The Applications of Attachment Theory to Psychotherapy

“Earning” security of attachment: how is this possible through psychotherapy?

John Bowlby and Colin Murray Parkes realised that identifying the differing patterns of attachment manifested by different people who had suffered loss, and adapting psychotherapy accordingly, better helped them to deal with the bereavement. Similarly, using this approach provides a tool to examine how attachment patterns may change in psychotherapy. 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.