Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT, is a clinician, researcher, teacher, and developer of A Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy (PACT). PACT is a polytheoretical, non-linear approach to dyadic systems that integrates developmental

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...

, arousal regulation, and 

attachment theory Attachment theory is a psychological, evolutionary and ethological theory concerning relationships between humans. The most important tenet is that young children need to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for normal ...

. Psychobiology centers on early attachment and its effect on the developing brain and autonomic nervous system. PACT encourages partners to adopt secure-functioning principles of behavior apart from their actual attachment organization. Tatkin created the PACT Institute in 2010 with his wife, Tracey Boldemann-Tatkin, PhD, to train

mental health professional A mental health professional is a health care practitioner or social and human services provider who offers services for the purpose of improving an individual's mental health or to treat mental disorders. This broad category was developed as a ...

s to think and work through a psychobiological lens in their clinical practice. Tatkin's work, based on a social-emotional capacity model, focuses on what partners can and cannot do to mitigate threat reactions during stressful interactive sequences. The clinician pays particular attention to each partner's moment-by-moment implicit and explicit behaviors, such as

microexpression A microexpression is a facial expression that only lasts for a short moment. It is the innate result of a voluntary and an involuntary emotional response occurring simultaneously and conflicting with one another, and occurs when the amygdala respon ...

s, micromovements, and other

non-verbal Nonverbal communication (NVC) is the transmission of messages or signals through a nonverbal platform such as eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, posture, and body language. It includes the use of social cues, kinesics, distance (proxemi ...

and verbal cues. Sessions are commonly video recorded, and portions may be played back to the couple for feedback and interpretation. Video recorded sessions may also be examined by the clinician for post-inquiry and research by means of digital frame analysis in order to study a couple's behavior more precisely. The goal of the PACT Institute is to help couples and individuals reduce interpersonal stress and threat consequences through secure-functioning principles of fairness, justice, sensitivity, collaboration, and cooperation. Through the PACT Institute, Tatkin has trained thousands of therapists to integrate PACT into clinical practice throughout the U.S., Canada, England, Norway, Turkey, Australia, and Spain. He also co-leads Wired for Love Couple Retreats with his wife, Tracey. Tatkin's clinical practice is in

Calabasas, California Calabasas (from Spanish language, Spanish ''calabazas'' "gourds") is a city in the southwestern region of the San Fernando Valley, between the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains, Santa Monica and Santa Susana Mountains, Santa Susanna mounta ...

. He teaches and supervises family medicine residents at

Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente (; KP), commonly known simply as Kaiser, is an American integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield. Kaiser P ...

, Woodland Hills, California, and is an associate clinical professor at the

UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine The University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine—known as the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (DGSOM)—is an accredited medical school located in Los Angeles, California, United States. The school was renamed in 2001 in h ...

, Department of Family Medicine. Tatkin is known for integrating various theories and models to form the foundation of the comprehensive principles and methodologies he teaches. As a result, the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, California, honored Tatkin with the Educator of the Year award 2014. Tatkin is on the board of directors of Lifespan Learning Institute and serves as a member on the Relationships First Advisory Board, a nonprofit organization founded by Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt.

Biography

Tatkin studied at 

Antioch University Los Angeles Antioch University Los Angeles (AULA) is a campus of Antioch University in Culver City, California. Background Antioch College was founded in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Horace Mann, Antioch College’s first president's goal was to create an educati ...

, where he earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees. He received his 

Psy.D The Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D. or D.Psych.) is a professional doctoral degree intended to prepare graduates for careers that apply scientific knowledge of psychology and deliver empirically based service to individuals, groups and organization ...

 in clinical psychology from Ryokan College in 1994. Tatkin received his early training in developmental self and

object relations Object relations theory is a school of thought in psychoanalytic theory centered around theories of stages of ego development. Its concerns include the relation of the psyche to others in childhood and the exploration of relationships between e ...

(Masterson Institute),

Gestalt Gestalt may refer to: Psychology * Gestalt psychology, a school of psychology * Gestalt therapy, a form of psychotherapy * Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test, an assessment of development disorders * Gestalt Practice, a practice of self-exploration ...

psychodrama Psychodrama is an action method, often used as a psychotherapy, in which clients use spontaneous dramatization, role playing, and dramatic self-presentation to investigate and gain insight into their lives. Developed by Jacob L. Moreno and ...

, and

family systems theory The Internal Family Systems Model (IFS) is an integrative approach to individual psychotherapy developed by Richard C. Schwartz in the 1980s. It combines systems thinking with the view that the mind is made up of relatively discrete subpersonali ...

. His private practice specialized for some time in treating adolescents and adults with

personality disorder Personality disorders (PD) are a class of mental disorders characterized by enduring maladaptive patterns of behavior, cognition, and inner experience, exhibited across many contexts and deviating from those accepted by the individual's culture ...

s. More recently, his interests turned to psycho-neurobiological theories of human relationship and applying principles of early mother-infant attachment to adult romantic relationships. Tatkin was a primary inpatient group therapist at the John Bradshaw Center, where among other things, he taught mindfulness to patients and staff. He was trained in vipassana meditation by

Shinzen Young is an American meditation teacher. He leads residential and phone-based meditation retreats for students interested in learning the Vipassana (insight) tradition of Buddhism. Shinzen was originally ordained in Japan as a monk in the Shingon (Ja ...

, PhD, and became an experienced facilitator. He was also trained by David Reynolds, PhD, in two Japanese forms of psychotherapy, Morita and

Naikan Naikan (Japanese: 内観, ) is a structured method of self-reflection developed by Yoshimoto Ishin (1916–1988) in the 1940s. The practice is based around asking oneself three questions about a person in one's life: * What did I receive fr ...

. Tatkin was clinical director of Charter Hospital's intensive outpatient drug and alcohol program. Trained in self and

for working with

s through the Masterson Institute, he specialized early in his career as a clinician in treating adolescents and adults with personality disorders and drug and alcohol addiction. A former president of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists,

Ventura County Ventura County () is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, and the county seat is the city of Ventura. Ventura County comprises the Oxnar ...

chapter, he is a veteran member of Allan N. Schore’s study group. He also trained in the Adult Attachment Interview by way of

Mary Main Mary Main (born 1943) is an American psychologist notable for her work in the field of attachment. A Professor at the University of California Berkeley, Main is particularly known for her introduction of the 'disorganized' infant attachment classif ...

and Erik Hesse's program through

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

. He was also trained in

Paul Ekman Paul Ekman (born February 15, 1934) is an American psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco who is a pioneer in the study of emotions and their relation to facial expressions. He was ranked 59th out of ...

’s

Facial Action Coding System The Facial Action Coding System (FACS) is a system to taxonomize human facial movements by their appearance on the face, based on a system originally developed by a Swedish anatomist named Carl-Herman Hjortsjö. It was later adopted by Paul Ek ...

by Erika Rosenberg. Stan and Tracey at Shambhala

A Psychobiological Approach

Tatkin developed A Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy (PACT).  PACT developed out of research in three areas:

and

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

of human

arousal Arousal is the physiological and psychological state of being awoken or of sense organs stimulated to a point of perception. It involves activation of the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS) in the brain, which mediates wakefulness, th ...

. )

Publications

Books, CDs

* Hoppe, K., & Tatkin, S. (2021). Baby Bomb: A Relationship Survival Guide for New Parents, Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications. . * Tatkin, S. (2018). We Do: Saying Yes to a Relationship of Depth, True Connection, and Enduring Love. Colorado: Sounds True. . * Tatkin, S. (2018). The Relationship Rx: Insights and Practices to Overcome Chronic Fighting and Return to Love. udio book.Colorado: Sounds True. . * Tatkin, S. (2017). How Couples Change: a psychobiological approach to couple therapy (PACT). In M. Solomon & D. J. Siegel (Eds.), How People Change: Relationships and Neuroplasticity in Psychotherapy (pp. 320). New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company. * Tatkin, S. (2016). Wired for Dating: How understanding neurobiology and attachment style can help you find your ideal mate. Oakland, California: New Harbinger Publications. . * Tatkin, S. (2016). Wired for Dating: How understanding neurobiology and attachment style can help you find your ideal mate. (Simplified Characters: N. Chang, Trans.) Jiangxi Education Publishing House Co. * Tatkin, S. (2012). Your Brain on Love: The neurobiology of healthy relationships. udio, 6-CD setLouisville, CO: Sounds True. . * Tatkin, S. (2012). Wired for Love: How understanding your partner's brain and attachment style can help you defuse conflicts and build a secure relationship. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications. . * Tatkin, S. (2012). Wired for Love: How understanding your partner's brain and attachment style can help you defuse conflicts and build a secure relationship. Prague, Czech Republic. Synergie Publishing. * Tatkin, S. (2012). Wired for Love: How understanding your partner's brain and attachment style can help you defuse conflicts and build a secure relationship. (M. Hidalgo, Trans.). Granada, Spain. Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, Mexico. . * Tatkin, S. (2012). Wired for Love: How understanding your partner's brain and attachment style can help you defuse conflicts and build a secure relationship. Bucharest, Romania. Editura Herald: S.C. V & I Herald Grup. . * Tatkin, S. (2012). Wired for Love: How understanding your partner's brain and attachment style can help you defuse conflicts and build a secure relationship. Istanbul, Turkey. Okuyan Us Publishing. . * Tatkin, S. (2012). Wired for Love: How understanding your partner's brain and attachment style can help you defuse conflicts and build a secure relationship. Warsaw, Poland. Institute of Health Psychology, Polish Psych Association. . * Tatkin, S. (2012). Wired for Love: How understanding your partner's brain and attachment style can help you defuse conflicts and build a secure relationship. (Simplified Characters: N. Chang, Trans.). NanChang City, JiangXi Province, China. Jiangxi Education Publishing House Co. * Tatkin, S. (2012). Wired for Love: How understanding your partner's brain and attachment style can help you defuse conflicts and build a secure relationship. (Traditional Chinese). Taipei. Acorn Publishing. * Tatkin, S. (2012). Wired for Love: How understanding your partner's brain and attachment style can help you defuse conflicts and build a secure relationship. Moscow, Russia. Mann, Ivanov, and Ferber.  * Solomon, M., & Tatkin, S. (2010). Love and War in Intimate Relationships: Connection, disconnection, and mutual regulation in couple therapy. New York: Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology, W. W. Norton. .

Journals

* Tatkin, S. (2011)
Ten commandments for relationship essentials.
In J. Zeig & T. Kulbatsk (Eds.), For couples: Ten commandments for every aspect of your relationship journey (pp. 29–30). Phoenix, AZ: Milton Erickson Foundation. * Tatkin, S. (2011)
Allergic to hope: Angry resistant attachment and a one-person psychology within a two-person psychological system.
Psychotherapy in Australia, 18(1), 66–73. * Tatkin, S. (2010)
Infidelity, Affairs, and Reparation.
New Therapist Magazine, 69(September/October), 7. * Tatkin, S. (2009)
A Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy: Integrating Attachment and Personality Theory as Interchangeable Structural Components.
Psychologist-Psychoanalyst: Division 39 of the American Psychological Association, 29(3), 7–15. * Tatkin, S. (2009)
I Want You In The House, Just Not In My Room... Unless I Ask You: The Plight Of The Avoidantly Attached Partner In Couples Therapy.
New Therapist Magazine, 62(July/August), 10–16. * Tatkin, S. (2009)
Addiction To "Alone Time" - - Avoidant Attachment, Narcissism, And A One-Person Psychology Within A Two-Person Psychological System.
The Therapist, 57(January–February), 37–45.

References

External links

Psychotherapy interview: Stan Tatkin on Psychobiological Couples Therapy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tatkin, Stan Living people Self-help writers American psychotherapists Relationship counseling 1954 births