Is it Possible to Heal Your Own Attachment Wounds?
In the Digital Age, the search for information and tools for self-healing have opened the door for people to improve their own lives and wellbeing independent of formal assistance. While nothing can replace the relationship between the individual and therapist, many people feel more comfortable researching and taking the first steps on their own. Acknowledging Attachment Injury For most people, [...]
The Brain’s Negativity Bias and Its Influence on Secure Attachment
Because human brains prioritize survival – fight, flight, and freeze responses play a role in our daily lives, which can impact our ability to develop Secure Attachment both as children and as adults. Negative or threatening experiences register quickly into our long-term memories due to the ever-vigilant amygdala. The amygdala is responsible for our survival responses in addition to emotional [...]
Five Fun (& Free!) Ways to Connect with Your Partner
Long-term romantic relationships often end up in the complacency lane on life’s highway. Connection remains important and steering your partnership back to an intimate place does not necessarily require a grand gesture such as an island vacation. Try one of these easy (and free) ways to reconnect with your beloved to restore that feeling of closeness. Sit at the Table [...]
How Mistakes Can Help Your Child’s Development
Raising a perfect child is impossible – almost as impossible as being the perfect parent. Here is why your child’s mistakes are an essential part of their development. Parenting and Secure Attachment Secure Attachment depends upon both connection and time away from their caregiver. This ebb and flow develops resiliency and grit. If you notice when toddlers just learning to [...]
3 Tips for Greater Self-Love
It seems like a no-brainer – put yourself at the top of your own priorities. So, why does it seem like our own needs and desires slowly trickle back to the bottom of our daily tasks? It’s a common problem, especially among people who are natural givers. It is important to remember, however, that in order to be fully available [...]
Trauma Stops Time
If you have experienced trauma, you likely have an intimate understanding of this statement: “Trauma stops time.” Individuals who have experienced severely traumatic events will tell you this is true, though they may not have the ability to articulate how. The act of reliving a traumatic event on repeat keeps the mind, and often the body, stuck in constriction, hyper-vigilance, [...]
Belonging and Attachment – Developing Empathy
Empathy for others can help us to develop a less exclusive form of belonging based on a positive, rather than negative, foundation. Negative Approach to Belonging Sometimes belonging develops because of having something negative in common – a common enemy, hating the same things, or having the same dislikes. In families with Insecure Attachment, members can often unite in their [...]
Belonging and Attachment – Our Need to Belong
“ A sense of belonging is a human need, just like the need for food and shelter.” - Karen Hall Ph.D. A Sense of Belonging Feeling belonging and acceptance can foster the ability to enjoy Secure Attachment in a safe and accepting environment. According to Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary, in their 1995 study, a sense of belonging develops under [...]
How Secure Attachment Fosters a Healthy Community
When considering how Attachment adaptations can affect personal relationships, it makes sense that viewing Attachment on a larger scale can provide some insight into how it affects our communities as a whole. According to a Princeton University study conducted in 2014, as many as 40 percent of children in the US do not develop the Secure Attachment necessary to support [...]
3 Ways Attachment Injuries Undermine Your Life
Having an Attachment injury can feel like you’re lugging around a forty-pound weight everywhere you go. This may prevent you from fully enjoying life, or even cause you to make poor decisions regarding your future happiness. There is good news, however; we can heal our Attachment injuries in adulthood. Here are three ways that Attachment injuries can keep you from [...]