Break Free from Heartbreak Using Attachment Theory!

Bev Mitelman is joined by her colleagues Dr.Emily Henderson and Mara Palermo (Certified Attachment Practitioners) to discuss heartbreak from the lens of attachment theory and how different attachment styles can result in varying grief responses. Attachment styles are categorized as secure, dismissive avoidant, anxious pre-occupied, and fearful avoidant. The attachment system offers a framework for understanding why some of us need to pull away in our grief, others may become completely overwhelmed, and others experience "complicated grief" and struggle immensely with processing their emotions and accepting reality.

In this course, heartbreak is framed as a process of navigating adjustment surrounding the loss of a significant emotional bond with another person, and it is mediated by the attachment system to help us survive. Attachment styles may indicate how we will experience a wide range of emotional responses when grieving, such as sorrow, love, yearning, avoidance, anxiety, fear, confusion, anger, numbness, and despair.

Key Lesson Concepts:

• Attachment styles are developed in early childhood based on interactions and level of attunement we received from our primary caregivers.

• Understanding attachment styles can help navigate heartbreak by developing an understanding of how core wounds affect our emotional patterns, coping behaviors and the "stories" we tell ourselves.

• Learning about why we get so attached to the idea of someone, and how to give to yourself what you are seeking from others and set standards and boundaries for future romantic relationships.