Hit and Kiss: Attachment and Intimate Violence

Course Description

Continuing Education Hours: 5

This training examines the role of attachment as an innate motivating force. A secure adult attachment builds a secure dependency which encourages autonomy. The accessibility and responsiveness of a secure attachment figure creates bonds through emotional engagement, and development of trust (Sable, 2008). Fear and uncertainty activate the attachment behavioral system that is reactionary and aggressive, or reactionary and rejecting, which negatively impacts emotional engagement as well as trust. When attachment behavior fails, stress is predictable, and based on the developmental history of the individuals involved, aggressive and hostile means may become a defensive or protective part of the relational strategy.

Learning Objectives


  • Participants will understand the impact of trauma.
  • Participants will be able to identify the myths of domestic violence.
  • Participants will develop an understanding of relationship patterns as a result of adaptation.
  • Participants will be able to define and identify phases of adaption.
  • Participants will be able to identify how the threat response system changes the chemistry of the body.
  • Participants will develop skills for helping trauma survivors rapidly stabilize and utilize skills for self-regulation.

Camea Peca, Ph.D., MSc, CFTP, CCTS-I


Camea has spent over 15 years working with Children and Families in a vast range of settings both locally and abroad. After completing a Bachelor of Science at ASU, Camea spent 10 years abroad studying and working. During this time, she completed a MSc in Psychoanalytic Development Psychology at the Anna Freud Center/University College London including a dissertation in Sensory Integration Therapy and Tactile and Vestibular Processing Disorder. During this training Camea was trained by leaders in attachment and infant development including Dr. Peter Fonagy and Mary Target. As a part of this training Camea had the chance to work with the Child Center for Mental Health and participating in specialty training with leaders in the expressive arts as well as Sir Richard Bowlby, Dr. Dan Hughes, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Dr. Bruce Perry, and many others. She completed clinical training and supervision in the Expressive Arts with Dr. Margot Sunderland and the Helping Where It Hurts program which puts expressive arts therapists in inner city London schools. Professionally Camea has worked in a variety of settings including adolescent shelters, inpatient psychiatric units, schools and specialty projects targeting physical and sexualized trauma. For over two years Camea has worked as a Trauma Therapist in a local specialty service targeting children and families that have experienced sexual abuse. Camea specializes in work with very young children and their families and has extensive experience with early developmental trauma and attachment based therapy using the expressive arts and sensory based modalities. Camea uses her eclectic and wide range of international training and clinical experience to deliver dynamic and experiential training.

Enrollment Pricing

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