Attachment Styles
The relationships we have with our caregivers establish patterns we carry throughout our lives. These articles explore how insecure attachment patterns play out in friendships, romantic partnerships, and the therapy room. Topics in this category range from identifying trauma bonds to exploring new frameworks for visualizing attachment and avoiding pathologization. You'll find practical guidance for reaching avoidant clients and supporting them as they explore new relational experiences. Across personal reflections, research-focused essays, and practical videos, you'll find resources for fostering secure attachment and catalyzing real change in your clients.
Does codependency pathologize our natural willingness to help those we love? Read more
Watch Laura Copley, PhD, LPC, author of the brand-new book Loving You is Hurting Me, to learn how to spot a “trauma bond” in your clients and five ways to... Read more
A core tenet of AEDP teaches us that humans have a built-in, primitive drive to seek out healing attachment, that if something inside us feels wrong, we move... Read more
Sue Johnson makes an impassioned case for the deeply healing power of intimate connection. Read more
Helping emotionally closed-off men embrace vulnerability without getting lost in shame requires not only empathy but good timing. Read more
An interview with the author of The 5 Love Languages, Gary Chapman, explains its remarkable success. Read more
What keeps people stuck in destructive relationship patterns? While Attachment Theory has provided some answers as to how those patterns originate, many... Read more
Sue Johnson discusses what couples need most in their relationship and how attachment-based therapy answers their deepest longing. Read more
While developing Coherence Therapy, Bruce Ecker, coauthor of Unlocking the Emotional Brain, spent a lot of time uncovering the differences between... Read more
For those who struggle with early attachment injuries, even the presumably safe presence of the therapist can often evoke feelings of desperation, fear, and... Read more
When attachment theory was blossoming, it didn’t provide an accompanying toolbox of tactics and techniques, though it did offer a new therapeutic attitude... Read more
Diane Poole Heller talks about one of her therapy techniques: Corrective experiences. Read more
"People with avoidant attachment histories are too closed down to have access to experience their right-hemisphere processes," says Daniel Siegel, who's... Read more
Are there any downsides to basing clinical treatment on attachment theory? David Schnarch, a leading advocate of differentiation in the therapy process... Read more
Sue Johnson shares how EFT helps couples get and stay closer. Read more
Diane Poole Heller, an expert in trauma and attachment, on helping clients find their way back to meaningful, safe relationships. Read more
The Enneagram and the 5 A’s of transformation. Read more
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