CME Course Catalog
Optimizing Mental Health Through Secure Relationships
Course Description
Do you have patients that seriously struggle in their primary relationships?
Relationships are too often overlooked when it comes to mental health issues, despite a vast literature showing how important they are for health, fulfillment, and longevity. Although attachment research has been going on for more than 50 years, great strides have been made in more recent years in understanding secure and insecure attachment presentations, how attachment injuries can impact the brain, and ways in which to heal these early developmental wounds.
In this course, you will learn how to recognize and spot verbal and non-verbal communication patterns suggestive of secure and insecure attachment styles, and the relevancy to the psychiatric patient population. You’ll also gain simple interventions that can go a long way with patients that are visiting clinics, hospitals, VA’s, and outpatient programs.
You’ll learn how to help patients achieve healthy relationships. You’ll also learn the 4-S model which stands for feeling Safe, Seen, Soothed, and Supported and how to apply it. You’ll learn key questions to ask during your intake interviews so you can help patients achieve secure relationships and also learn how to know when it’s best to refer out for more collaborative care.
Learning Objectives
- Learn the difference between secure and insecure attachment styles in childhood and into adulthood.
- Recognize patterns of relating suggestive of the secure and insecure attachment styles
- Uncover the clinical implications of living with insecure attachment patterns in relationships

CME/CE Information
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the Integrative Psychiatric Institute. The University of Colorado School of Medicine is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The University of Colorado School of Medicine designates this enduring material for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Instructions
In order to obtain your CME credit for this course, you will need to take and pass the CME quiz and complete a CME evaluation after watching the video. The quiz will be linked under the video. The Evaluation will follow automatically. If the quiz is passed, you will be prompted to download your CME certificate immediately after.
Purchase Single CourseFaculty

Ellen Boeder, MA, LPC
Ellen Boeder, MA, LPC has been working in clinical therapeutic settings since 1994, and as a licensed professional counselor since 2003, after receiving her Master of Arts in Transpersonal Psychology from Naropa University. Her experience includes working as a lead counselor and manager with teenage girls in residential treatment, being a primary group and individual therapist in a partial hospitalization eating disorder treatment center, and facilitating women moving through trauma, addiction, mood, and relationship crises in private practice. Ellen has a strong background and years of training in yoga and meditation, and has developed programs that offer contemplative practices to patients in treatment settings.
Upon becoming a wife and mother over 10 years ago, she began studying neuroscience, interpersonal neurobiology and attachment theory more in depth, and eventually completed her Level 3 training in PACT (Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy). Now primarily working with couples, she also enjoys teaching about the realities of our interdependence, and how we can leverage our biology relationally to support our fullest potential as human beings.

Jayson Gaddis, MA
Jayson Gaddis, author, podcaster, speaker, entrepreneur, is Founder of The Relationship School, an impact-based company dedicating to helping people work out their differences and have fulfilling long-term partnerships. Jayson is considered a world leader in relationships. He founded The Relationship School® and leads the most comprehensive relationship training in the world on intimate relationships and partnership. He is on a mission to reach 1,000,000 teens and young adults with formal relationship education. Jayson is the creator of Interpersonal Intelligence and trains people from around the world how to be effective relational leaders and coaches. He’s been married to his amazing wife since 2007 and has two beautiful kids. They live in Boulder Colorado.