Preschool Assessment of Attachment (PAA): Introduction for low-risk and mild clinical conditions in Seattle, USA 2025-2026

The FAMILY RELATIONS INSTITUTE announces the 2025/2026 Preschool Assessment of Attachment training.

Instructors: Rebecca Carr-Hopkins, DipSW MSc, with facilitators.

Description: This course is in the lifespan series of assessments of attachment developed by Patricia M. Crittenden, PhD. The PAA course teaches children’s self-protective strategies with specific caregivers. It uses the classic Ainsworth Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) upon which all assessments of attachment are based. By applying the SSP to 2-5-year-old children the Preschool Assessment of Attachment (PAA) reveals important advances in children’s self-protective behavior. This is particularly relevant for endangered children or those with behavioral problems.

The PAA marks the beginning of DMM theory and assessment as an expansion of Ainsworth’s work with infants.

Benefits to clinicians of taking the PAA course:

• Provide clarity regarding children’s adaptation and parents’ contribution
• Create compassion for both children and their parents
• Suggest effective therapist-parent strategies to use in treatment
• Jumpstart the treatment or restart a stalled treatment by clarifying the parents’ experience of their child
• Enable therapists to find the parents’ ZPD regarding their child
• Enable therapists to guide parents to discover children’s perspectives and self-protective strategies
• Permit reliable coders to classify the protective strategies used by children

Note: Coding reliability and earning a coding certificate usually require more effort than this 12-day course.

Prerequisites: Participants must have already taken Attachment, Neurodevelopment & Psychopathology.

Language: English

Where: Seattle, venue to be confirmed

Dates: November 11-16, 2025 & January 6-11, 2026.

Time: 8am-12pm PST

Assignments: There is (a) coding work during the teaching weeks (b) and between the sessions, and (c) a requirement to submit 3 PAAs carried out by the course participant. This work must be completed to receive a Certificate for Administering the PAA. There is a reliability test for normative samples following the course.

Cost: $1200 if paid before June 30, 2025; $1500 beginning July 1, 2025.

Registration: Contact Rebecca Carr-Hopkins at rebecca@iswmatters.co.uk

Cancellation: The course may be cancelled or changed to an online training if fewer than 10 people register.