New Developments in Therapeutic Attachment Relationship

New Developments in Therapeutic Attachment Relationship

Focus on Therapist Resources to be more effective and fulfilled. Adding new resources to your practice and to your patients. Shifting your therapeutic balance to provide more resilience and energy to enliven your treatment process.

How does this work and what does it look like?  The Therapeutic Attachment Relationship creates a clear and present therapeutic collaboration.  Therapeutic Attachment Relationships interrupt tendencies towards dependency and defiance [counter dependency].  You and your patients are co-therapists working together constantly to facilitate their resources.  Working in these ways will interrupt your patient’s expectations that the therapist is the expert.  They will no longer look to you to fix their problems, but rather believe and trust in their own resources to manage their emotions and move forward in their lives.

The Therapeutic Attachment Relationship utilizes the neurobiological mechanisms of the brainstem and polyvagal systems.   There are several benefits here.  These activations will release neurotransmitters of oxytocin, endogenous opioids, and serotonin.  You are activating the social engagement systems that provide corrective emotional experiences and emotional memory reconsolidation [neuroplasticity].  You will be meeting your patient’s need for attachment. 

The Therapeutic Attachment Relationship is a different frame of mind for both the therapist and patient.  This can be difficult with many patients who are uncomfortable with being in the intimacy of the present moment inside themselves.  There is a certain paradox that the caring, safe, connection of the Therapeutic Attachment Relationship upsets the defensive equilibriums that keep underlying distress hidden.  Successful secure attachment relationships can be completely disorienting for some patients.  Nevertheless, facilitating the attachment brain systems can stimulate the release of oxytocin, endogenous opioids and serotonin to mitigate that distress.  The novelty of a successful secure attachment relationship will also mobilize various forms of neuroplasticity to sustain the adaptive learning experiences your patient is having in therapy. 

There is so much packed into the Therapeutic Attachment Relationship that is invisible and nonconscious.  So it behooves us to slow down and let it develop, blossom, grow, evolve and transform.  This requires specific time, energy and attention. Therapeutic Attachment Relationship can be easily avoided and/or overshadowed by the symptoms, crises, stories, history, the past, etc. 

The opportunity to develop a Therapeutic Attachment Relationship is universal.  There is always a longing to develop a Therapeutic Attachment Relationship for both the therapist and pt. 

Learning Objectives

1. Distinguish between therapeutic alliance and therapeutic attachment.
2. Describe how to mobilize the patient’s attachment brain brain systems.
3. Describe the therapist’s resources.

This course has been designed for therapists who are new to this neurobiological paradigm and will provide many novel learning opportunities for therapists who have studied CIMBS for years.