The Applications of Attachment Theory to Psychotherapy

Safe Relationships: The road to secure attachment from trauma in troubled children when we are confronted by the children’s behavior

The presentation describes the continuum of attachment from a protective factor to enhance optimal development to a risk factor for psychopathology. The safety that emerges from attachment security facilitates intersubjective experience between parent and child and is crucial for the organization of the self – physically, neurologically, emotionally, cognitively, and socially. When the attachment is disorganized so too is the developing self: the child (or adult) is left with insufficient skills and intentions to rely on others and to learn from others, and his resilience in confronting future stress and trauma is greatly impaired. We consider how.