Attachment Theory in Adolescent Counselling

John Bowlby’s (1982) attachment theory can be applied to an existing therapeutic framework to enhance the effectiveness of therapy. Using the Adult Attachment Inventory (AAI), a therapist can identify the type of attachment the client formed with his/her caregivers, and use this to navigate an authentic attachment between client and therapist. This paper focuses on the application of attachment theory in adolescent counselling, because in adolescence a person has the linguistic and psychological constructs in place to recognize the significance of attachment, and can take advantage of the brain’s adaptive state before brain development reaches its adult configuration. John Bowlby (1982) introduced attachment theory in 1969 to describe the different ways that children can attach, or fail to attach, to their parents or caregivers. Although it is a wellsupported theory, it can not itself form the basis of therapy, but can be a useful framework to facilitate therapy (Ross, Hinshaw, & Murdock, 2016), and pairs well with common established therapeutic approaches. Specific attachment styles can be identified by a reliable (Lorito & Scrima, 2007) test called the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), which is also used in a modified form to assess adolescents (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007). The AAI can identify clusters of mental health challenges that are associated with each attachment style. Adolescence is a time when people exhibit behaviours and experience feelings that lead to therapy, and these feelings and behaviours are connected to the level of attachment that the person experienced as an infant. Adolescence is an effective time for an intervention based on attachment theory, because parental attachment is still evolving but adolescents have the cognitive structures in place to engage in metacognitive analyses of their own attachment relationships (Allen, 2008). Bowlby (1982) developed attachment theory in order to describe the different ways, both secure and insecure, that children attach to parents or caregivers. A secure attachment is what makes for a healthy parent-child relationship. There are three kinds of insecure attachment: avoidant, anxious, and disorganized (Cassidy, 2008). A child who is insecurely attached in an anxious style (Ross et al., 2016) is emotionally sensitive, highly dependent on caregivers (marked by an inability to process negative emotions without help from others), and preoccupied with feelings of being unloved and unaccepted. Children who are insecurely attached in an avoidant style (Ross et al., 2016) have a self-image that hinges upon comparing themselves to others: avoidant children can see themselves in a positive light only by evaluating comparative others negatively. Avoidants tend to be preoccupied with personal power, have suppressed feelings of failure and worthlessness, and deal with negative situations by avoiding them through social isolation. They are also more likely to find ways of numbing the emotions that they are experiencing through substances such as alcohol or drugs. The most extreme form of insecure attachment is the disorganized style. Children who exhibit the disorganized style of insecure attachment (Holmes, 2004) are theorized to do so because of the unpredictability of their primary caregiver: approaching the caregiver for nurture sometimes led to rejection or even injury, if not simply disinterest. As the disorganized child matures to adolescence and early adulthood, typical characteristics begin to manifest: an urge to control others, an attitude of aggressiveness, an inability to work through negative emotions (e.g. anger management issues), a tendency toward dissociation, and an inability to escape from harmful relationships. This style was not part of Bowlby’s (1982) original theory, but was developed by Mary Main (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007, p. 25). The disorganized style often seems to be dismissed outright in papers and studies that connect attachment style to