What is PACT?
The Psychobiological Approach to Couple TherapyⓇ (PACT) was developed by Stan Tatkin, PsyD, LMFT. As a model of couple therapy, PACT combines attachment theory, developmental neuroscience, and emotional regulation.
PACT has a reputation for effectively treating the most challenging couples. For more than 20 years, thousands of couple therapists have been trained in the PACT methodology, bringing secure functioning to tens of thousands of couples. and hopefully to you next!
PACT helps couples to overcome chronic relationship struggles and find happiness through secure functioning.
What can you expect in PACT couple therapy?
Couple therapy with a PACT therapist stands out from most other forms of couple therapy.
- Both you and your therapist focus on moment-to-moment shifts in your faces, bodies, and voices. Your therapist will help you learn to be more attuned and respond to these subtle shifts in yourself and your partner(s).
- Your therapist creates experiences similar to those troubling your relationship. They help you work through issues in real time.
- Fewer sessions
- Sessions often exceed 50 minutes and may last as long as 3–6 hours. Longer sessions allow for PACT therapists to work more deeply with couples.
- Your PACT therapist may videotape sessions to provide immediate feedback and help you pay close attention to your partner’s nuanced behaviors as well as your own.
What is secure functioning?
Secure-functioning relationships, a term popularized by Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT, prioritize the needs of the relationship over the needs of its individuals – allowing the security of the relationship to support you better as individuals.
PACT was developed out of cutting-edge research in three areas:
Neuroscience
Some areas of the brain are wired to reduce threat and danger and seek security, while others are geared to establish mutuality and loving connection. Understanding how the brain works provides a physiological basis for understanding how people act and react within relationships, thus allowing you to better understand your own and your partner’s behavior.
Attachment Theory
The explanation for the biological need to bond with others is explained by experiences in early relationships that inform the sense of safety and security you bring to adult relationships. Insecurities that have been carried through life can wreak havoc for a couple if these issues are not resolved. A PACT-trained couple therapist can help move you away from anxious or avoidant attachment and toward secure attachment.
Biology of Human Arousal
Arousal is the moment-to-moment ability to manage your energy, alertness, and readiness to engage. Learning to manage your own arousal, as well as the arousal state of your partner, can improve secure-functioning and conflict resolution in relationships. PACT's proven techniques help you to slow down so you can repair and reconnect quickly , all while better self-regulating
