Attachment theory was first developed by psychologist John Bowlby and focuses on the importance of early emotional bonds. Attachment theory investigates the nature of a person’s initial relationship with their primary caregiver (such as a parent) and how it influences their social and emotional development. Therapists using attachment theory can help a client to identify their individual attachment style. Attachment styles influences how individuals relate to each other in intimate relationships. Knowing your attachment style can be a powerful tool in understanding your strengths and weaknesses in a relationship.
Professional Counselor Associate
MA, NCC, LPC Registered Associate
I have used Attachment Theory in the decades of work I have done with children and families. It is a lens through which I use to understand the needs of individuals and to explain the behaviors we see in both children and adults.
View ProfileProfessional Counselor Associate
Master's in Counseling
As infants and children, we are completely dependent on our caregivers for survival. This need for attachment is innate within us, and forms an intense drive for love and belonging. When these needs are not easily met by caregivers, we make adaptations and accommodations. These show up as different patterns of attachment, which can stick with us into adulthood. Attachment work includes working with these patterns and exploring how we show up in relationship with ourselves and others.
View ProfileLicensed Marriage Family Therapist
B.S. Health Psychology, M.A. Counseling, LMFT
I often find that a person's attachment style is one of the strongest factors in how they related to the world and other people. When working with children I always hold their early experiences in mind and take them into account when working toward goals. The issues that couples face can often be traced to their attachment pattern. My role is to help translate each person's needs to their partner.
View ProfileLicensed Clinical Social Worker
LCSW
I have an overarching lens I view my work through which is attachment theory. Approximately 85% of the general US population has less than optimal development due to disruptions in the process of attunement we all need to be able to best regulate our own neurology and well being. Secure attachment can be achieved later in life as an adult even if not achieved in childhood.
View ProfileMarriage and Family Therapist Associate
M.A.
I work collaboratively with partners, families and individuals who want to foster connection and form deeper, more loving relationships. I also work with parents to identify their struggles with parenting (be it a one time issue or an on going parenting struggle) and develop a plan to support the entire family system.
View ProfileLicensed Clinical Social Worker
LCSW
From family work (family crisis and adoptions) to the most vulnerable peoples (Emergency Department social work), I know that our attachment templates are primary to the way that we experience ourselves, our relationships, and our world. I keep this awareness close and utilize attachment theory in my work, always.
View ProfileMarriage and Family Therapist Associate
M.A. Marriage, Couple, and Family Therapy
I incorporate attachment work into every session and it is a grounding theory of my style and approach to providing therapy. Therapy is most effective when a therapeutic relationship forms between the therapist and the client. Attachment theory guides me in how I build that relationship with my clients.
View ProfileProfessional Counselor Associate
MA
The way we were taught to relate to the primary people who provided us care when we were babies and children can shape how we act in relationships as adults. Establishing an understanding of how we connect with others in different contexts can help improve communication skills and expression of intention, which can improve the quality of relationships. I use individual family of origin history to help guide clients as they work on understanding their participation in relationships.
View ProfileProfessional Counselor Associate
MA, Professional Counselor Associate
Mentalization Based Therapy derived from Attachment Theory. Person-Centered work to establish model of the secure relationship in therapy and allow for Attachment style repair.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
I have been trained in Experiential Attachment Psychotherapy. I have a passion for working with those wanting to find more security in their attachment style and in their relationships.
View ProfileLicensed Clinical Social Worker
Attachment theory is a key tenant of my work, particularly with it's current support from neurobiology, which demonstrates the importance of mindfulness in mental health. I have attended many trainings with Daniel Seigel, MD and I stay current with the literature as it evolves.
View ProfileLicensed Marriage Family Therapist
LMFT, INHC
The Restoration Model integrates Attachment Theory as a primary source for both case conceptualization and intervention. Learn more at www.restorationtherapytraining.com.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
LPC, M.S.
Currently completing a Somatic Attachment Therapy certificate, completed coursework in Attachment & Complex Trauma.
View ProfileLicensed Clinical Social Worker
DSW LCSW RPT-S
Attachment theory is a theory of affect regulation and interpersonal relationships. Adult attachment anxiety is conceptualized as the fear of interpersonal rejection and abandonment, negative view of the self or feelings of increased anxiety or depression within relationships. Children can experience insecurity within their relationships and the behaviors we see are a result of that anxiety.
View ProfileProfessional Counselor Associate
MA
As babies, we come into the world quickly forming relationships with our caregivers. Those caregivers can either be a source of safety and connection or a distant or harsh parent. As children dependent on our caregivers we begin to create safety for ourselves in any way we can. As we grow older we carry these ways of survival with us which plays out in our adult relationships. These may manifest in us as codependency, avoidance, low self-esteem, and people-pleasing.
View ProfileMarriage and Family Therapist Associate
M.A MFT
The goal of attachment theory is having kindness and compassion for yourself and others, with the acknowledgment that every interaction is a new chance to build connection or repair a hurt one. Part of how we do this is learning to communicate and advocate for our emotional needs to be met in a safe way.
View ProfileProfessional Counselor Associate
MA, CHT
Attachment therapy uses principles of modern neuroscience and research about the ways humans form inner relationship models based on our early relationships. Unless they are interrupted, we carry these forward into current relationships, for better or for worse. I work with a client's present moment relational experiences to unravel old relationship patterns and foster new, more satisfying ones.
View ProfileStudent Counselor
I am training in Restoration Therapy under the supervision of Justin Little, LMFT and Emily Brems, LMFT. Restoration Therapy is a model based in attachment, family therapy and mindfulness to help clients identify ways in which they get "stuck" and how to form more loving and trustworthy ways of being and communicating.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
Attachment Theory is an extraordinarily helpful tool to understand how we developed our baseline relational styles. By studying our earliest emotional attachments to our primary caregiver(s), we can understand how we developed our sense of trust, security, and self-assuredness in relationship to others. Knowing your attachment style can become a navigational compass in relationships.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
Attachment theory is a theory of affect regulation and interpersonal relationships. Adult attachment anxiety is conceptualized as the fear of interpersonal rejection and abandonment, negative view of the self or feelings of increased anxiety or depression within relationships. Children can experience insecurity within their relationships and the behaviors we see are a result of that anxiety.
View ProfileMarriage and Family Therapist Associate
MFT
Emotions are the currency of attachment. Emotions signal what’s important for us to notice, both for ourselves and in relationship. Attuning to your own emotions and the emotions of others promotes healing and connection. Easier said than done! I use techniques that help individuals and couples slow down, sit with feelings, and gain language to better understand/communicate them. Through this process I help clients foster more secure and satisfying relationships.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
LPC, LMFT, LCSW, Associates
Our relationship with our selves and others begins with our experience of attachment to our caregivers. Attachment is a huge influential part of our behaviors in relationship with everyone in our lives- our partners, children, parents, families, and friends.
View ProfileLicensed Clinical Social Worker
This it the primary theory that I base my clinical orientation and practice around. The idea being that we need to feel safe and nurtured and loved from when we are young in order to feel safe and secure in the larger world.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
LPC, CRC
Attachment Theory is about discovering that how a person was cared for & related to in their early years still effects us. When we were young we learned if the world was safe or not. To make us feel safe we isolated or became people pleasers. These patterns continue on into adulthood & can be very disruptive to relationships. There are ways to feel emotionally safe so you can thrive.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
I work off attachment theory to help individuals and couples. This gives us an understanding how we interact with people in our lives and how we can change our patterns.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
I have attended extensive training on attachment as it pertains to brain development and the development of both risk and resilience factors. I hold an advanced certificate in Adoptive and Foster Family Therapy, where major coursework was around attachment processes within various family settings.
View ProfileProfessional Counselor Associate
MS
Attachment theory is at the heart of my work with both couples and individuals. If you are wondering why you seem to have the same problems in relationships over and over, or you feel clingy or suffocated in relationships, I can help. My clients often say they find our work helpful for looking at the impact of attachment patterns on present and past relationships.
View ProfileMarriage and Family Therapist Associate
MFT Associate
Exploring what attachment was like in early childhood can help us understand what is going on in adult relationships.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
LPC
An attachment-based approach to therapy looks at the connection between an infant's early attachment experiences with primary caregivers, usually with parents, and the infant's ability to develop normally and ultimately form healthy emotional and physical relationships as an adult.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
M.Ed MS DC LPC LMFT
Attachment can be defined as a deep and enduring emotional bond between two people in which each seeks closeness and feels more secure when in the presence of the attachment figure. Attachment theory explains how the parent-child relationship emerges and influences subsequent development. There are four basic characteristics that basically give us a clear view of what attachment really is. They include a safe heaven, a secure base, proximity maintenance and separation distress.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
LPC, CADC I
The journey to healing is so much about relationship, and the "theory of attachment" is a wonderful way to put into words how we relate to everything in our world. I use the language of attachment alongside the other modalities in order for couples, individuals, groups to understand how and why they relate they way they do. This awareness allows us to adjust how we relate, and in doing so, move towards healing and health.
View ProfileLicensed Clinical Social Worker
LCSW
Our early development, especially our first caregivers, impact how we relate to ourselves and to others. I will help you understand how your childhood impacts your internal world and your external relationships, and I will help you build consciousness around subconscious patterns stemming from your childhood so that you can make necessary changes in the areas you have felt "stuck".
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
MA, LPC
Attachment and schema driven therapy were cornerstones of my graduate education program. I believe that the attachment, or lack there of, to our primary caregivers plays an integral part in shaping who we are and how confident and capable we feel. I have many years of experience working with individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder, which I see as a disorder rooted in attachment trauma.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
MA, NCC
The foundation in which we relate and develop bonds with others was taught to us in our earliest experiences. Working to understand the way we learned to engage in relationships leads to the opportunity to teach ourselves new ways of connecting with others. Offering freeing & mutually servings methods of connecting with others and yourself.
View ProfileMarriage and Family Therapist Associate
MA MCFT
When we have a sense of security and belonging, we feel much more confident to explore the world. We can explore your attachment style, how it impacts how you relate to the world, and tap into your ability to change it and find a sense of security in your life and relationships.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
LPC
Attachment theory helps us understand our relationship to relationship and to emotions based on internalized experience. It fits well with IFS and multiplicity, helping us provide for unmet needs that show up directly in states triggered by relational conflict. While useful for individuals, this theory plays a primary role in couples work and allows us in the therapy room to directly translate one another in ways that partners will really get so each side feels fully witnessed.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
I believe deeply in the power of human connection and how it shapes us. Our earliest significant relationships heavily influence how we learn to see ourselves and relate to others and the world. These dynamics evolve over our adult lives. It can be tremendously helpful to look at these histories and patterns to learn about ourselves and make change from a deeper place of self-understanding.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
MA, NCC
Our earliest experiences with caregivers shape what we expect from the world, how we enter into relationships, and how we make sense of ourselves. By exploring and processing early attachment experiences—and forming reparative, adult attachment experiences—we can facilitate healing and growth.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
LPC
"Attachment" is a way to explore how and in what contexts we feel safe. I have studied Interpersonal Neurobiology which is deeply rooted in attachment theory and the interpersonal emotional information we internalize and which as a result impacts our day to day interactions.
View ProfileLicensed Marriage Family Therapist
LMFT
Learning to understand our early attachment experiences and how they shaped our current relationship dynamics.
View ProfileProfessional Counselor Associate
MS
Attachment theory helps us untangle the complex web of early learning that can make engaging in fulfilling adult relationships difficult and painful. I hold special training in a method called Experiential Attachment, which naturally elicits the infant/caregiver attachment system, allowing for examination of early attachment wounding and engagement in a process of repair.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
MA
I am trained in PACT therapy which is deeply rooted in attachment theory. Learning about your attachment style and/or your partner(s) attachment style can be deeply informative, healing, and increase compassion.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
Registered Play Therapist, Certified Adoption Therapist
Our earliest relationships construct a map for how we expect future relationships to unfold. Our sense of safety—both internal and shared—has its roots in how we were parented. All of this is changeable. As our brains grow and adapt across our whole lives, the greatest factor of influence is how and with whom we connect. We'll tune into relationship patterns and stuck spots, helping your child get their needs met and regulate emotions, while in connection with others.
View ProfileMarriage and Family Therapist Associate
MA, Marriage & Family Therapist Associate
Attachment theory is my main theoretical orientation and informs most of the work I do. 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.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
LPC
I have had training in Interpersonal Neurobiology and Attachment Theory, or how the important relationships in our lives have had a physiological impact on our wiring and functioning. In therapy we can explore this relationally, ie. what comes up between us during sessions in the immediate moment, and we can also understand from a historical lens how the relationships in your life have shaped who you are, your sense of safety with others and the world, and what to do about all of it.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
Our early childhood attachments with our caregivers creates a template for how we respond and relate with ourselves, and our relationships. They inform our beliefs about the world and from this, we internalize relational patterns. We can cultivate understanding of why we attached the way we did and how we can utilize neuro-plasticity to create new templates to get our emotional needs met.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
We are creatures of love, and when we feel disconnected from others, we suffer. In therapy, I use attachment theory to help a person explore how their early family relationships (or lack thereof) shaped their ways of relating to others in adulthood. This type of therapy is especially useful for those who have been through childhood or family trauma.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
MA, LPC
I specialize in experiential attachment healing (not just theoretical) where we utilize our relationship to explore & heal insecure attachment states and support & encourage secure attachment states.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
LPC, LMHC, NCC
I have and continue to participate in graduate education and professional development that focuses on attachment and attachment related trauma. I continue to participate in graduate classes through Portland State University's Trauma Informed Services and Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) programs and participate in an advanced study group focusing on trauma, attachment, and IPNB.
View ProfileClinical Social Work Associate
MSW, LSWAIC
For both couples and individuals, attachment theory can help uncover the root of relationship patterns. I love it because it can help us better understand our reactions and needs with compassion and gentleness, rather than shaming ourselves with harsh criticisms.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
MS, LMHC, LPC
Our relationships with the people who raised us gave us our foundation for understanding the world: are others safe or not? Can I trust people? As adults, we respond to those we care most about according to our experiences from birth to young childhood. Knowing our attachment styles can give us the ability to choose good partners, and have healthy relationships.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
Humans learn attachment from their primary caregivers. This relationship we have with our parents directly reflects our relationships with our friends, other family members, co-workers, and intimate partners. I work with clients to identify their attachment, and how it can help or hinder their personal success in creating and maintaining relationships.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
LPC
Having training in attachment theory serves as a solid foundation for understanding client’s development of maladaptive coping strategies and how this relates to the client’s emotional difficulties. Using this therapy, I can help clients increase self-compassion and kindness because clients who have attachment disorders/wounds often develop a negative self-view.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
OR Lic #C4802
Through the study of Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) we have a great new understanding of the restorability of wholeness where emotional damage was done from unresponsive, unconscious, or even violent caretakers. Our work is in the relationship, as the 'interpersonal' actually enables a new neurologic wiring as well as new realizations of worthiness and value.
View ProfileLicensed Clinical Social Worker
A thorough grasp of attachment theory is foundational to understand most forms of dysregulation or mental illness. I consider attachment patterns as I seek to tune in to each client's suffering. I also have training in attachment-based therapeutic techniques.
View ProfileLicensed Marriage Family Therapist
Masters in Marriage, Couple, & Family Counseling
We each have a particular attachment style that determines how comfortable we are in proximity to others. Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) helps couples understand the attachment style of each partner and the dynamic that exists between them.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
LPC
I tend to build emotional connections to my clients- hoping to mitigate the pain caused by other suboptimal relationships they've had in the past. For other clients this looks like establishing a connection to someone who knows them very well and represents a reflection of their better self which, for one reason or the other, the client is unable to see.
View ProfileLicensed Clinical Social Worker
LCSW
I believe that attachment is the core of how we relate to others.
View ProfileClinical Social Work Associate
Attachment theory is a major part of how I conceptualize how I work with clients. I personally feel attachment plays such an important role in human experience because it's how we relate to the people around us. In therapy, the relationship between the therapist and the client is significant as trust and vulnerability are a major part of the client's process through treatment.
View ProfileProfessional Counselor Associate
Patterns of thought and ways of being in relationships with others are largely put in place prior to acquiring the ability to verbalize our experience. As such much of what we know and how we know it are implicit. Nonetheless these embedded patterns can effectively addressed by counseling in an atmosphere of empathic collaborative dialogue.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
LPC
I strongly believe that our attachment experiences, from birth through adulthood, shape the way that we relate to ourselves and others. I will help you understand this lens through which you see the world, and open up possibilities for growth and healing, which ultimately leads to a more authentic and meaningful connections.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
LPC, NCC
I believe our attachments to our first caregivers offer us a window into how we feel and function in our current relationships and life endeavors. Using narrative and discussion to understand the complex web of attachment-based emotions and experience in the world, I can help you feel empowered and in charge of your life choices and behaviors.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
What did your earliest relationships teach you about love and intimacy? What patterns of behavior did you adopt in order to protect those relationships? How are those patterns serving you now? Adult attachment theory provides a valuable framework for understanding the ways that you form and maintain relationships in order to meet core emotional needs. Through therapy, we can identify patterns that might not align with your relationship values and learn better ways of finding and keeping love.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
MA, LPC, RSMT/E
Our earliest relationships form the templates for how we interact and what we expect from others. These patterns live in our body and in the ways that we engage with (or avoid) others. Over the past 10 years, I have learned how to recognize and work with individual attachment styles and relationship patterns through my in-depth studies with Bonnie Badenoch, PhD, LMFT.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
MA, LPC
Utilizing your developmental and relational history, we can begin to understand the why's and how's of our patterns and behaviors, as we relate to others and ourselves.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
It is during our early development that our ways of understanding relationship are being mapped into our brains. Attachment therapy can awaken these networks for reconfiguration. Deep change is possible in how we experience ourselves, in our ways of connecting with others and in our capacity to act effectively in the world.
View ProfileLicensed Clinical Social Worker
CCSOT
I view my practice through an attachment theory lens, as I recognize the powerful impact our childhood attachments have on our current relationships and behaviors. Therefore, I use the relationship between myself and the client as the bases for creating a safe place to explore healing childhood wounds and generalizing that healing to other important relationships in our lives.
View ProfileProfessional Counselor Associate
MA
An individual's attachment patterns with early significant persons in their life contributes to present and future connections with others. Identifying and understanding these patterns can help individuals develop more freeing ways of engaging with others and themselves now and in the future.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
Our early childhood relationships and experiences provide a blueprint for how we see ourselves, our relationships, and the world around us. Is this world safe? Am I alone or can I rely on others? Can I find trustworthy people? It can be extremely helpful to know what your attachment style has been in your life and also hold onto hope that you can move into a place of security with others.
View ProfileLicensed Clinical Social Worker
Attachment theory is all about love and safety. How we experience that from an early age influences the coping skills we develop for all of our relationships, especially during times of conflict and struggle. I love that we can change how we feel about ourselves, our relationships and the world at large through the context of new, safe, reparative experiences.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
I have researched and trained in various attachment-based theories related to parenting, adoption, couples and families.
View ProfileProfessional Counselor Associate
MA: Mental Health Counseling - Specialization in Addictions
I have researched attachment theory and utilize its theories in most of my therapy interventions, particularly on issues of family systems, relationships, trauma, and boundaries.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
MS, LPC
Our adult relationships reflect our earliest relationships in life with our families of origin. Whatever the quality of those relationships, they taught us powerful messages about love, how it's given, and sometimes what we need to do in order to receive it. If love was absent, inconsistent, or highly conditional, then we move through life feeling a persistent lack of belonging, no matter who we are with. Understanding that these messages are not true can open us to freely give and receive love.
View ProfileLicensed Art Therapist
LAT, LPC, ATR
This has consistently been a driving theory in my work with adults. Your early childhood relationships impact how you relate to others today, and this is essential to be explored to improve your own resiliency.
View ProfileLicensed Marriage Family Therapist
LMFT
As with systems theory, I find attachment theory to be an extremely helpful model in supporting clients. We are indelibly marked by our early bonds with caregivers and typically, what we learned in those relationships sets our beliefs about the world and determines the patterns we follow in future relationships. Not that we can't change, attachment theory just helps us understand why.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
How we attached to our significant caregivers in early childhood leads us to desire, gravitate and repel others. Understanding these styles can aid in seeking healthier relationships.
View ProfileLicensed Clinical Social Worker
Exploring how attachment with caregivers early in our lives can be fertile ground for gaining new understanding to present day relationships.
View ProfileLicensed Professional Counselor
MA, LPC, CMA
Attachment theory is also a modality. Not just a theory. I use a relational approach. To me, that's applied psychology. It's about heart. Everything is in motion. We will explore it in a safe, stable, conversational way.
View ProfileClinical Psychologist
Psy.D.
I have advanced training and experience working with attachment theory, including a study group with Beatrice Beebe, a leading researcher in this area.
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