Attachment Theory

We are wired for connection, and we develop a blueprint for how to be in relationshp based on our earliest relationships. Our attachment style describes how we show up in relationships, which can be secure, insecure, or a combination of both. Therapy can help you explore how to be more secure in your relationships in a way that allows for healthier connection with yourself and others.

I became enamored with Attachment Theory in graduate school including joining a group of psychologists studying Daniel Siegel's book The Developing Mind (one of the earliest books on interpersonal neurobiology). Afterwards I sought out trainings from Daniel Siegel as well as others like Carol George and Diana Fosha for years. Attachment theory is the foundation of my approach to therapy, particularly the centrality of safety in relationships in order to explore, expand, and face challenges.

Exploring how attachment with caregivers early in our lives can be fertile ground for gaining new understanding to present day relationships.

I approach therapy from an attachment perspective, working with clients to discover how our childhood relationships impact our adult connections. I’m sensitive to the role of individual, collective and cultural trauma and how it has shaped our life’s experiences.

Understanding one's attachment style alongside other attachment styles, generally known as anxious, avoidant, and secure attachment styles, helps illuminate great opportunities for interpersonal and personal growth in one's life. This is determined through assessment, bibliotherapy, insight into one's condition, and experiencing growth through the integration of one's Self within their efforts to connect and bond with others.

Attachment theory examines how early bonds with caregivers shape our connections with others throughout life. These early relationships create a blueprint for how we experience intimacy, trust, and security as adults. Whether you feel secure, anxious, or avoidant in relationships, understanding your attachment style can offer insights into your emotional patterns. In therapy, we work to heal and strengthen your attachment style, helping you build more secure and fulfilling connections.

We’ll explore where you learned to protect yourself emotionally and how those early experiences shape current relationships. By understanding these protective strategies, we'll shift old patterns and create healthier, more secure connections. This process builds emotional resilience, deepens trust, and opens the door to richer, more fulfilling relationships. You’ll learn to navigate relationships with more clarity, safety, and confidence, leading to deeper and more meaningful bonds.

Over the past several years, I have found that exploring the theory of Attachment with some of my clients can help us understand the relational dynamics through our ongoing relationships such as; family, life-long friends, and thier romantic relationships, to name a few. Attachment theory can be very insightful, as it helps us see how we relate to the world and how we perceive other people in our lives.

Attachment theory, first developed by John Bowlby, is a psychology concept focused on the importance of attachment in relation to personal development. Fundamental to attachment theory is the belief that a child's relationship with the primary caregiver (usually the mother), affects their attachment style for the rest of their life. Unresolved or insecure attachment issues experienced in early childhood can have a negative impact on relationships into adulthood.

Attachment theory has been a very useful tool in describing the interactions in all relationships, especially those that involve behavioral difficulties between parents and children. Having worked in children's mental health for over 11 years, Attachment Theory has been the main foundation for my work during this time.

In addition to my degree in social work, I also have a master's in psychology, and gained expertise through this in child development and attachment. I utilize attachment theory in practice, and believe it is central to understanding of mental health for many.

How we are tended to as children greatly impacts us as adults. As a child, if all our needs are met we are more comfortable being ourselves and interacting in the world. But say we were not really tended to when we were upset as a child, this teaches us that we can't rely on others to help us in hard times and that we have to figure things out on our own. Understanding where our attachments are and how they started can help us to work towards creating healthier and happier connections.

Understanding attachment theory and add in the PloyVagal theory you get a sense of greater ways to regulate yourself in and out of your relationships. The patterns you learned in the styles of attachment in your multigenerational linage can play a large part in the way your body responds to conflict and connection. Over time we get to explore and heal these old patterns to bring on more thrive in your life.

I am a Certified Becoming Safely Embodied practitioner, taught by Deirdre Fay. It is a program that is grounded in attachment theory research. Brainspotting is also a powerful modality in supporting clients who struggle with attachment and relationship challenges and wounds.

Everyone has strategies to get their needs met. Often times these once essential strategies become patterns in our life that keep us from connecting and turning toward one another. Attachment and emotion-focused therapy invites us to understand and build compassion for our old patterns, while building new, healthier strategies for connection by identifying our emotions and giving voice to our needs.

I have studied and trained in attachment theory models including Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT.) I am a pre-certified professional in EFT meaning I have completed all the training necessary for certification and am in the final stages of certification.

I also take from Attachment Theory, here we’ll dive into your relationship dynamics and identify patterns, your relationship history, and learn how to create more fulfilling relationships.

The patterns from our childhood set the groundwork for how we love as adults. Attachment theory is so useful to explore with clients who find themselves in the same relationship patterns over and over, to increase awareness, learn to self regulate during attachment anxiety, and grow more secure relationally over time.

Attachment-Based Family works by rebuilding trust within the parent-child relationship—providing a solid foundation that promotes authentic connection and enhances teen mental health. This type of family counseling provides a clear path to achieving what both parents and children want most: closer, more meaningful relationships with one another. As a result, teens feel safe turning to their parents for support—and that leads to improvements in teen mental health and reductions in suicide risk.