Sensitivity and responsiveness are key to establishing attachment security. In this seminar we will explore how attachment theory and caregiver-infant interaction studies inform the therapist stance in AEDP. When we recognize the individual differences that arise with insecure patterns of attachment, in light of the fact that attunement is based on the dyadic interaction of the patient and the therapist, we can be better prepared to help each patient transform their suffering from relational wounding. Sometimes the pattern of attachment at play can challenge our capacity to be present, responsive, attuned and empathic. I propose that it is not actually the pattern itself that challenges us to feel inadequate or unable to empathize or triggers our self-at-worst attachment strategy. Rather, our reaction to the specific behavior that is manifesting in the moment may drive us outside our capacity to respond with the help that is needed. This seminar is about expanding the clinician’s capacity to respond moment-to-moment to an interaction that is co-created and informed not only by the pattern of attachment, but also by the various intersectionalities that both therapist and patient bring to the dyad.

This seminar will identify classic blind spots that may arise with each attachment pattern. We will break down the configuration of each pattern into its affect regulation strategies and defenses, caregiver’s state of mind and its impact on self-other relational patterning, and the seeds of resilience. Video of psychotherapy sessions will illustrate how these strategies can be depicted on AEDP’s representational schemas and how we can intervene experientially to engage positive neuroplasticity. We will explore the way therapist’s sensitivity plays a part in enhancing attachment security and how metaskills can be chosen in service of the patient’s therapy. AEDP’s interventions about making the implicit explicit and making the explicit relational can be helpful to apply with specificity to each pattern of attachment. The aim of this workshop is to move towards strengthening a base of safety and connection through which our patient’s self-at-best can be engaged to gain traction and momentum for treatment.

Participants will learn:

Ways to engage AEDP’s experiential focus and interventions to harness positive neuroplasticity to rewire the patient’s internal working model.

How psychotherapists can draw upon attachment theory and mother-infant interaction studies to set the conditions for building a secure base to bring patients self-at-best to the fore

The individual differences and configurations of each pattern of attachment

How caregiver sensitivity and responsiveness provide attachment security and the implications for the therapist stance, activity and interventions.

How AEDP’s representational schemas can help therapists orient and select interventions when insecure attachment patterns arise

Therapists use of metaskills to address implicit and explicit messages that arise with each pattern of attachment

How therapist self-disclosure and affirmation can be tailored according to each attachment pattern to help patients know that they matter in the specific way that they need to know they matter

Learning Objectives

Name two characteristics of sensitivity.

Identify two characteristics of avoidant patterns of attachment

Identify two metaskills therapists can use when patients display avoidant patterns of attachment

Describe two ways to intervene with dismissive defenses 

Describe two characteristics of anxious/ambivalent patterns of attachment 

Name two ways to regulate anxiety when clients are distressed. 

Identify two metaskills therapists can use when patients display ambivalent patterns of attachment 

Describe two characteristics of disorganization/unresolved trauma in patients.

Name two interventions for working with a patient who is processing unresolved trauma.

Describe two ways the therapist can intervene to help establish a secure base.

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AEDP psychotherapy is an empirically supported model that heals trauma and helps to undo aloneness by championing the innate healing capacity of neuroplasticity in a safe, attached therapeutic relationship.

Through moment-to-moment, in-depth processing of difficult emotional and relational experiences, AEDP clinicians help clients recover their sense of core self and experience increased resilience and a renewed zest for life. 

AEDP has roots in many disciplines including interpersonal neurobiology, attachment theory, emotion theory and affective neuroscience, body-focused approaches as well as transformational studies.

As a clinical treatment, AEDP is effective with a variety of psychological symptoms and issues, including depression, emotion dysregulation, negative thoughts, experiential avoidance, and interpersonal problems. AEDP is also effective in enhancing positive functioning such as self-compassion, well-being, and self-esteem.