Creating Connections Conference

"As we embark on new frontiers in science and psychotherapy, we are moving closer towards relational wholeness." - Dr. Sue Johnson

Conference Overview

For the first time in the United States, Creating Connections 2016 brought together the world’s most-renowned and followed neuroscience and psychotherapy experts as they focused on the continuing impact of cutting-edge science. All previous Creating Connections conferences have been held in Efteling, the Netherlands, since their inception in 2011.

The practice of psychotherapy is undergoing a revolution because of the latest research showing the ways people are wired for relationships and how they can employ innate tools for managing those relationships. The researchers and scientists at Creating Connections 2016 helped attendees and viewers develop their own framework and techniques for applying this science in their work with adults, couples, children, and families.

Learn from the best in the world as they elucidated the therapies that have demonstrated effectiveness in peer-reviewed clinical research.

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Constitution Hall Opening Night

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Grand Hyatt Washington DC Plenaries & Breakouts

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Heurich Castle Think Tank

Dr. Sue Johnson is an author, clinical psychologist, researcher, professor, popular presenter and speaker and a leading innovator in the field of couple therapy and adult attachment. Sue is the primary developer of Emotionally Focused Couples and Family Therapy (EFT), which has demonstrated its effectiveness in over 30 years of peer-reviewed clinical research.

Sue Johnson is founding Director of the International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT) and Distinguished Research Professor at Alliant University in San Diego, California, as well as Professor Emeritus, Clinical Psychology, at the University of Ottawa, Canada.

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Dr Sue Johnson

Attachment
Solving Challenges

Daniel J. Siegel received his medical degree from Harvard University and completed his postgraduate medical education at UCLA with training in pediatrics and child, adolescent and adult psychiatry. He served as a National Institute of Mental Health Research Fellow at UCLA, studying family interactions with an emphasis on how attachment experiences influence emotions, behavior, autobiographical memory and narrative.

Dr. Siegel is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA. An award-winning educator, he is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and recipient of several honorary fellowships. Dr. Siegel is also the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute, an educational organization, which offers online learning and in-person seminars that focus on how the development of mindsight in individuals, families and communities can be enhanced by examining the interface of human relationships and basic biological processes. His psychotherapy practice includes children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families. He serves as the Medical Director of the LifeSpan Learning Institute and on the Advisory Board of the Blue School in New York City, which has built its curriculum around Dr. Siegel’s Mindsight approach.

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Dr Dan Siegel

Attachment Well Being
Defining The Mind

James Arthur Coan, Jr. (born July 11, 1969) is an American affective neuroscientist, clinical psychologist, writer, podcast host, human rights activist, and psychology professor at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where he serves as director of the Virginia Affective Neuroscience Laboratory. Coan's research on false memories and holding hands has attracted significant media attention.

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Dr James Coan

Health & Well Being

Marco Iacoboni

Neuroscientist; Professor of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA; Author, Mirroring People

MARCO IACOBONI, MD PhD, is a neurologist and neuroscientist originally from Italy. He is professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and director of the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation laboratory of the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center. Iacoboni pioneered the research on mirror neurons, the "smart cells" in our brain that allow us to understand others. Iacoboni is author of Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2008).

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Dr Marco Iacoboni

Between Ourselves

Jeffry A. Simpson

Most of my research investigates close relationships and interpersonal processes. My current work focuses on five areas: attachment (e.g., how different adult attachment orientations impact relationships and relationship functioning, particularly when people are distressed); mating (e.g., how individuals make decisions to become involved with new romantic partners, what attributes they consider, how they make “trade-offs”); empathic accuracy (e.g., the circumstances under which people become more versus less accurate at inferring their romantic partners’ thoughts and feelings during social interactions); idealization (e.g., how people’s standards for ideal partners and ideal relationships affect the satisfaction and stability of their relationships); and relationships, social development, and health outcomes.

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Dr Jeff Simpson

Partner Buffering

David H. Barlow (born April 30, 1942) is an American psychologist and Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Psychiatry at Boston University.[:1:|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_H._Barlow#cite_note-:4-1] He is board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP). Barlow is known for his research and publications on the etiology, nature, and treatment of anxiety disorders. The models and treatment methods that he developed for anxiety and related disorders are widely used in clinical training and practice. Barlow is one of the most frequently cited psychologists in the world.[:2:|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_H._Barlow#cite_note-:25-2]

Barlow has published over 600 articles and book chapters, as well as over 80 books and clinical manuals, some of which has been translated to more than 20 languages.:3: He is best known for his book titled, Anxiety and Its Disorders: The Nature and Treatment of Anxiety and Panic.[:4:|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_H._Barlow#cite_note-:5-4]

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David Barlow

Neurotic Paradox

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Dr. Sandra Paivio

Louis Cozolino

Louis Cozolino, PhD, is a professor of psychology at Pepperdine University and a private practitioner. He is the author of The Healthy Aging Brain, The Neuroscience of Human Relationships, The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy, and The Social Neuroscience of Education. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

Dr Lou Cozolino

Why Therapy Works

Dan Hughes, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist with a limited practice in South Portland, Maine. He founded and developed Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), the treatment of children who have experienced abuse and neglect and who demonstrate ongoing problems related to attachment and trauma. This treatment occurs in a family setting and the treatment model has expanded to become a general model of family treatment. He has spent over 40 years helping children and youth reach their full potential and reconnect with others in their lives.

Dan has conducted seminars, workshops, spoken at conferences and guest lectured throughout the US, Europe, Canada, and Australia over the past 18 years. He is also engaged in extensive training and supervision in the certification of therapists in his treatment model, along with ongoing consultation to various agencies and professionals. He is a member of the American Psychological Association. He is also president of the Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy Institute (DDPI) which is responsible for the certification of professionals in DDP.

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Dr Dan Hughes

Healing Families

Guy Diamond PhD is Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Associate Professor at Drexel University in the College of Nursing and Health Professions. At Drexel, he is the Director of Family Intervention Science and the Director of the PhD program in Couple and Family Therapy.

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Dr Guy Diamond

Attachment Family Therapy

Janina Fisher, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist and former instructor at The Trauma Center, a research and treatment center founded by Bessel van der Kolk. Known as an expert on the treatment of trauma, Dr. Fisher has also been treating individuals, couples and families since 1980.

She is past president of the New England Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation, an EMDR International Association Credit Provider, Assistant Educational Director of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, and a former Instructor, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fisher lectures and teaches nationally and internationally on topics related to the integration of the neurobiological research and newer trauma treatment paradigms into traditional therapeutic modalities.

She is co-author with Pat Ogden of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Attachment and Trauma (2015) and author of Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Internal Self-Alienation (2017) and the forthcoming book, Working with the Neurobiological Legacy of Trauma (in press).

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Dr Janina Fisher

When Intimacy Feels Unsafe

Dr Zindel Segal

Connecting Inside Out

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