NEW! Hosted by Dr. Diane Poole Heller…
Attachment and Sexuality
Understanding the Roots of Adult Connection
A free 90-minute masterclass with Dr. Diane Poole Heller
Understand how early attachment experiences can shape adult sexuality, intimacy, and boundaries—and bring a clearer perspective to your clinical work.
- Thursday, October 22, 2026
1 pm ET / 12 pm CT / 11 am MT / 10 am PT
Find the time in your area
In this free live training you will learn to:
1
Understand the connection between attachment and sexuality
Learn how early experiences of responsiveness, safety, and autonomy can influence adult intimate relationships. Consider how a client’s relational history may shape their comfort with vulnerability, expectations of closeness, and ability to communicate sexual needs. See how sexual concerns can connect with broader patterns of attachment.
2
Recognize attachment adaptations in intimate relationships
Discover how secure, avoidant, ambivalent, and disorganized attachment adaptations may appear in sexual relationships, including withdrawal, heightened pursuit, difficulty receiving care, and conflicting impulses around closeness. Consider how these patterns may reflect efforts to maintain connection, protect themselves, or manage uncertainty in intimate relationships.
3
Explore the balance between connection and autonomy
Understand why healthy intimacy involves being close to another person while maintaining a sense of oneself. We’ll consider how communicating needs, maintaining boundaries, and responding to rejection relate to attachment. Learn to recognize the tension clients may experience between wanting connection and needing space, choice, or independence.
4
Bring an attachment perspective to sensitive conversations
Consider how a client’s capacity to trust, receive care, and express needs may influence their intimate relationships. Bring a clearer framework to conversations about sexuality, even when it isn’t the reason a client sought therapy. Approach these discussions with greater confidence and respect for each client’s pace, boundaries, and relational history.
Join Dr. Diane Poole Heller for a clearer understanding of attachment and intimacy.
FREE 90-minute LIVE Masterclass!
Attachment and Sexuality
Understanding the Roots of Adult Connection
Includes teaching + LIVE DEMO plus Q&A
- Thursday, October 22, 2026
1 pm ET / 12 pm CT / 11 am MT / 10 am PT
Find the time in your area
Can’t join live? Sign up now and we’ll send you a free replay!
Understanding the Attachment Patterns Behind Adult Intimacy
When a client wants closeness and still pulls away
A client may long for intimacy and feel the urge to withdraw when someone gets close. Another may seek reassurance through sex or struggle to express a boundary without fearing rejection.
These concerns can emerge in work focused on trauma, attachment, or relationships—even when sexuality wasn’t the reason a client sought therapy.
For clinicians, the question is how to make sense of these experiences and approach the conversation with greater understanding.
An attachment perspective can help you ask different questions
What has this person learned about depending on someone? Can they express a need and still expect connection? How do they experience closeness, vulnerability, and the freedom to say no?
In this masterclass, Diane will explore sexuality as part of a larger relational system. You’ll consider how attachment history may influence a client’s capacity to receive care, communicate needs, and stay connected while maintaining autonomy.
The goal is a clearer framework for understanding what clients bring into the room—and more confidence beginning these often-sensitive conversations.
An opportunity to learn live with Diane about attachment, sexuality, and adult intimacy
This free masterclass offers an opportunity to learn directly with Diane about the connection between attachment and adult intimacy. We’ll consider how early relational experiences may shape a client’s capacity for closeness, vulnerability, and communicating needs.
Join us for 90 minutes of live teaching and Q&A.
Bring your questions and gain a clearer framework for approaching conversations about sexuality with greater understanding and respect for each client’s experience.
This training will be especially useful if:
- You work with attachment or trauma and want to better understand how sexuality and intimacy fit into the clinical picture.
- Your clients struggle with closeness, communicating needs, or maintaining boundaries in intimate relationships.
- You don’t specialize in sex therapy but want to feel more confident when sexuality enters the conversation.
- You want a developmental and relational perspective to inform your existing clinical work.
Join Diane for this free live masterclass
Meet Your Instructor
Diane Poole Heller PhD
International Speaker, Author, and Teaching Expert in Adult Attachment Theory and Trauma Resolution
“When we understand intimacy through an attachment lens, we can meet a client’s longing for connection and need for protection with greater compassion.”
Diane Poole Heller PhD is an internationally recognized speaker, author, and teaching expert in the field of adult attachment theory and trauma resolution.
Her signature approach—DARe (Dynamic Attachment Re-patterning experience)—provides therapists and individuals with relevant skills and practical exercises that facilitate healing from attachment and trauma wounds.
Her work with adult attachment has forged a path for adults with childhood attachment injuries to develop Secure Attachment Skills (SAS) that lead to more connected and fulfilling adult relationships.
She has authored several books, including the widely acclaimed The Power of Attachment: How to Create Deep and Lasting Intimate Relationships, and the upcoming The Attachment Workbook.. Her expertise in trauma healing has supported survivors, helpers, and families affected by events such as 9/11, Columbine, and other school shootings.
Through various training programs, books, lectures and her own work as a clinical therapist, Dr. Heller has helped a countless number of people in their healing journey towards experiencing greater intimacy, wholeness and more fulfilling relationships.
She believes that when we heal ourselves first, we heal our families, our communities and the world as a whole.
FREE 90-minute LIVE Masterclass!
Attachment and Sexuality
Understanding the Roots of Adult Connection
Includes teaching + LIVE DEMO plus Q&A
- Thursday, October 22, 2026
1 pm ET / 12 pm CT / 11 am MT / 10 am PT
Find the time in your area