Hidden Roots: Understanding the Impact of Early Attachment on Adult Functioning

Description

May 22, 2026

9-4 with lunch from 12-1  Atlantic Time

Many adult clients enter therapy presenting with concerns such as anxiety, relationship difficulties, emotional dysregulation, perfectionism, or chronic feelings of shame without recognizing how these patterns may be rooted in early attachment experiences. Attachment patterns formed in early caregiving relationships shape how individuals regulate emotion, perceive safety, connect with others, and understand themselves.

This 6-hour experiential workshop provides therapists with a practical framework for recognizing attachment-related patterns in adult clients who may not initially identify their difficulties as attachment-based. Participants will explore how early relational experiences influence adult coping strategies, interpersonal relationships, and internal working models.

Through case examples, reflective exercises, clinical discussion, and applied interventions, therapists will develop skills to identify attachment dynamics, conceptualize client struggles through an attachment lens, and introduce therapeutic interventions that support relational repair and emotional integration.

This training is appropriate for counsellors, psychotherapists, social workers, psychologists, and other mental health professionals who work with adult clients.

1. Describe the core principles of attachment theory and the development of internal working models.
2. Explain how early relational experiences influence adult emotional regulation, relationship patterns, and identity development.
3. Identify common presenting issues in adult therapy that may reflect underlying attachment disruptions.
4. Apply attachment-informed case conceptualization to adult client scenarios.
5. Analyze adult relational patterns through the lens of attachment strategies (secure, anxious, avoidant, disorganized).
6. Differentiate between trauma responses and attachment adaptations in adult client behaviour.
7. Evaluate therapeutic interventions that support attachment repair in adult psychotherapy.
8. Develop attachment-informed therapeutic responses and interventions that increase emotional safety and relational awareness in adult clients.