Attachment Theory

An attachment-based approach to therapy looks at the connection between an client's early attachment experiences with primary caregivers and the client's ability to form healthy emotional and physical relationships as an adult. Attachment-based therapy aims to build a trusting, supportive client-counselor relationship that will serve as a blueprint for other relationships and help alleviate mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.

While I use different modalities in my work, attachment theory is my foundation. I believe that we are all wired for connection and need it for survival - as a result, our relationships are essential, yet we often have relational wounds that can make it hard for us to connect, all the way down to the nervous system level. As such, it is central to our well-being to be able to explore and understand our patterns and learn to attend to those deep needs.

I have graduate-level education in attachment theory, and have utilized techniques associated with this modality throughout my professional career.

https://www.attachmentproject.com/attachment-theory/

Strong attachment = good mental health. My goal is to model a healthy relationship that can then be applied in the outside world including exploring and discovering emotions. I want my clients to have a genuine experience of their self and believe they are unique and lovable. Being heard = feeling validated.

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.

Our attachment styles with original caretakers inform the way we relate to others as adults, including partners, friends, and even coworkers. I help patients untangle their feelings and experiences located in the past from their present relational patterns, decide what’s still needed and useful, and what they can let go of.

Recognizing the significance of interpersonal relationships in fostering healing and resilience, I use an integrative approach that is grounded in attachment theory and draws from a variety of clinical and therapeutic modalities to provide personalized, trauma-informed care.

I'm well versed in attachment theory through clinical training, research, and personal therapy. Attachment theory is a foundational piece of my integrative and relational approach.

I am trained in attachment theory from a positive psychology lens and can conduct the adult attachment interview for individuals and couples.

I draw heavily on Allan Schore's Modern Attachment Theory, which reframes traditional attachment theory into emotional regulation theory. I have a deep understanding of attachment thanks to my curiosity about the root cause of attachment behaviors like avoidance (hypoarousal) and anxiousness (hyperarousal).

How we show up in relationships can be greatly impacted by how we were treated and cared for as young children. Attachment theory teaches that how we participate in relationships, both romantic and platonic, is affected by how we were treated as children. I help clients learn how to be in relationships that are both healthy and honoring to who they are. As humans, we are created to be in deep and meaningful relationships and I can help clients have them.

Like or not, we are deeply imprinted by the quality of our earliest experiences with our parents or caregivers. Clearly identifying how those relationships have shaped us is crucial in beginning any therapy. Deciding on ways to mend the wounds that exist for the majority of us is most of the journey. They say "I married my father/mother" for a reason--and no amount of "insight" can change it--only deep healing work can.

Everyone needs healthy attachment bonds. Attachment is a deep human, and even mammalian need. We literally need to be securely attached to others in order to feel safe, supported and live a fulfilling life. Our survival actually depended on it in human history. Most relationship challenges arise from the fact that people feel their safe and secure attachment to a loved one is threatened. This activates survival alarms in the brain. Healthy attachment is vital in relationships.

Attachment theory explains how early relationships with caregivers shape our emotional development and ability to form secure bonds as adults. Secure attachment, characterized by trust, safety, and emotional availability, fosters resilience, empathy, and healthy relationships, while insecure attachments can lead to difficulties with relationships and emotional regulation. By exploring attachment in a safe therapeutic space, clients can develop healthier ways of relating to themselves and others.

In my work with families experiencing relational conflict, my clients find that employing an approach rooted in attachment theory allows me to help them learn about the communication patterns within the family unit. Through this work, members of the family typically report that they understand where their own communication patterns come from, how their family system operates as a whole, and their role in improving communication within that system.

I use attachment theory to support clients in understanding how early childhood experiences and family systems inform their current, unique perspectives on themselves and their relationships. Through understanding your attachment style, you can deepen your knowledge of yourself and your ability to respond and relate to others.

I work with clients through an attachment lens to work through issues relating to self, family, and community

When using attachement theory, I take a look at how your childhood environment, including your relationships with your parent(s) and primary care giver(s), played a role in how you move through your current relationships. Research shows that how you and your primary caregiver bonded plays a role in your adult romantic relationships. By acknowleding the bonds and shifting the behaviors that are currently not serving you, we can make lasting changes in how you relate to others.

As humans we are biologically wired to attach to our parents when we are babies. How we experience this attunement of safety, love and connection stays with us through our childhood and into adulthood. We unconsciously carry our attachment style into relationships as adults. The main styles of attachment are anxious, avoidant, disorganized and secure. In healthy relationships both adults strive for secure attachment, but attachment injuries from childhood or past relationships can prevent se