M Mat Multi Modal Attachment Therapy

The author brings a new, structured and easily applied attachment therapy model. It blends a number of modalities to create a powerful, cohesive, and comprehensive therapy that integrates both right and left brain interventions.

EXPANDED SECOND EDITION New Interventions More Examples Expanded Descriptions If you work with children and families, this may be the book you have been waiting for! This book provides a new, easy-to-follow roadmap for understanding and working with children with some of the most challenging and treatment-resistant behaviors and their families. Some of the most challenging children to help are those who have been injured early in life in their first relationships through disrupted or injured attachment. These children can be both hurting and hurtful to others, and are often anxious and depressed, yet push away the very things they most need for healing: love and connection. Traditional child therapies are largely ineffective and professionals and parents may be at a loss as to how to help. Perhaps there is a better way to reach attachment-injured children. Perhaps our therapy models have simply not been a good match for their needs... Multi-Modal Attachment Therapy (M-MAT) brings a fresh, innovative approach to working with children and families struggling with attachment injuries. In a whole-brain strategy, M-MAT blends a number of modalities to target precisely those areas most impacted by the attachment injury: attachment and connection, self-concept, worldview, and skills deficits. The result is a powerful, cohesive, and comprehensive attachment-based therapy. In clear, concise language, Young lays forth for the reader an easy to follow roadmap for understanding and implementing M-MAT with children and their caregivers. She additionally outlines how to work with those children who are most at risk: children who do not have a permanent, committed caregiver. M-MAT Multi-Modal Attachment Therapy provides a brief overview of attachment theory and discussion of children with attachment injuries, but focuses primarily on the how-to of implementing this therapy model to provide healing to children and families. Many interventions and examples are included throughout the book. It is intended as a practical manual for therapists and social workers, but also holds some use for parents and other professionals in understanding attachment and approaches to working with children with attachment injuries. M-MAT is designed for children with mild to severe attachment injuries including those with developmental trauma and/or diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder (rad). Adopted and foster children may benefit greatly from this model, as placements are often lost due to untreated or under-treated attachment injuries "M-MAT is a two-pronged approach with both a play and a talk component. The play component utilizes largely non-verbal forms of communication, connection and nurturing, such as mirroring, rhythm, touch and eye contact. The talk component engages the power of language and the child's thoughts by addressing cognitive distortions, responsibility, and self-concept through re-storying, skill building, and psychoeducation, creating a new narrative in which the child can organize and make sense of his/her experiences in a healthy, adaptive way. The two components together reinforce each other, allow for deeper integration and healing, and are far more powerful than either alone. Together they access many parts of the brain and harness the incredible healing power inherent in both left and right brain modalities. This is a whole-brain approach that utilizes both bottom-up and top-down interventions." "The main tools for engagement and buy-in for the child are playful engagement, fun, deep empathy, reflection, and truth." Excerpts from M-MAT Multi-Modal Attachment Therapy: Healing Attachment Injuries in Children and Families

Now in a fully updated and expanded edition, Levy and Orlans' classic text provides a comprehensive overview of attachment theory, how attachment issues manifest, and how they can be treated. The book covers attachment-focused assessment and diagnosis, specialised training and education for caregivers, treatment for children and caregivers and early intervention and prevention programmes for high-risk families. The authors explain their unique models of 'corrective attachment therapy' and 'corrective attachment parenting', and provide practical guidance on goals and techniques for clinicians who work with maltreated and attachment disordered children and families. This second edition incorporates advances in the fields of child and family psychology that have occurred since the book first published in 1998, with substantial new sections on interpersonal neurobiology, adult and couple treatment, the application of positive psychology. Clear, authoritative and skills-oriented, this is the essential guide to attachment for psychologists, social workers, clinicians, as well as foster and adoptive parents.

An all-in-one professional practice guide. Here in a single accessible guide, is a comprehensive go-to resource on the foundational principles and treatment guidelines for doing attachment therapy. Based on the work of the Association for Treatment and Training in the Attachment of Children (ATTACh), a leading organization on attachment in child development, it provides all the nuts and bolts a clinician needs to be familiar with to provide effective, informed, attachment-focused treatment to children and families. • A synopsis of attachment theory and styles • Core principles of attachment-focused therapy (synchrony, attunement, reciprocity, repair, regulation, and more) • Core concepts of trauma and trauma-focused therapy (resistance, therapeutic, and building a coherent narrative) • Intake and assessment methods • Differential diagnosis • Best practice standards and interventions • PTSD and other comorbidities • Treatment planning and behavior management • Vicarious trauma Complex trauma and developmental trauma disorder are also covered in depth, as well as up-to-date information on how brain science has changed our understanding of relationships and developmental functioning, and, in turn, phases of treatment and intervention options.

Drawing on cutting-edge research on adult attachment--and providing an innovative roadmap for clinical practice--Susan M. Johnson argues that psychotherapy is most effective when it focuses on the healing power of emotional connection. The primary developer of emotionally focused therapy (EFT) for couples, Johnson now extends her attachment-based approach to individuals and families. The volume shows how EFT aligns perfectly with attachment theory as it provides proven techniques for treating anxiety, depression, and relationship problems. Each modality (individual, couple, and family therapy) is covered in paired chapters that respectively introduce key concepts and present an in-depth case example. Special features include instructive end-of-chapter exercises and reflection questions.

Over fifty years ago, John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth’s research on the developmental psychology of children formed the basic tenets of attachment theory. And for years, following these tenets, the theory’s focus has been on how children develop vis-a-vis the attachments—whether secure or insecure—they form with their caregivers. In the therapy room, this has meant working with individuals one-on-one, with the therapist assuming the role of the attachment figure in order to provide a secure base for treating clients’ problems that arose from troubled interpersonal relationships in childhood. Here, Daniel A. Hughes, an eminent clinician and attachment specialist, is the first to expand this traditional model, applying attachment theory to a family therapy setting. Drawing on more than 20 years of clinical experience, Hughes presents his comprehensive, effective, and accessible treatment model for working with all members of a family—not simply the individual in question—to recognize, resolve, and heal personal and family problems using principles from theories of attachment and intersubjectivity. Beginning with an overview of attachment and intersubjectivity—the twin theories from which he forms his treatment plan—Hughes carefully outlines, chapter by chapter, the core principles and strategies of his family-based approach. He elaborates on the need to develop and maintain PACE (playfulness, acceptance, curiosity, and empathy)—the central therapeutic stance of attachment-focused family therapy—and supplies tips and sample dialogues for implementing this position. The importance of fostering affective/reflective (a/r) dialogue is covered in detail, as well as helping families to manage shame, understand and embrace the break-and-repair cycle of their interactions, and explore and resolve childhood trauma. Also discussed are the more procedural issues of how to incorporate parents into therapeutic conversations, when and how to question them on their own attachment histories, and how to “be” with children. Grounded in the fundamental principle of parents facilitating the healthy emotional development of their children, Attachment-Focused Family Therapy is the first book of its kind to offer therapists a complete manual for using attachment therapy with families. Extensive case studies, vignettes, and sample dialogues throughout clearly demonstrate how Hughes’s model plays out in the therapy room. By showing therapists how to create a bond of psychological safety and intersubjective discovery with parents and caregivers, Hughes reveals how they, in turn, can bring about similar experiences of safety and discovery for their children.

Is maternal instinct fact or fiction? What special challenges do adoptive parents face? What kind of daycare is better, one with many caregivers or one with few? When is separation anxiety normal in a child? Do the experiences of early childhood always influence our ability to build and maintain social relationships as adults? Understanding Attachment helps to answer these questions and many others. This book is perfect for the reader who wants or needs a thorough understanding of attachment, but does not have time to indulge in lengthy study. Parents, child care providers, teachers, nurses, social workers, attorneys, therapists, students, and counselors will all appreciate this work. Is maternal instinct fact or a myth? What special challenges do adoptive parents face? What kind of daycare is better, one with many caregivers or one with few? When is separation anxiety normal in a child, and when is it a sign of a developmental problem? Do the experiences of early childhood always influence our ability to build and maintain social relationships as adults? Understanding Attachment helps to answer these questions and many others. This book is perfect for the reader who wants or needs a thorough understanding of attachment, but does not have the time to indulge in lengthy study. Parents, child care providers, teachers, nurses, social workers, attorneys, therapists, students, and counselors will all appreciate this work. Mercer defines attachment and related terms, discusses the history of the idea, and describes ways in which this aspect of emotional life can be measured. She explains developmental change and the way attachment continues to alter from infancy to adulthood. The importance of social experiences with parents and other caregivers is emphasized. Outcomes of good and poor attachment experiences are discussed, and there is material on attachment disorders. The book concludes with a description of recent work that gives a new perspective on attachment.