Daniel Jay Sonkin, Ph.D. is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in an independent practice in Sausalito, California. Since 1981, his work has focused on the treatment of individuals and couples facing a variety interpersonal problems. In addition to his clinical experience, he has testified as an expert witness since 1977 in criminal cases where domestic violence is an issue. He has also evaluates defendants facing the death penalty conducting social histories with a focus on their childhood abuse and its impact on adult criminal behavior. He has also testifies as an expert witness in malpractice cases and licensing actions.

As one of the early specialists in the field of family violence, Dr. Sonkin has developed a widely used protocol for treating male batterers. His book, Learning to Live Without Violence: A Handbook for Men has been published in English, Spanish and Japanese and is utilized by treatment programs around the world. He is also the author of numerous articles and books on domestic violence and child abuse including, The Male Batterer: A Treatment Approach; Domestic Violence on Trial: Psychological and Legal Dimensions of Family Violence; and Wounded Boys/Heroic Men: A Man’s Guide to Recovering from Childhood Abuse; The JurisMonitor Stabilization Program for Stalkers; A Counselors Guide to Learning to Live Without Violence; the co-editor of Intimate Violence: Contemporary Treatment Innovations; and Domestic Violence: The Court-Mandated Perpetrator Assessment and Treatment Handbook.

He has also written software for assessing violence for both the Macintosh and IBM compatible computers.

For the past twenty years he has been integrating attachment theory and neurobiology into his clinical work with perpetrators and victims of violence, as well as his general psychotherapy patients. He has recently co-edited a book with Don Dutton entitled Intimate Violence: Contemporary Treatment Innovations, published by Haworth Trauma and Maltreatment Press. In it, he and Don Dutton wrote a chapter on treating domestic violence from an attachment perspective. He has attended the Adult Attachment Interview Institute in Minneapolis and has recently completed several articles on attachment theory and psychotherapy. You can read more about his approach to psychotherapy by reading the numerous articles he has written posted here online.

In addition to his clinical practice, he was an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Counseling at Sonoma State University from 1994 through 2004, a former member of the Ethics Committee (1989-1998) and is a former member of the Board of Directors (1998-2000) of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists.