Attachment Therapy with Adolescents and Adults : Theory and Practice Post Bowlby

Suitable for psychotherapists and other practitioners, this title describes an effective form of dynamic therapy designed for working with adults and with adolescents. It deals with Bowlby/Ainsworth attachment theory that describes a pre-programmed process, which is activated as soon as people perceive that they are in danger.

This is a revised edition of an important title originally published in 2009. It is written primarily for psychotherapists and other practitioners and describes a new and effective form of dynamic therapy designed for working with adults and with adolescents. The theory, on which the new form of therapy is based, is centred in a paradigm that extends and crucially alters the paradigm for developmental psychology opened by the Bowlby/Ainsworth attachment theory. It describes a pre-programmed process, the dynamics sustaining attachment and interest sharing, which is activated as soon as people perceive that they are in danger. This process is made up of seven pre-programmed systems which interact with one another as an integrated whole. They include Bowlby''s two complementary goal-corrected behavioural systems: attachment (also referred to as careseeking) and caregiving. Whenever the process is able to function effectively, it enables people to adapt more constructively and co-operatively to changing circumstances.