Representative: Victoria Eusse

CUBA                   

ILC Representative:  Joviana Castro Valiente

CHINA                 

ILC Representative: Zhang Zhiyong

ECUADOR           

Chair & ILC Representative: María Eugenia Ochoa

ESPANA                 

ILC Representative: Juan José Martínez

GREECE – Ελλάδα

ILC Representative:Μαργαρίτα Μωραΐτου (Margarita Moraitou)

GUATEMALA     

Chair & ILC Representative: Ileana Páez

ITALY                     

Chair & ILC Representative Fabio Monticelli

MEXICO               

ILC Representative: Christian Herreman

PAKISTAN

ILC Representative: Kashaf Sheikh

PANAMÁ             

Chair & ILC Representative: Lizzi Brostella 

PARAGUAY         

ILC Representative: Franca Lacarrubba 

PORTUGAL

ILC Representative Isabel Soares

NETHERLANDS 

ILC Representative: Marinus H. van IJzendoorn

UK                         

Chair & ILC Representative: Roxana Parra

USA

ILC Representative: Howard Steele

URUGUAY           

Chair & ILC Representative Santiago Cabano

Additional ILC Representatives 

Álvaro Pallamares (Fundación América para la Infancia)

Mauricio Cortina (USA)