Attachment-based therapy (children)
Attachment-based therapy applies to interventions or approaches based on attachment theory, originated by John Bowlby. These range from individual therapeutic approaches to public health programs to interventions specifically designed for foster carers. Although attachment theory has become a major scientific theory of socioemotional development with one of the broadest, deepest research lines in modern psychology, attachment theory has, until recently, been less clinically applied than theories with far less empirical support. This may be partly due to lack of attention paid to clinical application by Bowlby himself and partly due to broader meanings of the word 'attachment' used amongst practitioners. It may also be partly due to the mistaken association of attachment theory with the pseudo-scientific interventions misleadingly known as attachment therapy. The approaches set out below are examples of recent clinical applications of attachment theory by mainstream attachment theorists and clinicians and are aimed at infants or children who have developed or are at risk of developing less desirable, insecure attachment styles or an attachment disorder.
Attachment-based psychotherapy
Therapists apply psychotherapy to patients with attachment disorders by applying a method of listening and reflecting on the experiences of the patient that caused their difficulty in making emotional connections. The therapist’s objective is to get the patient to open up to them so the patient can explore the experiences that are causing them to have dysfunctional relationships and to recreate the experience from the point of view of the therapist in order to resolve any emotional or social disruptions within the patient’s life. According to Dan Hughes this process is known as “attunement, disruption, and repair”. The first part of the treatment, the attunement, consists of the forging of a personal relationship between the therapist and the patient, it is the first step for the patient toward creating healthy attachments. Attachment patients live stressful lives with very little emotional attachments to people, thus it is the therapist's job to create a secure, accepting, caring, non-judgmental, and reliable environment where the patient can feel comfortable sharing their most traumatic experiences.