Session Three – Content Level: Advanced
Attachment Discourse Patterns, Loss and Abuse Discourse Patterns, Therapist Pitfalls

This session will demonstrate how to recognize attachment clues embedded in the discourse within the therapeutic relationship and how to ‘hear’ implicitly encoded states of mind about attachment, including past and present loss, traumatic events, and ongoing activation of hostile and/or helpless states of mind. It is equally important to appreciate the dynamic nature of attachment behaviors and how they can shift during clinical treatment. The clinical pitfalls that may arise when therapist’s and patient’s internal working models of attachment collide or entangle during times of stress will be explored.

Readings

1. Bretherton, I., & Munholland, K. A. (2018). The internal working model in light of contemporary neuroimaging research. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications, (3rd Edition, Chapter 4). Guilford Press.
2. Crowell, J. A., Fraley, R. C., & Roisman, G. I. (2018). Measurement of individual differences in adult attachment.  In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications, (3rd Edition, Chapter 27). Guilford Press.
3. Stovall-McClough, K. S., & Dozier, M.(2018). Attachment states of mind and psychopathology in adulthood. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications, (3rd Edition, Chapter 31). Guilford Press.

Timed Outline
45 minutes – lecture presentation
20 minutes – discuss readings
25 minutes – case discussion and closing comments