by Beth O’Brien, PhD, Licensed Psychologist
PACT Certified Therapist, PACT Faculty

How do you look at your loved one?

After months or years together in a committed relationship, it’s easy to become complacent — meeting your partner’s gaze with neutrality or forgetting to look at them with love at a...

By Sashi Gerzon-Rose, LPC
PACT Level 3 Therapist

Getting locked into a state of threat and perceiving the other as the enemy during times of dysregulation is a perennial problem for couples. This state is pernicious in its impact, both short- and long-term. In the moment, it prevents crucial collabo...

As the holiday season approaches, many of us are reminded to pause and reflect on gratitude. For PACT Institute cofounder Tracey Boldemann-Tatkin, PhD, AMFT, gratitude is not just a seasonal theme — it’s a daily year-long practice that sustains her as a clinician, partner, and teacher. 

Gratitude m...

By Hans Stahlschmidt, PhD
Dean of Students and Faculty, Senior Core Faculty

I want to address a misunderstanding I’ve encountered both inside and outside of PACT circles over the last few years: that our strong emphasis on co-regulation might suggest an endorsement of codependency, or even a toleran...

by Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT
PACT Developer

As a couple therapist, I know how difficult people can be. Actually, as a person on this planet and a romantic partner to my wife, Tracey, I count myself as one of those difficult people. Indeed, in no way do I put myself above any of the other annoying peopl...

It’s common for couples to enter a relationship with hopes, dreams, and a vision of how things should be. But sometimes, these expectations — about how a partner should behave, how conflict should unfold, or what love should feel like — don’t quite match the realities of everyday life with another h...

by Joy A. Dryer, PhD

PACT Certified Clinician, PACT Faculty

This article by Dr. Dryer is excerpted from Chapter 11 (pp. 96–106) in Belonging Through a Psychoanalytic Lens (2021) (1st Ed.), edited by Rebecca Coleman Curtis. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. 

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and right...

Carolyn Sharp, LICSW
Pact Level III candidate
www.carolynsharp.com

We all know the scene: a couple begin discussing a current challenge for them and are quickly down the rabbit hole of past injuries. “Why do you keep bringing that up?”

Jenny and Michelle have had a tumultuous relationship. They met ...

By The PACT Institute

The Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy® (PACT), developed by Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT, has always centered on building secure-functioning relationships through attachment, neurobiology, and arousal regulation. 

Over the years, the model has evolved to address the ubiqu...

By Teena Evert, MA, LMFT
PACT Level 2 Therapist

Picture this: two climbers roped together, navigating ice, snow, and steep rock faces on a remote alpine peak. Each step is taken with care. Each decision, a matter of trust. They move as one — because in alpine mountaineering, your survival depends on...

By Jason Brand, LCSW
PACT Certified Therapist

On my podcast Human Nurture, I set out to take a three-season deep dive into PACT and explore the questions that most perplexed me about the model and about couple therapy. I started at the foundation and worked my way up. Season 1 explored the theoretic...

By Eva Van Prooyen, MFT
PACT Certified Therapist

Healthy, secure relationships are a source of vital energy. PACT therapists know people feel good when they understand how to be successful partners. We are energized by a secure connection to another person. Our need to be securely attached is so pow...