Attachment problems and their repair through EMDR therapy

This is how attachment problems are addressed by EMDR intervention.

Many of the things we experience during childhood influence our development and adoption of behavioral patterns as adults.

Some of these influences are positive and allow us to establish a way of understanding the world that connects with our most consolidated interests and concerns from our early years, while others are dysfunctional in nature, a sign that there are certain emotionally painful experiences that we have not been able to fully overcome.

Therefore, in this article we will see how EMDR therapy works with attachment problems, a type of psychological maladjustment.This is a type of psychological maladjustment that has its origin in the key affective relationships that we establish during the first years of life.

What is attachment?

In psychology, the concept of attachment refers to the emotional connections we establish with people who are important to us and that we associate with a feeling of protection and support. the emotional connections that we establish with people important to us and that we associate with a feeling of protection and support (or, at least, an expectation of security and support). (or, at least, an expectation of security and support).

Attachment is of special interest because it allows us to understand the way in which the affective bonds we establish during the first years of our physical and psychological development (usually directed towards our parents, tutors or caregivers in general) influence the way in which we learn to relate to our environment.

Thus, from explanatory proposals of human behavior such as John Bowlby's attachment theory, we know that the development of attachment between children, on the one hand, and at least one protective figure who is usually by their side, on the other, influences the development and expression of the personality of individuals from early childhood (the first months of life after birth) until they reach adulthood..

What are attachment problems?

Attachment is so important that it has been seen even in primate offspring that physical contact with a protective figure can become more valued than access to food and other goods necessary to meet what are usually considered "basic needs". In addition, the lack of an individual to whom to develop a consistent attachment bond results in physical and psychiatric illnesses..

It is believed that this is due to the need for adult protection in order to be able to explore the world, learn and, as a consequence, mature psychologically: if we do not have the certainty that someone is watching over our well-being, the environment becomes a hostile place to which we want to avoid exposing ourselves, since we have no room for maneuver to make the wrong decisions.

This is why, beyond the severe pathologies produced by the total absence of a protective figure such as a mother or father during childhood, there is a gray scale in terms of the psychological problems that can appear if we develop a dysfunctional attachment style.

For example, if a child's upbringing has been characterized by overprotection, this often leads to psychological problems.This often leads to anxiety problems in the absence of the caregiver and excessive risk avoidance into adulthood.

If, on the other hand, If, on the other hand, the parenting model has been characterized by offering only the essential material sustenance and there has been little interaction with the child through affective exchanges, the and there has been hardly any interaction with the child through affective exchanges, the little ones stop expecting protection from these adults and treat them in a similar way to individuals unknown to them, and develop markedly rebellious and individualistic behavior patterns, something that when they reach adulthood is reflected in the avoidance of commitments and deep emotional bonds.

If the parenting model has been very inconsistent, offering moments of protection and affectionate exchange but, on the other hand, committing many mistakes and "forgetfulness" when it comes to looking after the child's welfare, the type of attachment developed by the children will be ambivalent.characterized by uncertainty: they will seek contact with the caregiver and, once by his or her side, will resist his or her company, suffering frustration at not feeling fully "safe" and at the same time not having the freedom to play and explore.

In adulthood, those who have developed this attachment style tend to suffer more anxiety problems.

How does EMDR therapy intervene with these problems?

The EMDR therapy is a type of psychological intervention thought in a beginning for the psychopathologies linked to the trauma, but later it began to be adapted to several problems associated to the psychological mark that the painful experiences leave us. And emotional maladjustments arising from dysfunctional attachment styles fall into this category.

The fundamental objective of EMDR therapy is helping people to reprocess emotional memory contents that have become "fixed" in the neural networks of the brain in a dysfunctional way, manifesting in the present in a problematic way even when we are not making conscious efforts to recall those memories.manifesting in the present in a problematic way even when we are not making conscious efforts to recall those memories.

It is a matter of accessing that part of the memory and "editing" the way in which we have internalized it, so that it no longer gives rise to patterns of emotional activation that do not allow us to overcome those experiences and turn the page. It is far from erasing memories, but rather reconciling us with that part of our past, through modifications in the way our brain processes that information.

Of course, being a procedure that, despite intervening in the dynamics of brain activation, is part of psychotherapy, it is completely painless and non-invasive: it is based on the realization of concrete actions by the patient. In fact, the activities that take place in the sessions the activities that take place in EMDR sessions are relatively simple, and can be adapted for both boys and girls..

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At Psicomaster we attend adults, children and adolescents through various modalities of psychotherapy, and we also attend through the online modality.