Lavorare dall’interno verso l’esterno. La storia di attaccamento del terapeuta all’origine di stalli, ispirazione e cambiamento

The article focuses the impact of the therapist’s own psychology upon his or her clinical effectiveness from the attachment perspective. The Author’s first assumption is that, in childhood and psychotherapy alike, the relationship is where the developmental action is. Therefore, it is the new relationship of attachment with the therapist that allows the patient to change. But, as parents but also as therapists, our ability to generate a secure attachment relationship will be profoundly affected by the legacy of our own attachment relationships - a legacy that is, for many of us who choose this work, marked by trauma. The article shows how our own attachment patterns are the most influential factors of our capacity to create with the patient a genuinely therapeutic relationship. What we have been able to integrate and what we needed to split defensively shapes our patterns, determining not only how we relate to ourselves but also the reciprocal influence between us and our patients and our own efficacy to illuminate the patient’s attachment patterns, because our view of the patient can be clouded by what we are unable or unwilling to know about ourselves

David Wallin, Lavorare dall’interno verso l’esterno. La storia di attaccamento del terapeuta all’origine di stalli, ispirazione e cambiamento in "SETTING" 31/2011, pp 53-66, DOI: 10.3280/SET2011-031004