Attachment Based Therapy
What Is Attachment-Based Therapy?
How we relate to the world is largely influenced by our primary caregivers. Attachment-based therapy centers around understanding and enhancing emotional connections, especially between caregivers and children, based on the principles of attachment theory. By assessing your attachment patterns, we can explore how early experiences have impacted your current relationships. With this understanding, we can help move you toward improving within your relationships the ability to connect, experience trust and safety, and establish healthy boundaries.
Attachment theory was developed by John Bowlby in the mid-20th century. [1] Bowlby's work laid the foundation for understanding the importance of early relationships (particularly the bond between caregivers—typically parents—and children) in shaping an individual's emotional and social development. His ideas were further expanded by researchers like Mary Ainsworth, who conducted the famous "Strange Situation" study that contributed significantly to our understanding of different attachment patterns. [2] The work of Bowlby, Ainsworth, and subsequent researchers has led to the development of attachment-based therapies and interventions aimed at improving children’s and adults' emotional well-being and relationships.
How Does Attachment-Based Therapy Work?
Initially, we will conduct an assessment looking at your family of origin to learn more about your attachment history. With curiosity and compassion, I will encourage you to look inward, helping you recognize how early life experiences with your caregivers have influenced the dynamics of your current relationships. This process involves self-reflection to gain insights into how these dynamics shape your thoughts, feelings, and actions.
In general, attachment styles fall into one of four categories:
Secure—individuals feel safe and supported in relationships and can balance dependence with independence. They are comfortable with intimacy and exhibit positive self-worth;
Insecure-anxious—an underlying fear of abandonment leads to clingy and dependent behaviors, such as putting others’ needs ahead of their own and viewing others more positively than themselves;
Insecure-avoidant—emotionally distant and detached, these individuals value their independence over intimacy. They hold a more positive view of themselves than others and tend to idealize;
Disorganized—individuals display contradictory behaviors, such as seeking out but also avoiding intimacy. They struggle with emotional regulation, fear vulnerability, and have trouble forming close relationships.
Once we identify your attachment style, we will work on emotional regulation and communication skills, focusing on expressing needs and emotions, setting boundaries, and actively listening. Therapy focuses on healing these wounds if there are unresolved issues or ruptures in attachment relationships. By processing emotions related to past experiences and working through conflicts, we can create opportunities for emotional repair.
The last two stages of attachment-based therapy address behavior modification and relapse prevention. The goal is to move you toward secure attachment, where you feel safe and supported to thrive in intimate relationships.
Who Can Benefit From Attachment-Based Therapy?
Attachment-focused therapy is helpful for people of all ages who have experienced challenges in forming healthy emotional bonds, particularly during their early years. Utilizing attachment-based therapy can benefit children, adolescents, adults, couples, parents, and families dealing with issues like anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship difficulties, and unresolved attachment patterns.
The objective of attachment-focused therapy for adults is to foster more secure attachment styles and emotional connections, resulting in improved well-being, enhanced relationships, and overall life satisfaction. Attachment-based therapy is particularly beneficial for those with trust and intimacy difficulties stemming from early childhood experiences. For parents with younger children, attachment-based family therapy will ensure you’re helping your child form a secure attachment that will positively influence their well-being.
While other modalities primarily concentrate on a client’s thoughts and behaviors, attachment-based psychotherapy emphasizes the role of relationships in shaping mental and emotional health. Attachment-based therapy recognizes the importance of the early caregiver-child relationship in shaping your sense of security, self-worth, and ability to form and maintain healthy relationships throughout your life.
The evidence to support attachment-based therapy as a beneficial psychotherapy is plentiful. Research has demonstrated that attachment-based interventions enhance relationship satisfaction and emotional regulation for adults as well as improve attachment security and behavior in children [4], [5]. What’s more, “a number of attachment-based interventions have been developed to support parents, enhance caregiving quality, and promote children's attachment security with the aim of improving children's mental health.” [3]
My Background As An Attachment-Based Therapist
The relationships we form throughout our lives—with partners, family members, friends, peers, and co-workers—play a crucial role in our overall well-being and sense of being known, both to ourselves and by others. For this reason, I have incorporated attachment-based psychotherapy into my practice throughout my career. By determining how your relationships with caregivers in childhood shaped your attachment style, I can help you develop interpersonal skills and connections that support reciprocity in your relationships as an adult.
Receiving customized and well-rounded therapy may require that we draw from different approaches. In addition to attachment-focused therapy, I offer a blend of evidence-based modalities, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), narrative therapy, trauma-focused therapy, psychodynamic therapy, neuroscience, and attachment-focused play therapy for children.
Recognizing how the past influences the present can help you reconcile what has come before and, in doing so, positively impact the future. By building self-awareness, attachment-based therapy provides you with the tools, skills, and knowledge to develop a secure and healthy attachment style, ensuring your ability to form and maintain fulfilling relationships.
Find Out How Attachment-Based Therapy Can Help You
To find out more about attachment-based therapy with Be Known Wellness Group, email, call 857-505-1856, or visit our contact page to schedule a free 15-minute call.
[1] https://www.simplypsychology.org/bowlby.html#:
[2] https://www.simplypsychology.org/mary-ainsworth.html
[3] https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-09972-003
[4] https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9900465/
[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29781529/
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