Attachment Theory

Often in relationships, we are bringing our past into our present. Learn how to consciously build a healthy relationship from a place that is grounded in reality.

Attachment theory is a psychological, evolutionary and ethological theory concerning relationships between humans. The most important tenet is that young children need to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for normal social and emotional development. (Wikipedia) Those that do not develop this strong attachment may find various psychological, psycho-sexual and/or interpersonal difficulties in their lives. Understanding their attachment can help resolve issues.

I have the training in the skills to understand attachment theory

I have received formal training in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), and continue to receive ongoing training and supervision in this model. EFT is an evidence-based model rooted in attachment theory that is proven to help couples and individuals navigate distress and foster long-lasting connection and change.

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

Some of the best research in the psychological field was able to help understand what we all now is crucial to our lives - connection. Understanding how we connect to others and ourselves helps us have the kind of healthy relationships we all want to have.

An attachment style is a specific pattern of behavior in relationship. Typically our attachments are based in survival techniques that are developed in infancy and early childhood. As we grow, some of these behaviors are carried with us and are reflected in and around our relationships with others. Building our awareness to our attachments can allow us to strengthen our relationships with others and with ourselves.

As we explore the parts of your attachment that are getting in the way of you having relationships that feel fulfilling and safe, I will incorporate many aspects of attachment theory into our work together.

In the early stages of our development, we start to establish a conceptualization of the minds of others and how well they can understand our inner world. This capacity to understand the minds of ourselves and others is rooted in our ability to attach with others and build trusting relationships securely. This capacity helps increase emotional regulation, alternative perspective-taking, executive functioning, behavioral modification, and more.

As babies, we come into the world quickly forming relationships with our caregivers. Those caregivers can either be a source of safety and connection or a distant or harsh parent. As children dependent on our caregivers we begin to create safety for ourselves in any way we can. As we grow older we carry these ways of survival with us which plays out in our adult relationships. These may manifest in us as codependency, low self-esteem, and people-pleasing.

Attachment theory is the evidence based framework for relational based counseling. I have been trained in this framework through my clinical supervisor and professional development. I understand and identify how your early attachments shape the rules of how your attention, acceptable emotions, and beliefs on your identity form and how compassionate experiences with me directly impacts changes in you. I'm here to help you as a helpful caregiver to facilitate your exploration of change.

Attachment theory, in developmental psychology, is the theory that humans are born with a need to form a close emotional bond with a caregiver and that such a bond will develop during the first six months of a child’s life if the caregiver is appropriately responsive. The British psychologist John Bowlby developed the theory focused on the experience, expression, and regulation of emotions at both species (normative) and individual (person-specific) levels of analysis.

I utilize attachment theory heavily in individual and couple's sessions. This centers the emotional bonds between people and suggests that the earlier the attachment the more impact it has on the development of how we see ourselves, others, and the world around us.