Avoidant Attachment
The Defence Against Intimacy
Recorded Friday 14 January 2022
With Linda Cundy
CPD Credits: 5 hours
This day is about the challenges faced by people who were ignored, criticised, rejected or utterly neglected within their families of origin and who thus find it difficult to form close and lasting intimate relationships in adulthood. People who avoid close proximity to others, despite their longing for that closeness, often feel more secure and better able to manage deep feelings when they hold others apart, whether sexual partners, therapists, or family members. In this one-day seminar, attachment-based psychoanalytic psychotherapist Linda Cundy will talk about how we can understand avoidant attachment as a self-protective system that guards the self from the risk of repeated rejection, humiliation, and shame.
READ MORE...We will consider the roots of negative self-objects, which are likely to be deeply embedded aspects of the personality, and how venturing towards intimate relating can arouse deep doubts and self-hatred.
In exploring the internal object world of avoidant and dismissing adults, Linda will talk about how therapy can offer another way of relating which develops a greater sense of safety with intimacy and accommodation of the other. People who have learnt to avoid attachment can find therapy disruptive and especially challenging. We will thus consider how to notice and navigate moments when the client might retreat or shut out the therapist. Considering how to work with these defenses, picking up on possible shame and self-doubt as well as anger and frustration, are key therapeutic skills. Therapists should prepare to lose their own confidence in the countertransference, to feel de-skilled and ineffective and such hazards will be considered. Ultimately, we will ask how increased self-acceptance and openness to the risks of loving can be developed, enabling such clients to meet their hidden need for intimacy.
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) credits for 5 hours are available as part of the course fee. You will need to fill out an evaluation form and pass a multiple choice questionnaire related to the content in order to receive your certificate.
Access to the Talks On Demand runs for 365 days from the date of purchase.
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