I don’t really get attached to it during therapeutic processes, but I remember it and I come back from time to time, looking at the stages of therapy from a distance.
Attachment disorders – their impact on relationships and the therapeutic process
I know from experience that attachment disorders are a certain norm in adults, especially after trauma. If I need to think only in terms of attachment theory about my new patient, it means that I cannot undertake this therapy from the ground up, but refer me to treatment with a different method or even inpatient or outpatient. Attachment disorders co-occur at the stage of reflection and searching for diagnoses in general, but they cannot dominate thinking about the process. Extremes can manifest themselves in almost every area of the patient’s life, i.e. already at the stage of building relationships, paying attention to potential threats, talking about trust, keeping a job and resistance to distractors, stress, rejection, etc.
People who show bond disorders in some area, build relationships differently, need a different type of boundaries or structure of themselves.
Trauma and attachment – challenges and opportunities in psychotherapy
Trauma stays with us for the rest of our lives, and with it beliefs and lack of faith in unconditional feelings such as love or trust. It also influences thinking about values in life (also check out related information on treating childhood trauma).
However, they do not always have to mean the appearance of deficits or pathologies, and they can also affect the need to build a good, healthy or stronger complex identity, including personality, affect the appearance of adaptive defense mechanisms. It can also help in avoiding threats and looking for the right relationships with others and safe social groups. But this is why many people go to psychotherapy and stay in it for many years to find this competence in themselves. It rarely seems obvious to learn this from the experience of trauma alone, if the perpetrators of the trauma were the closest people.
We should remember that people with attachment disorders can often be socially excluded, i.e. they can become the so-called S. Scapegoats. These can be intentional or unconsciously collective actions of social systems that are closest or quite close. Therefore, I always take bond disorders into account when building initial diagnoses. Anyway, you, mostly yourself, name many of your difficult areas, especially those related to close contacts and relationships, and in your ways of building communication and being with others.
The role of attachment theory in the therapeutic process
If the trauma was very severe, even after a long-term supportive and therapeutic process, these rigid mechanisms related to the type of attachment may appear, which may make the therapeutic relationship more difficult, and only after some time. Then, when the wound is healed, it remains as it (the healed wound) affects everything around it, even if it no longer hurts. This is also worked on during psychotherapy, but there are also certain moments when, for example, patients have to resort to pharmacotherapeutic treatment or even their mood begins to deteriorate. The period after the wound has been healed in therapy may also need a different time. That is, from the body and psyche to feelings and needs, including social ones, and looking for strength to pursue their passions resulting from inner self-beliefs and motivations.
I cordially greet you and invite you to psychotherapy,
Paulina Kubś
, MAAuthor of the IPSK method
