The basic principles of attachment therapy at the center follows the ATTACh practice standards:
1) Attachment therapy is a therapeutic process that is designed to promote, develop or enhance a reciprocal attachment relationship and meets the criteria of that therapeutic process as defined and developed by ATTACh. A rich diversity of therapeutic approaches is essential in treating children with attachment problems. The primary goal of treatment with children who have attachment problems is to enable them to form healthy attachment relationships with their current and future families and to resolve the dysfunctional feelings and behaviors developed in response to the early attachment breaks. Discovering the child's individual inner working model (beliefs about self, others and environment) is important for therapeutic success.
2) Attachment therapy emphasizes trust, empathy, reciprocal behaviors, attunement, communication, touch, physical and emotional closeness and humor and playfulness. Responsible practitioners in any mental health discipline serving children with severe emotional and behavior problems, including attachment and bonding therapists, do so with the utmost attention to the psychological and physical well being and safety of the children and adults involved.
3) Attachment therapy requires a family systems approach. The heart of this disorder is the child's relationship with their primary caregiver. Working with the family system is essential to the success of the child's treatment. It is insufficient to treat the child's clinical issues as the mechanism for forming an attachment with the primary caregiver. These issues did not cause the attachment disorder and therefore correcting them is not sufficient to correct the disorder. Parents may have problems, which must be understood and addressed if they are to help their child resolve attachment and other problems.
4) A thorough assessment is needed that includes the following as indicated: the child's social, medical, placement, mental health and educational history, assessment of parent and family functioning, evaluation of the child's current functioning and differential diagnosis (this may include any or several DSM or ICD diagnoses).
5) Parents and children are active members of the treatment team working to develop healthier patterns of interacting and communicating. Both the child and the family must have a developmentally appropriate understanding of the therapeutic processes and goals. When exploring unresolved issues, treatment will take into account past and present family dynamics. A central therapeutic activity is for the child and family members to experience and then express their emotional responses to past and present situations that are interfering with attachment. Parent-child interactions that are central to establishing a healthy attachment (i.e. eye contact, physical contact, tone of voice, smiles, other non-verbal communication and gestures) are central to the interactions of therapy.
6) The practitioner assists the parents in developing parenting strategies and philosophies, which support the development of healthy attachments.
7) The practitioner serves as a consultant to the parents on issues and interventions, including but not limited to the following:
a. Supporting the parents' authority and need to maintain control over the family environment, while assisting the child to feel safe enough to relinquish his/her compulsive need to be in control.
b. Increasing the child's readiness to rely on the parent for safety, help, comforting, nurturing.
c. Encouraging a positive, supportive, family atmosphere.
d. Encouraging a high level of nurturance.
e. Encouraging structure and limits.
f. Increasing reciprocal, positive interactions between parent and child.
g. Helping the child make choices that are in his own best interest, and in the best interest of his family, and to accept the consequences of those choices.
h. Helping parents become emotionally available for their child as healthy and safe individuals. This may include examining their own issues, such as the marital relationship, infertility, grief and loss, childhood trauma, etc.
i. Helping families and children develop reasonable expectations of success.
The Attachment Center of Kansas complies with the ATTACh Practice Standards for assessment
and treatment of attachment problems or Reactive Attachment Disorder.
A comprehensive assessment is provided to determine diagnosis and
treatment options and usually takes 2 to 4 sessions to complete. The
assessment process includes parent reports, checklists and projective testing,
interviews, observations and past and current records from various
sources. Both the child and parent/s are assessed for ability to benefit
from attachment based treatment.
The primary treatment model used is Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy along
with techniques from Theraplay, Family Attachment Narrative Therapy and family
play therapy. When treatment involves both attachment and trauma, a
secure attachment is the primary focus of therapy and once this occurs then
therapy focuses on addressing trauma issues.
For more information, click this link FAQ about Attachment Therapy.
