Attachment in Psychotherapy

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Expert therapists’ approaches to psychotherapy with adult clients who present with attachment avoidance or anxiety. Starting from examples of the various types of insecure attachment style, and their origins in corresponding early failures of caregiver responsiveness, this talk will suggest how appropriately responsive psychotherapy, that takes account of these differences, can help the “earning” of attachment security by the client.

e., anxiety and avoidance patterns) may use different coping strategies to manage their life difficulties, which are associated with increased distress.They used the Bartholomew and Horowitz categorical model to measure patient attachment style, but in a dimensional fashion. Therapists of all orientations will find help here in fostering a sense of safety and in facilitating their clients' emotional growth.

Studies of ruptures and discourse analysis distinguish in-session behaviors associated with different patterns of insecure attachments, and identify distinct ways of working with them.Some approaches do not emphasize the psychotherapy relationship as a vehicle for change, and even those that do can be constrained by session limits with insufficient time for all five attachment features to develop. Participants at David Wallin’s 2014 seminar were invited to assess their attachment patterns through the ECR-Experiences in Close Relationships self reporting system. Both anxiety and avoidance appear to interfere with the psychotherapy relationship, but attachment anxiety may be especially detrimental to therapy outcome. The efficacy of toddler-parent psychotherapy to increase attachment security in offspring of depressed mothers.