This CLE session will describe how adult attachment can profoundly bias information processing, and what that means for lawyers and legal professionals.
The attachment system describes a survival system, much more profound than the fight-flight-freeze survival system. Attachment science and theory describe how early childhood experiences establish patterns of self-protective strategies (an older term is defense mechanisms). Those strategies are evident in information processing, which involves memory and perceptual systems, thoughts, behaviors, expression of feelings, and in communication and narrative style.
The session will provide a basic understanding of attachment. We will look at actual attachment science in action, portions of some Strange Situation Procedure video footage, and some discourse from Adult Attachment Interviews (AAI).
There are two primary information processing patterns which are usually observable in people involved in litigation. We’ll describe what those are, and how they impact information processing. With an understanding of what is going on “behind the curtain,” it becomes easier to find ways to help clients manage their own biases and make better decisions. It’s also possible to use this knowledge to help the other party manage their own biases. Sometimes it can help you manage the biases of the other lawyer and the judge.
An attachment perspective solves these problems
- Critical missing information in client perspectives and narratives
- Unidentified subliminal needs
- Suppressed true needs
- Entrenched defense mechanisms
- Unclear communication
- Suboptimal decision making
- Unidentified threats and dangers
- Unidentified emotions
Advanced Integrative Client-Centered Model techniques
There is no prerequisite for attending this class. Good client counseling skills are essential for using attachment knowledge with clients, and this course syncs with CLE’s covering the Integrative Client-Centered Model (ICCM) for legal client counseling. We will try to avoid covering basic ICCM foundations and techniques in this session. We will cover advanced ICCM techniques applying an attachment layer. In relation to the two different communication styles, we’ll discuss how to effectively listen and communicate to them, how to access memory and perceptual systems not being used, and how to manage thoughts and behaviors which are causing impaired decision making.
This course offers an introduction to attachment, specifically using the Dynamic Maturational Model of Attachment and Adaptation (DMM). It’s an introduction to a complex topic. The DMM is the most advanced and detailed model of attachment, and our goal is to simplify it for use by any attorney. An array of identification checklists, tools, graphics, and scales will be provided. Specific techniques for relating to and helping people get past impediments to getting a better case outcome will also be provided.
Written materials will be provided during and/or before the session as well as a bibliography for further learning. Here is a link to a relatively long article about attachment for lawyers. We will cover some of the topics in that article.
Caveats
This CLE helps you start the process of learning a complex topic and a new, science-based way, of understanding the human element. It’s not a one-and-done course.
Every human has an attachment pattern and participants will find themselves wondering about and facing their own attachment patterns. This course is not for everyone. Post session attachment coaching is available.
To make good use of course material, participants will need to practice the information provided. Follow up learning opportunities will be available in a CSI listserv for lawyers and in monthly peer-to-peer discussion sessions over Zoom.
Session details
Date: Friday, December 12
Time: 8:00 a.m.-12:20 p.m. Seattle time. (Two 10-minute breaks.)
Location: By Zoom only, not in-person, live (not recorded).
Complexity level: This is introduction to an advanced topic
CLE credit: 4 general credits applied for. Non-Washington participants must apply for credit on their own, and a certificate of completion can be provided.
Cost: $50, or free for all current members of the WSBA Low Bono Section.
Sessions are for: Lawyers, LLLT’s, paralegals, legal assistants, law students, arbitrators, mediators, judges, GAL’s, parenting coordinators, parenting professionals, any other person providing services in the legal industry, and it is appropriate for medical and mental health professionals.
Certificate: Integrative Client Counseling Model, Level II.
Integrative Client Counseling Institute listserv, Zoom discussion group, 2nd session: Application to the listserv and attending Beyond the Bar monthly peer-to-peer discussion groups are free after attending. Attendees can also attend any replay of this session one time for free.
Trainer: Mark Baumann will host each session. He has 37 years of experience as a litigator, mediator, and judge pro tem, 3 years as the first associate of Bill Eddy’s High Conflict Institute, and a 2013 LLM equivalent in Interpersonal Neurobiology (“client relationship science”). Mark began developing the ICCM in 2012. Mark has been studying and using DMM-attachment in his practice for 13 years. He has completed courses in six different attachment assessments, and qualified as a coder for the Adult Attachment Interview. He wrote the Wikipedia article on the DMM. Full resume here.
Registration: Contact Us to request a registration and payment link. Email proof if you are a current Low Bono Section member (screenshot). For questions call Mark at 206-851-9337.
Session time frames
8:00-9:30
9:30-9:40 break
9:40-10:50
10:50-11:00 break
11:00-12:20
Syllabus – short
Part 1: Introduction to learning objectives and tools which will be provided
Part2: Learning about attachment by looking at scientific attachment assessments
Part 3: Learning about attachment through its historical development, and the basic attachment patterns
Part 4: Techniques for investigating, identifying and managing information processing bias
Part 5: Some DMM-AAI discourse analysis techniques (These are methods used to identify biased thinking in Adult Attachment Interview coding, and useful for analyzing speech in every day use and in party statements.)