This eloquent book translates attachment theory and research into an innovative framework that grounds adult psychotherapy in the facts of childhood development. Advancing a model of treatment as transformation through relationship, the author integrates attachment theory with neuroscience, trauma studies, relational psychotherapy, and the psychology of mindfulness. Vivid case material illustrates how therapists can tailor interventions to fit the attachment needs of their patients, thus helping them to generate the internalized secure base for which their early relationships provided no foundation. Demonstrating the clinical uses of a focus on nonverbal interaction, the book describes powerful techniques for working with the emotional responses and bodily experiences of patient and therapist alike.

Attachment theory is influencing how we understand interpersonal relationships and how psychotherapy can help facilitate change for those struggling in relationships. More recently, researchers and clinicians have applied attachment theory to group treatment, one of the most effective forms of psychotherapy to address interpersonal difficulties. This book highlights some of the bridges between attachment theory and contemporary approaches to group treatment. In addition to applying attachment theory to innovative treatments, each chapter addresses a specific way in which attachment impacts the members’ capacity for empathy and perspective taking; the development of cohesion in the group; the automatic fight-flight response during group interactions; members’ ability to tolerate diversity; and the leaders’ capacity to foster safety within the group. This book will help group leaders gain a richer understanding of attachment theory and attachment based techniques that will ultimately benefit their groups. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy.

Our early attachment experiences with our primary caregiver influence the adult that we become. These experiences forge our patterns of communication, emotional experience, intimate relationships, and way of living in the world. If our early attachments are secure, we learn to access and communicate adaptive feelings, thoughts, and behaviours. In contrast, if our early attachment experiences are insecure, we may struggle with dysregulated, maladaptive emotions and have difficulties in our intimate relationships -- leading to anxiety, depression, and excessive or misdirected anger. This book presents an attachment-based approach to therapy that addresses the limiting and detrimental effects of negative early attachment experiences. Attachment-based psychotherapy has two major components: establishing a security-engendering therapeutic relationship and helping the patient to communicate more openly and thus to access more adaptive feelings, thoughts, and behaviours. Psychotherapists of various theoretical orientations will appreciate this book's richly detailed conceptualisation of common human problems, as well as clear treatment approach for addressing these problems.

Attachment theory is on the leading edge of a conceptual revolution. It offers a new paradigm that can synthesize into a more coherent whole the best ideas from psychoanalysis, cognitive science, and neurobiology. With its emphasis on relationships, attachment theory is determinedly humanistic, while retaining the scientific vigor of Darwinian ethnology. Attachment theory provides an overall framework for thinking about relationships, or more accurately, about those aspects of relationships that are shaped by threat and the need for security, themes that are central to the work of psychotherapy. In this book Jeremy Holmes explores the contribution of attachment theory to everyday psycho-therapeutic practice where patients are usually seen once weekly, or less, for no more than two to three years.

Drawing on cutting-edge research on adult attachment--and providing an innovative roadmap for clinical practice--Susan M. Johnson argues that psychotherapy is most effective when it focuses on the healing power of emotional connection. The primary developer of emotionally focused therapy (EFT) for couples, Johnson now extends her attachment-based approach to individuals and families. The volume shows how EFT aligns perfectly with attachment theory as it provides proven techniques for treating anxiety, depression, and relationship problems. Each modality (individual, couple, and family therapy) is covered in paired chapters that respectively introduce key concepts and present an in-depth case example. Special features include instructive end-of-chapter exercises and reflection questions.

Winner of the 2010 Goethe Award for Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Scholarship! This book builds a key clinical bridge between attachment theory and psychoanalysis, deploying Holmes' unique capacity to weld empirical evidence, psychoanalytic theory and consulting room experience into a coherent and convincing whole. Starting from the theory–practice gap in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, the book demonstrates how attachment theory can help practitioners better understand what they intuitively do in the consulting room, how this benefits clients, and informs evidence-based practice. Divided into two sections, theory and practice, Exploring in Security discusses the concept of mentalising and considers three components of effective therapy – the therapeutic relationship, meaning making and change promotion – from both attachment and psychoanalytic perspectives. The second part of the book applies attachment theory to a number of clinical situations including: working with borderline clients suicide and deliberate self-harm sex and sexuality dreams ending therapy. Throughout the book theoretical discussion is vividly illustrated with clinical material, personal experience and examples from literature and film, making this an accessible yet authoritative text for psychotherapy practitioners at all levels, including psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, mental health nurses and counsellors.

This is a concise, accessible introduction to the basic principles of attachment theory, and their application to therapeutic practice. Bringing together 70 years’ of theory and research, its expert authors provide a much-needed user-friendly guide to attachment-informed psychotherapy. The book covers: The history, research base, and key figures and concepts of attachment theory The key concepts of attachment theory, and their implications for practice Neuroscience implications of attachment and its therapeutic relevance The parallels and differences between parent-child attachment and the therapeutic relationship The application of attachment in adult individual psychotherapy across a number of settings, also to couples and families The applications of attachment to working with complex disorders The applications of attachment in child psychotherapy