Attachment Styles and Grief: How to Adapt Your Intervention to Attune to the Child’s Individual Style

Kerttu Cantin, MA, MFT, Private Practice

Virginia Green, PhD, MFT, Adjunct Faculty, Antioch University

Understanding the attachment style of the grieving child gives us early insight into how he or she will manage the feelings of loss, and provide essential cues for how to treat them in ways that will engage, inspire, and help them heal. We will also see how our own attachment styles as healers can help or hinder the healing process.

Based on the pioneering work of John Bowlby and his colleagues, and including most recently David Wallin, workshop attendees will conduct a self-inventory to ascertain their own attachment style. Using case studies, and current research on the brain and its naturally hardwired need to be attached, we will provide a very current review of state of the art intervention strategies and treatment approaches.

This workshop will offer practical suggestions, including innovative creative ideas for bridging the gap for the avoidant or ambivalent child.

Objectives: 1. Identify your own attachment style and learn ways to use it to enhance the healing process 2. Receive a concise review of current brain research on attachment and grief 3. Receive interactive, practical skills training for using innovative and proven interventions to reach the ambivalent or avoidant child faced with fatal community and family violence, and chaotic families.