Adult Attachment in Clinical Practice: Understanding & Treating Insecure Adult Attachment

Workshop Description

Relationships with caregivers in the early years have a profound influence on an adult’s self-perceptions, perception of others and his/her capacity for healthy intimate relationships. Adults with secure attachments and healthy adult relationships usually had early experiences of consistent nurturing and care from parents or caregivers.  Adults with insecure attachments and unhealthy relationships, on the other hand, usually had early experiences of inconsistent nurturing, rejection or even severe neglect and abuse. There is good evidence, however, that adults with insecure attachments can redevelop their capacity for secure attachments.  They can develop such security by understanding the adult attachment style they developed from their early childhood experiences, recognizing how their attachment style impacts their sense of self and the unhealthy patterns in their present relationships, mourning the losses and longings from these early child/parent relationships, developing a non-judgmental stance in exploring their patterns, and risking change.

This workshop will present methods of assessing for adult attachment and a model of therapy for helping clients to develop secure attachment. The therapeutic interventions will assist clients to recognize their unconscious models of relationships, develop greater security through the therapeutic relationship, and risk new and healthy interactive patterns in present relationships.  Attendees will also develop awareness of their own attachment style and its importance in their therapeutic work with clients.  

The workshop will be co-facilitated by Annette Kussin and her daughter, Devra Igra — a mother-daughter team whose combined clinical expertise and personal connection offer a uniquely rich perspective on the topic of Adult Attachment.​

Topics Covered:

-Understanding adult attachment and attachment categories
-Challenges for the helper associated with each attachment category and how to work through these challenges effectively
-Assessing adult attachment using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and Behavioural Determinants
-Using the AAI as a clinical tool
-The neurobiology of adult attachment
-Understanding mental health disorders from an attachment perspective
-Goals and stages of attachment focused counselling
-Treatment interventions for each of the adult attachment categories
-The reparative process of the therapeutic relationship

​Who Should Attend?

Experienced service practitioners working with adults in individual therapy, couple and family therapy, and parent work, such as counsellors, social workers, social service workers, psychologists and other professionals providing some form of counselling.​

About the Presenters

​Annette Kussin, MSW, RSW, is a registered Social Worker, a registered Marital and Family Therapist and an advanced Attachment Focused Therapist specializing in Trauma and Attachment Therapy. She worked in Children’s Mental Health for over 30 years as a therapist, supervisor, manager and clinical director.  Currently Annette maintains a private practice, which she has had for over 20 years, where she specializes in Attachment Focused Therapy for adults, couples, adolescents, and adoptive families. She also offers parenting capacity assessments and attachment and trauma assessments in her private practice. She has developed a model of Attachment Focused Therapy for adults struggling with intimacy and for couples with relationship problems.

Annette received advanced training in attachment focused therapy from Daniel Hughes and was a member of an advanced consultation group in this model of therapy. She offers consultation to agencies and individual professionals and regularly provides training to organizations throughout Ontario in the areas of attachment, trauma, and brain development.

Annette is the author of two key books on attachment: It's Attachment: A New Way of Understanding Yourself and Your Relationships, published in 2020, and Secure Parent, Secure Child: How a Parent's Adult Attachment Shapes the Security of the Child, published in 2023.

Devra Igra, MSW, RSW, is a registered Social Worker specializing in eating disorders, trauma, and attachment.  She is also Annette Kussin’s daughter 😊

Following in her mother’s footsteps, Devra received advanced training in attachment focused therapy and in the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), developed by Mary Main and colleagues.

Devra has past experience working in Child Welfare and Eating Disorder Clinics, and presently has a private practice, offering therapy, consultation and training.

For more information or to register: www.missionempowerment.ca