Consultant Clinical Psychologist ATTACHMENT Dr. Elizabeth McManus Consultant Clinical Psychologist January 2018

A unique, enduring and affectively charged relationship DEFINITION A unique, enduring and affectively charged relationship A set of strategies for protecting oneself A pattern of information processing that underlies these strategies Crittenden (2016)

SECURE ATTACHMENT Develops in response to parents/carers providing sensitive and attuned care to their infants, babies, children and young people Can be recognised by Direct and proportionate signals from infants, babies, children and young people Thought and feeling become increasingly sophisticated, differentiated and connected to one another Emotional regulation and resilience develop (over time!)

ATTACHMENT INSECURITY Develops as a CONSEQUENCE of what parents/carers do or don’t do Infants, babies, children and young people distort their signals to others Indirect and disproportionate signals Tendency for over-reliance on either thought or feeling Thought and feeling are poorly connected Restricted/poor emotional regulation and resilience

CAREGIVER UNPREDICABILITY An unpredictable caregiver creates HUGE anxiety in infants, babies and children If the caregiver responds unpredictably to the child, then the child won’t be able to work out a connection between what they do and how the caregiver responds They won’t be able to work out what to do to get the caregiver when they need them This makes them intolerably anxious and unsafe and they need to find a solution… Hold on to them ALL the time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CAREGIVER UNPREDICTABILITY Leads to distorted signals Exaggerated Coy-coercive patterns Exaggerated vulnerability An over-reliance on what is felt because thought has failed them A preoccupation with relationships Rapid changes of emotional display Intense and pervasive lack of self worth – the self is experienced as inherently unloved and unlovable

PREDICTABLY GETTING IT WRONG Caregivers who predictably fail to respond to infant signals respond punitively or whose interactions are responses to their own need(s), not the child’s

PREDICTABLY GETTING IT WRONG Leads to distorted signals Inhibited/absent Faking good Compliance An over-reliance on thought Disconnection from feelings – their own and others Giving up on relationships An intense and pervasive lack of self worth – the self is experienced as inherently unloved and unlovable

DANGER Both unpredictability and predictably getting it wrong can range in severity As they become more severe they become more dangerous to the child Human beings, including infants, babies, children and young people, have characteristic responses to danger: Avoidance Control Hypervigilence Re-enactment

SO WHAT? Childrens’ behaviours, even those we adults don’t like, are understood as their highly adaptive solutions to their caregiving environment, not as the result of defect or disorder within the child If we try to remove them we make the child less safe New learning is always possible, so if caregivers change the way they relate to their children their children can learn new solutions