Attachment-Based Therapy
in the Denver Metro area & online throughout Colorado
Ideal for treating complex or developmental trauma, issues related to religion and spirituality, and parent-child relationships at any age, attachment-based therapy focuses on our capacity for healthy relational connection as the central factor in emotional and mental wellness.
The primary lens I use in my practice of therapy is Attachment Theory. Originally developed by John Bowlby, Attachment Theory describes interpersonal relationships as the center of human development—both the pinnacle of human flourishing and the source of our deepest wounds.
We are born with an innate drive for relational connection—in fact, it is the infant’s only survival skill—and the need for love, emotional attunement, and safe belonging is as primal as physical hunger. How our caregivers respond to our attachment needs in the early months and years of our life—responsiveness, neglect, inconsistency, or abuse—set a trajectory for our lives. Attachment styles are not personality types; they are the patterns that have allowed us to survive, signs of childhood resilience and tenacity. In adulthood, our attachment styles offer wisdom, telling us what wounds need tending in order to heal both relationally and spiritually.
I first encountered Attachment Theory during my Human Development class in graduate school. It grabbed me then, like a pair of hands seizing my collar, this powerful explanation for why relationships have always felt so intensely meaningful to me, for why the emotions evoked by both closeness and distance with others can feel so overwhelming. After a few years of evidence-based behavioral therapy in my first job out of graduate school, I saw the painful gaps left by these external-oriented approaches. Raw and untended emotional wounds drive problematic behaviors no matter how many rewards or consequences you implement. Behaviors, I had learned, don’t change until our needs are met. So in my private practice, I began working from an attachment-based perspective.
Traditionally, attachment-based therapy prioritizes the therapeutic relationship as a safe relational space where attachment wounds—losses, hurts, and ruptures with caregivers, friends, and partners—can begin to heal. As I’ve developed as a therapist and begun incorporating Parts Work into my practice, I’ve learned that attachment-based therapy is at its most powerful when we use it to heal our own wounds, by allowing our young, injured parts to find secure attachment with our wise, kind, core Self.
Attachment-based therapy is ideal for treating complex or developmental trauma (which is most often caused by attachment wounds with important figures in our lives). Most clients with complex trauma come to therapy because of symptoms of anxiety or depression; attachment-based therapy provides a road map to get to the root of these symptoms. It’s also a powerful approach for working through issues related to religion or spirituality, because of how beliefs, faith communities, and our connection to the Divine are intertwined with our attachment needs. I use attachment-based therapy as the foundation of my work with parents, as well as with families wanting to repair relationships.
If you want to try attachment-based therapy with me, contact me to schedule a free consultation.
For more information, check out these blog posts about attachment:
