About (Allan) Todd Sarner, MFT…
I went through Grad School with the intention of only working with children in my practice. I went to counseling after the divorce of my parents and really liked it and found it beneficial, so I wanted to help kids and teens in the same way. Before and after I got my Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology in 2001 (from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco), I worked with children and teens in Group Homes and Foster Care and worked as a Parent Partner and Relief Worker with adoptive families.
But things changed after I became a father myself in 2003. Although I had a lot of training and experience, I didn’t really feel I had the right “roadmap” for being a parent myself. This led to finding the work of Dr. Gordon Neufeld, a leading Clinical & Developmental Psychologist and the author of “Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers”. I became an intern to Dr. Neufeld for almost three years and then a Faculty Member of the Neufeld Institute. It was Dr. Neufeld’s philosophy, centering on a strong attachment bond between parent and child, that convinced me that I wanted to work with parents though a Parent Coaching practice that focuses on secure attachment, lessening behavior and relationship issues and helping children grow into their greatest potential.
Along the way, I started hearing about how much success Couples Counselors were having by using the “attachment” approach to helping couples solve their relationship issues. I decided I could further help parents (and their kids) by expanding my practice into this area. I learned Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples with it’s originator, Dr. Sue Johnson, which is a highly effective attachment based couples counseling. Then I studied for many years with Dr. Stan Tatkin, the originator of the Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy. Stan’s approach is a revolutionary way to help couples understand each others’ attachment needs and how to effectively “regulate” each other when things go wrong.
My license number is 47572 (California). I am listed under my full name, Allan Todd Sarner, but I have gone by my middle name, Todd, since birth.