Human Nurture

A NOTE FROM JASON: Hi again. In this episode I’ve got my colleague, John Guy along with me to reflect on the Ron and Chakahier initial couple clinical interview.  John hails out of Seattle and he has a private practice seeing couples, a background in facilitating groups focused on race and gender and is a practicing Buddhist. I called John because I was looking for someone who is both a PACT train...

A NOTE FROM JASON: I'm excited to introduce to you our second couple of the season, Ron and Chakahier.  I suggest that you go back an episode and listen to the 10 minute introduction that I did with my producer, Margaret Martin, to get situated for this interview.  This is the first of three interviews that I did with Ron and Chakahier and of course there will be a bunch of expert PACT consultant...

A NOTE FROM JASON: Hello and welcome to our second couple deep dive of the season!   This season we are asking the question-- How does a couples therapist learn to do that?!? To introduce the second couple of the season, my producer for this leg of the journey Margaret Martin joins me.  Margaret is out of Austin Texas and she’s a level 3 PACT therapist.  She's also well versed in ISTDP, EMDR and S...

A NOTE FROM JASON: Greetings, this is the final episode of the first leg of this three part journey. Today we wrap up with our first couple Bart and Susan.   In this first series of episodes, there has been a conversation going on behind the scenes with my producer Carolyn Sharp. The conversation has been about not only the content of what you have heard so far but also a more general conversation...

A NOTE FROM JASON: Hello!  So we are beginning to wrap up our time with the first couple of the season, Bart and Susan.  What you are about to hear is a consultation interview with my level 3 PACT colleague, Debbie Campbell out of Dallas Texas.   I don’t know if I’ve ever read a list of a persons background that better describes their clinical style and approach than Debbie’s.  She a student and p...

A NOTE FROM JASON: Hello from Berkeley-  We all know the therapy cliches about how we end up marrying our parents or how our early childhoods lay out the behavior patterns of our functioning as adults.  The cliches are true-- one way that we learn to help couples is by understanding models of human development and early relationship patterns.   The therapists who has a deep understanding of the sc...

A NOTE FROM JASON: Hey, I hope you got a chance to listen to the first half of the second interview with Bart and Susan.  Just in case you are not up to speed, Bart and Susan are an engaged couple in their 50’s who have been together for 3 years.  They face challenges around, “money, work and time” that keep them from moving securely towards marriage.  In this second interview you get a real sense...

A NOTE FROM JASON: Hello and thanks for listening.  So far this season we met our first couple, Bart and Susan, and then listened in on my consultation session with Hans Stahlschmidt.  It’s now time to hear a follow up session with Bart and Susan.   In the first interview with Bart and Susan, we heard the couple describe the very different ways they manage emotions and how this was keeping them fr...

A NOTE FROM JASON:   Hello - I hope you got a sense of what it’s like to be in the couples therapist’s chair in the clinical interview with Bart and Susan.  In this episode, I’m excited to give you a sense of what a consultation interview between therapists sounds like.  My colleague and mentor Hans Stahlschmidt joins me as we discuss his impressions of my work with Bart and Susan.  Thanks for joi...

A NOTE FROM JASON:   Hi Again- In this second half of our first couple clinical interview we finish up the interview with Bart and Susan.  On the surface, their challenge in moving their relationship forward is about money, time and work, however, as we get into the session we find that the question of managing feelings of inadequacy is really where the help is needed.     ABOUT SEASON 2 of HUMAN...

A NOTE FROM JASON:   Hello Again- In this first half of our first couple clinical interview we meet Bart and Susan.  On the surface, their challenge in moving forward in their relation is about money, time and work, however, as we get into the session we find that the question of managing feelings of inadequacy is really where the help is needed.   ABOUT SEASON 2 of HUMAN NURTURE: Hosted by Jason...

A NOTE FROM JASON:   Hi there- In this introductory episode you will meet the 3 couples that will be featured throughout the season, hear about the process of making season 2 of the podcast and get some tips for listening with the ear of a psychobiologist.  Thank you for checking it out.  JB  ABOUT SEASON 2 of HUMAN NURTURE: Hosted by Jason Brand, LCSW a practicing couples therapist in Berkeley, C...

We have arrived at the final episode of Season 1 of Human Nurture!  Not only is this the finale, it is also about attachment theory-- one of PACT's main ingredients -- and it features the renowned researcher Ed Tronick.  Ed joins us with his co-author Claudia Gold to discuss their recently released book, The Power of Discord. Ed and Claudia offer a take on attachment theory that focuses on growth...

In April of 2020, Rob Fisher joined us for the Somatic Episode (Episode #11) and I rushed it out because it provided some much needed grounding as COVID-19 began spreading to the United States and we entered into those early days of sheltering in place.  Releasing the episode quickly meant that I was unable to get Stan Tatkin's take on the interview with Rob.  It is now June of 2020, I caught up w...

We are getting close to the end of this first season of the Human Nurture Podcast as we do our deep dive into the underlying elements of the Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy.  This episode is a second look at somatic therapy as seen through the perspective of Marjorie Rand, a long time Integrative Body Psychotherapist.  Marjorie co-authored the book Body, Self and Soul with the founder...

In this episode we delve into the underlying PACT element of neuroscience in interviews with Lou Cozolino and Stan Tatkin.  Dr. Cozolino is a professor at Pepperdine University and the author of numerous books and articles about the overlap of developmental neuroscience and psychotherapy.  Dr. Tatkin is the founder of the PACT Institute and has written extensively about the overlap of developmenta...

In this quarantine bonus episode I check-in with my PACT colleagues a few weeks after we published our article about adapting PACT therapy to telehealth. We discuss the ups and downs of life as a couples therapist behind a digital screen and share our observations about what the couples we work with are facing during the COVID19 pandemic. Here is a link to the article: https://www.thepactinstitute...

I thought it would be helpful to have Rob Fisher's couple meditation as a separate mp3 file.  Enjoy!   Resources----- Rob's website:  https://robfishermft.com/ Rob's book:  https://www.amazon.com/Experiential-Psychotherapy-Couples-Creative-Pragmatist-ebook/dp/B014JMZE96/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=rob+fisher+mft&qid=1586648062&sr=8-1 Rob helps translate the body language in a television show: htt...

In this episode, we explore the underlying PACT element of somatic practice with Rob Fisher, MFT. The episode was scheduled for release in June, however, it feels important to make it immediately available as we grapple with with the uncertainty of the COVID-19 outbreak. Talking to Rob would have been helpful at any time but during this unprecedented moment the focus on present time awareness thro...

"What really grounds PACT is its emphasis on Social Justice theory and the idea that couples must have a sense of purpose, a sense of meaning, a shared vision, a shared mythology for why they are together above and beyond the ephemeral and changeable elements such as new love, romantic love, attractions or common interests." This is Stan Tatkin, the founder of PACT talking about the importance of...

Over the past couple of weeks, we have all been living through a huge shift in our lives due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus.  For PACT therapists, this has meant moving our work as couples therapists from our offices to online.    For many of us, myself included, this has come with quite a bit of worry about the effectiveness of working online, about not being able to properly intervene whe...

In episode 8 of Human Nurture, we explore PACT's core element of meditation with George Haas the founder of Mettagroup, a meditation center in Los Angeles. We are also joined by Stan Tatkin, the founder of PACT as he reflects on the interview with George and talks about the influence of meditation on PACT theory and practice. George's training and background could not provide a better bridge betwe...

Special Bonus Episode- Jeff Zeig joins us again to talk about The Evolution of Psychotherapy Conference coming up in Anaheim, December 9-13, 2020. For more info on the conference:  https://www.evolutionofpsychotherapy.com/

As PACT therapists we need to quickly organize a great deal of information within a reliable yet flexible structure while still remaining present with the action unfolding between the couple. In order to do this, we rely heavily on the theory and practice developed by family therapists. In this episode of The Human Nurture Podcast, we explore PACT's core element of family therapy in interviews wit...

The difficulty of learning object relations theory, frustrates you and makes you feel like a bad therapist, however, if you listen to this episode it is an opportunity to get more comfortable with the theory and it’s clinical applications. You see what I did there? I used James Masterson’s intervention strategy (pain, self, defense) to encourage self activation. That’s right, it’s time for the cor...