FREE ATTACHMENT QUIZ
A man in glasses is smiling in an office at a therapy session.

Learn the DARe Approach

CREATE DEEP AND LASTING INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS

Turn theoretical insights into practical help and healing for any type of attachment wound or trauma.

THE THEORY BEHIND DARe

Do you ever wonder why you interact with others the way you do?

If you’ve ever struggled in a relationship or suffered from anxiety, depression or other emotional difficulties, attachment theory can help us get to the source of these challenges and understand what’s going on.

Attachment was first described by British psychologist John Bowlby as a “lasting psychological connectedness between human beings.”

Bowlby believed that the earliest bonds formed by children with their primary caregivers is the original blueprint for how we perceive, connect with and relate to others and the world around us.

In attachment theory, we understand that our earliest childhood patterns can carry over into adulthood —which can shape our expectations and interactions for all our relationships, including family, friendships, work or romance.

A black man practicing the DARe (Diversity and Racial Equality) approach, holding a baby in his arms in a living room.

UNDERSTANDING ATTACHMENT

In an ideal situation, children come to rely on a consistent, loving presence to keep them safe and model positive behaviors. Because their attachment needs are met and the nervous system learns (and remembers) how to regulate emotional pain in the context of a healthy relationship, they develop a secure attachment style.

But what happens in a less-than-ideal situation?

If a primary caregiver fails to meet a child’s needs or there is some other interruption to the bonding process (like an illness or absence), the child quickly learns to adapt in order to survive. 

These adaptations are called insecure attachment styles, or the different ways we interact and behave in a relationship in order to have our needs met.

It’s important to remember that having an insecure attachment style isn’t inherently bad. An insecure adaptation style is simply the tool your brain and body utilize as a response to less-than-ideal conditions.

A little girl, DARe Approach, observing a plate of food while her parents are on the phone.

A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO HEALING ATTACHMENT WOUNDS

The good news is…attachment styles aren’t rigid or set in stone. Because we’re biologically wired to connect, we’re also biologically wired to heal. You see, no matter what insecure attachment adaptation you might have developed, secure attachment is always possible.

That means, no matter what happened in early childhood or what your relationship experiences look like, it’s possible to restore secure attachment, radically change the nature of your relationships and strengthen your ability to form deep and lasting connections.

All of us are capable of healing and repair. But we can’t do it alone because we’re not wired to heal in isolation. 

“

“Even if our childhood was less than ideal, our secure attachment system is biologically programmed in us––and our job is to simply find out what’s interfering with it and learn what we can do to make those secure tendencies more dominant.”

- Dr. Diane Poole Heller

A woman incorporating the DARe approach wears a turquoise top and necklace with a smile.
A man is engaging in a DARe conversation with a woman in an office.

That's why Dr. Diane Poole Heller's powerful, proven and pragmatic DARe approach provides both clinical professionals and their clients with the concrete tools to change deep-rooted patterns and open the path to a secure way of relating to themselves in others.

DARe––Dynamic Attachment Repatterning experience––is groundbreaking trauma and attachment training created by Dr. Diane Poole Heller for mental health professionals, life coaches, somatic therapists, bodyworkers and anyone interested in developing essential skills to help themselves and their clients develop stronger and more secure attachment, resulting in fulfilling and lasting adult relationships.

DARe training provides a sound theoretical understanding of both early childhood and adult attachment. But it moves beyond theoretical concepts to give both novice and experienced practitioners skills, strategies and corrective exercises that improve communication, deepen intimacy and help heal early attachment wounds for any relationship.

BECOME A DARe TRAINED PROFESSIONAL

A man is sitting on the floor with a young man, demonstrating the DARe Approach.

Therapists, Social Workers & Mental Health Professionals

Many individuals who present for treatment in clinical settings have histories of insecure attachment––even though it may not be the presenting problem. By better addressing attachment concerns, mental health clinicians can provide more targeted and effective treatment to clients.

Attachment theory is often referred to as an important part of clinical work, yet the average therapist or social worker rarely receives adequate professional training on how to integrate the work with existing modalities and apply it to everyday practice.

  • Strengthen your clinical skills and learn how to help yourself and others heal.
  • Quickly assess (and adjust) to different attachment styles.
  • Learn interventions, skills and exercises that help break decades-old patterns and behaviors.
  • Master a compassionate framework that navigates the ever-shifting complexities and nuances of even the most difficult relationships.
LEARN ABOUT THE DARe CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

Life, Business & Personal Development Coaches

Coaches routinely encounter remnants of long-held patterns that continue to define the narrative of their clients’ lives. Too many times, we see this with clients who seem to experience the same “story” over and over again––stuck in the same role or response or limiting belief

Without venturing into psychotherapeutic territory, qualified coaches can use their understanding of attachment theory to guide clients toward a more secure sense of attachment, enabling them to be more resilient, flexible and empathetic.

  • Learn the basics of attachment system dynamics and get to the root of destructive patterns.
  • Combine an attachment focus with practical, skill-building approaches to embrace positive ways of perceiving, behaving and interacting.
  • Discover practical tools and strategies that promote repair, resilience and secure attachment.
Training Calendar
A woman using a laptop in bed.
A female doctor using the DARe Approach while talking on a laptop in a lab coat.

Nurses, Medical Professionals & First Responders

Anyone who interacts with individuals and families in a professional capacity––including law enforcement, first responders, healthcare providers, nurses, or faith community leaders––can experience vicarious or secondary trauma. 

On an airplane, the first rule is to put on your own oxygen mask before you help anyone else. It’s the same way with professional caregivers––only when we first help ourselves by reducing our own stress and anxiety, can we more effectively help others.

  • Address your own trauma history, build resilience and learn how to value your own self-care.
  • Develop a transformative understanding of how early attachment trauma affects the brain and can affect maladaptive behaviors.
  • Develop new perspectives and cultural awareness using trauma-informed approaches.
  • Increase self-awareness and discover a new outlook on personal development, including ways to avoid secondary trauma.
Find Upcoming Training

Bodyworkers, Movement Therapists & Alternative Healing Practitioners

If you already do somatic work, you know that stress and trauma not only manifest emotionally and in the body––but also in the nervous system. Trauma and attachment-informed approaches address both the physical and relational patterns that influence the success of the therapeutic relationship.

When embodied forms of therapy extend and complement other modalities, you have the opportunity to provide relief and create a safe, healing environment that is crucial to clients on their healing journey.

  • Learn a potent, brain-based approach that helps you and your clients recognize and regulate an over-activated nervous system.
  • Identify the signs of trauma that get trapped in our body––and discover simple exercises and frameworks that begin to calm and reset the nervous system to speed relief and recovery.
  • Add diverse interventions to your therapeutic skillset.
Learn about the DARe Certificate Program
A woman utilizing the DARe Approach engages in a conversation with another woman while seated in a chair.
A man using the DARE approach is sitting in a chair.

Educational Administrators & Teachers

Research shows that educators’ empathy skills and the ability to foster relationships have proven positive effects on student outcomes, school culture and even teacher retention rates. But most educators are never taught how to develop greater awareness of their own––and others––feelings, thoughts and needs. 

Now, in the aftermath of COVID-19, you and your students need support more than ever before.  A loss of safety and predictability, as well as trauma related to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have led to prolonged stress that can hinder development and derail emotional well-being––with lifelong implications.

  • Develop critical skills in how to provide emotional safety and co-regulation.
  • Learn how stress and trauma affect both physical and emotional health––and recognize the indicators of trauma and stress in ourselves and others.
  • Learn how to identify attachment styles, how they develop… and more importantly, how they affect future relationship patterns.
  • Develop strategies for self-regulation and self-care, as well as skills to process and address student stress and trauma.
Upcoming Training

Non-Therapists, Families & Parents

Unhealthy behavior patterns don’t happen in a vacuum––they’re the result of real attachment trauma that affects not only our thoughts and emotions, but our physical health as well. The good news? We can all heal from early attachment injury and restore our innate secure attachment.

When parents, families, caregivers and professionals have the support they need to work together, therapy helps healing more possible than ever.

  • Begin your journey to healing the past by understanding how early attachment wounding influences your behavior in adult relationships.
  • Discover proven approaches, strategies and practical exercises that strengthen your secure attachment skills and build resilience.
  • Learn new ways of communicating in any type of relationship, so you can repair and reconnect for greater intimacy, fulfillment and joy.
Training Events
A mother and daughter sharing an intimate moment as they DARe into each other's eyes.
SEE ALL TRAINING

Learn the DARe Approach

Trauma and Attachment-Informed Online Training

Turn attachment theory into everyday practice. Learn practical skills that get to the root of trauma, restore secure attachment and bring healing to any relationship.

BEGIN YOUR HEALING JOURNEY

The foundation for all of our training rests on Dr. Diane Poole Heller’s firm belief that we are all hardwired to heal. Our bodies and our brains store memories of early experiences, creating patterns that deeply affect our relationships and behaviors in adult life.

And when you can discover the source of those patterns––to get to the root of unresolved trauma––you can turn theoretical insights into practical help and healing to deepen intimacy and restore secure attachment.

Whether you’re ready to broaden your thinking and deepen your clinical toolbox or you’re simply curious how an understanding of attachment styles can support psychological, emotional and behavioral growth, there’s a training program right for you…

A woman is using a laptop while seated on a couch, demonstrating the DARe Approach.

Adult Attachment Styles

INTRODUCTION TO ATTACHMENT

In this 2-hour, 4-part self-paced video training series, Dr. Diane Poole Heller delivers a quick, yet thorough primer on the four attachment styles: secure, avoidant, ambivalent and disorganized.

For only $67, you’ll learn:

  • How attachment styles develop––and what it means to have a healthy attachment system.
  • How to identify (and understand) each of the different attachment adaptations, including their language and behavior patterns.
  • Ways that attachment styles can negatively and positively affect relationships (both in our present and our past).
  • Tools, tips and exercises to begin the healing process and help you move yourself and your relationships back towards secure attachment.

This video training includes a short welcome––plus four video and audio recordings, transcripts and a follow-along workbook filled with experiential exercises, tips, and space for reflection––all designed to help you begin your healing journey as you strengthen secure attachment skills.

SPECIAL BONUS

To help you better understand how each of the four attachments presents in your life and relationships, you’ll also get the Attachment for Everyone eBook and the Adult Attachment Styles Reference Guide for FREE as our way of saying thanks for registering!

Buy Now

Attachment & Trauma Mastery Training

TWO WAYS TO LEARN DARe

Your clients need help now more than ever before. But few of us expect the work to be easy. 

In everyday therapeutic sessions, you need more than theory alone to get to the root of unresolved trauma to help yourself and others heal.

Using the framework of Dr. Diane Poole Heller’s signature DARe approach (Dynamic Attachment Repatterning experience), we offer a variety of courses and programs that help you apply concrete skills, interventions and strategies to clinical sessions––integrate the work with existing modalities to strengthen secure attachment and bring healing to any relationship.

Choose how you want to learn…

  • 3-Day DARe Live Intensives

    A series of live, online 3-day workshops taught by DARe faculty and offered quarterly throughout the calendar year.

    By combining live training, informative teaching lectures, practical demonstrations, experiential exercises and supplementary support material––participants leave each workshop clearly understanding how to integrate and apply attachment and trauma principles, techniques and corrective experiences to a clinical setting.
  • Attachment & Trauma Mastery Program

    In a hybrid approach to learning, our 6-week Attachment & Trauma Mastery courses combine self-paced online learning with live training led by Dr. Diane Poole Heller.

    Each week, access pre-recorded training videos in your learning portal––along with audio recordings, transcripts and supplementary resources like worksheets, demos and exercises.

    Plus, join Dr. Heller for LIVE weekly training calls and Q&A sessions where you learn experiential exercises, review the week’s teachings and discuss cases and client demos.

    Can’t attend live? All sessions are recorded and posted to your personal learning dashboard within 48 hours, where they’re yours to keep (and revisit) for the lifetime of the program.

No matter which way you choose to learn DARe, you’ll quickly identify the relationship or coping patterns that underlie the dynamics of a person’s emotional difficulties––and discover practical ways to integrate and apply training that’s highly applicable to your personal and professional life.

See All Upcoming Training

Advanced Training for Clinicians

DARe CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

Elevate your clinical skills and work more effectively with clients. Discover how to address unresolved trauma, heal attachment wounds and restore and strengthen secure attachment skills––to support healing and resilience for any type of relationship.

Using the framework of Dr. Diane Poole Heller’s signature Dynamic Attachment Repatterning experience approach (DARe), the Certificate Program combines psychotherapeutic modalities, scientific and spiritual perspectives with attachment and  trauma-informed tools, techniques and strategies.

Gain skills you need to work more effectively with clients…

  • Tap into your own potential for recovery and growth so you can embody the practices to better serve your clients.
  • Learn how to recognize and address different attachment styles and adaptations in real-time.
  • Become an expert in a unique therapeutic approach that gets to the root of trauma and supports permanent changes that alleviate suffering and bring joy and fulfillment.
  • Work with the relational field and the nervous system, which is the key paradigm when working with attachment wounds and trauma.
  • Receive practical, experiential training that emphasizes integration of practical, clinical knowledge with existing modalities you already use.
  • Access valuable tools and exercises to experience and embody the work for yourself.
Learn More + Apply

Monthly Training for Clinicians

Therapy Mastermind Circle

Join a monthly online membership program where we explore relevant topics, share expert learning and gain practical skills and interventions that help you and your clients grow and thrive.

  • Explore a variety of deep and complex topics that aren’t often covered in traditional training programs.
  • Learn directly from Dr. Diane Poole Heller and other renowned express, ready to share years of professional, clinical experience.
  • Integrate new skills, corrective exercises and interventions that help clients grow and thrive despite their trauma.
  • Join an engaged and friendly community that supports you while you support others in their healing.
Read More

The Power of Attachment Book

CREATE DEEP AND LASTING RELATIONSHIPS

Why do we experience recurring struggles in our relationships? And why do traumatic events often awaken or amplify our fear, anger, isolation and helplessness?

Overwhelming experiences can disrupt our most important connections––parts of ourselves (within), the physical world around us and with others. And in the wake of trauma, your attachment style deeply influences what happens next. 

With expert guidance, this book teaches the principles and practices for finding your way back to wholeness, resilience and connection––based on the unique way you connect with others.

Here, you’ll learn key insights and practices to help you:

  • Restore broken connections caused by trauma
  • Become more embodied and grounded in your body
  • Integrate the parts of you that feel wounded and fragmented
  • Emerge from grief, fear and powerlessness to regain strength, joy and resilience
  • Reclaim access to your inner resources and spiritual nature
Buy the Book

Adult Attachment Styles

INTRODUCTION TO ATTACHMENT

In this 2-hour, 4-part self-paced video training series, Dr. Diane Poole Heller delivers a quick, yet thorough primer on the four attachment styles: secure, avoidant, ambivalent and disorganized.

For only $67, you’ll learn:

  • How attachment styles develop––and what it means to have a healthy attachment system.
  • How to identify (and understand) each of the different attachment adaptations, including their language and behavior patterns.
  • Ways that attachment styles can negatively and positively affect relationships (both in our present and our past).
  • Tools, tips and exercises to begin the healing process and help you move yourself and your relationships back towards secure attachment.

This video training includes a short welcome––plus four video and audio recordings, transcripts and a follow-along workbook filled with experiential exercises, tips, and space for reflection––all designed to help you begin your healing journey as you strengthen secure attachment skills.

SPECIAL BONUS

To help you better understand how each of the four attachments presents in your life and relationships, you’ll also get the Attachment for Everyone eBook and the Adult Attachment Styles Reference Guide for FREE as our way of saying thanks for registering!

Buy Now

Attachment & Trauma Mastery Training

TWO WAYS TO LEARN DARe

Your clients need help now more than ever before. But few of us expect the work to be easy. 

In everyday therapeutic sessions, you need more than theory alone to get to the root of unresolved trauma to help yourself and others heal.

Using the framework of Dr. Diane Poole Heller’s signature DARe approach (Dynamic Attachment Repatterning experience), we offer a variety of courses and programs that help you apply concrete skills, interventions and strategies to clinical sessions––integrate the work with existing modalities to strengthen secure attachment and bring healing to any relationship.

Choose how you want to learn…

  • 3-Day DARe Live Intensives

    A series of live, online 3-day workshops taught by DARe faculty and offered quarterly throughout the calendar year.

    By combining live training, informative teaching lectures, practical demonstrations, experiential exercises and supplementary support material––participants leave each workshop clearly understanding how to integrate and apply attachment and trauma principles, techniques and corrective experiences to a clinical setting.
  • Attachment & Trauma Mastery Program

    In a hybrid approach to learning, our 6-week Attachment & Trauma Mastery courses combine self-paced online learning with live training led by Dr. Diane Poole Heller.

    Each week, access pre-recorded training videos in your learning portal––along with audio recordings, transcripts and supplementary resources like worksheets, demos and exercises.

    Plus, join Dr. Heller for LIVE weekly training calls and Q&A sessions where you learn experiential exercises, review the week’s teachings and discuss cases and client demos.

    Can’t attend live? All sessions are recorded and posted to your personal learning dashboard within 48 hours, where they’re yours to keep (and revisit) for the lifetime of the program.

No matter which way you choose to learn DARe, you’ll quickly identify the relationship or coping patterns that underlie the dynamics of a person’s emotional difficulties––and discover practical ways to integrate and apply training that’s highly applicable to your personal and professional life.

See All Upcoming Training

Advanced Training for Clinicians

DARe CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

Elevate your clinical skills and work more effectively with clients. Discover how to address unresolved trauma, heal attachment wounds and restore and strengthen secure attachment skills––to support healing and resilience for any type of relationship.

Using the framework of Dr. Diane Poole Heller’s signature Dynamic Attachment Repatterning experience approach (DARe), the Certificate Program combines psychotherapeutic modalities, scientific and spiritual perspectives with attachment and  trauma-informed tools, techniques and strategies.

Gain skills you need to work more effectively with clients…

  • Tap into your own potential for recovery and growth so you can embody the practices to better serve your clients.
  • Learn how to recognize and address different attachment styles and adaptations in real-time.
  • Become an expert in a unique therapeutic approach that gets to the root of trauma and supports permanent changes that alleviate suffering and bring joy and fulfillment.
  • Work with the relational field and the nervous system, which is the key paradigm when working with attachment wounds and trauma.
  • Receive practical, experiential training that emphasizes integration of practical, clinical knowledge with existing modalities you already use.
  • Access valuable tools and exercises to experience and embody the work for yourself.
Learn More + Apply

Monthly Training for Clinicians

Therapy Mastermind Circle

Join a monthly online membership program where we explore relevant topics, share expert learning and gain practical skills and interventions that help you and your clients grow and thrive.

  • Explore a variety of deep and complex topics that aren’t often covered in traditional training programs.
  • Learn directly from Dr. Diane Poole Heller and other renowned express, ready to share years of professional, clinical experience.
  • Integrate new skills, corrective exercises and interventions that help clients grow and thrive despite their trauma.
  • Join an engaged and friendly community that supports you while you support others in their healing.
Read More

The Power of Attachment Book

CREATE DEEP AND LASTING RELATIONSHIPS

Why do we experience recurring struggles in our relationships? And why do traumatic events often awaken or amplify our fear, anger, isolation and helplessness?

Overwhelming experiences can disrupt our most important connections––parts of ourselves (within), the physical world around us and with others. And in the wake of trauma, your attachment style deeply influences what happens next. 

With expert guidance, this book teaches the principles and practices for finding your way back to wholeness, resilience and connection––based on the unique way you connect with others.

Here, you’ll learn key insights and practices to help you:

  • Restore broken connections caused by trauma
  • Become more embodied and grounded in your body
  • Integrate the parts of you that feel wounded and fragmented
  • Emerge from grief, fear and powerlessness to regain strength, joy and resilience
  • Reclaim access to your inner resources and spiritual nature
Buy the Book
SEE UPCOMING TRAINING

Upcoming Trauma & Attachment Training

Change the Brain. Heal Attachment Wounds.

DARe Live Level 3 Course

NEUROBIOLOGY, ATTACHMENT & SECURE RELATIONSHIPS

Discover practical tools, skills and strategies that activate the brain’s innate neuroplasticity. Help yourself and your clients cultivate inner resources that promote repair, resilience, secure attachment and post-traumatic growth.

ENROLL NOW

ABOUT OUR LIVE TRAINING

“I felt so safe in the learning environment that it allowed me to play with attachment theory and really develop my skills. I can’t say enough about the training. It really brought a new level of understanding about myself and how I interact with others (which was always kind of a mystery in the past).”
RICK CAZELLTucson, AZ
“Going through the lectures and watching other people work during our breakout groups and demos was really, really helpful in enabling me to internalize what we were learning. I’m already seeing how this can help me in my client work and how it can expand my practice.”
JONAH EMERSON BELLMarfa, TX
“One thing I really appreciated about this training was that it did a comprehensive job of talking about our different styles and helping us understand them. Then, we learned real, practical ways to teach it to our clients––from top-down––but also to help them understand and really grow it from the bottom-up. That gave me a much richer experience than what I’d known about attachment previously.”
LOREN ROTHWaynesville, NC
Previous
Next