Attachment Theory: What is it and why is it helpful in therapy?
Attachment theory has been around for over 60 years but thanks to the rise of social media it has become better known within pop culture. Due to its connection with healthy relationships, 'attachment styles' often arise as a problem, and become a reason many people seek therapy. Whether clients recognize the impact of their attachment history or not, at Watermark Counselling Co., we seek to understand the ways in which people view themselves and the world and how this is leading to greater connection or intensifying conflict. In short, attachment theory emphasizes the centrality of relationships, the need to minimize threats and the need to anticipate and work through inevitable separations. For us, attachment theory provides a frame for understanding the disruptions that bring individuals to therapy and provides a path forward in the healing process.
The seminal work of psychoanalyst John Bowlby formed a model of child development in which the child’s earliest relationships with caregivers lead to the development of internal working models which guide the child’s perceptions, emotions, thoughts, expectations, and relationships in later life. More recently, relational neuroscience has helped illuminate how early key relationships affect the development of brain architecture and functioning. We know that disruptions in early attachment, through experiences of trauma, loss, abuse, and neglect interfere with development and can lead to representations of self and others that are unstable, and emotional states that are difficult to differentiate and regulate.
“One of the more common questions we hear as therapists is clients wanting to improve their attachment style. They will often say, “I know I’m insecurely attached, and I’d like to be more secure, can you help?”
Therapy typically helps people at times of transition. Secure attachment makes the uncertainties of new experiences tolerable and resolvable with the help of an attachment figure. With the support of a therapist, clients are better able to ‘mentalize’, and essentially make connections between both their thinking and feeling systems in the brain. With the safety created in the therapeutic relationship, clients can manage their defensive responses (most known as fight-flight-freeze) and are better able to think about thinking and feeling, both their own and those of others, along with the interactions between them.
Therapy then, can be seen as a tool in reorganizing early attachment experiences, in which the therapist acts as a secure base and temporary attachment figure who helps the client explore the link between past and current relationships. Within the therapeutic relationship, opportunities are created to allow the client to adapt their views of self and others, which allows the client to feel and act in new ways based on current, rather than past, experience.
More recent research in neuroscience and advances in cognitive science add compelling evidence to support the ways in which the brain changes in relation to and response to early caregiving experiences. In longer-term therapeutic relationships, as therapists’ and clients’ oxytocin systems become entrained, this cross-talks to the dopamine system. The ensuing ‘reward’ - the therapists’ hope and love, opens the mind and creates the necessary conditions for optimal psychological health.
At Watermark Counselling Co., we will use our understanding of attachment theory and neuroscience so that you can understand the past and move forward successfully into the future. If you are ready to make a change, we are here to help.
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