Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Attachment-Based Intervention Strategies in Family Therapy with Survivors of Intra-Familial Trauma: A Case Study

  • Developing Interventions for Family Violence
  • Published:
Journal of Family Violence Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

There is little research to date on the role of sibling relationships in mitigating attachment-related trauma. This paper is a clinical case study that illustrates the therapeutic process involved in working with siblings as well as the parent–child dyad, following a history of intra-familial trauma. We present an attachment-based treatment approach that recognizes and makes clinical use of a secure sibling attachment system. The process of facilitating therapeutic change in children with an insecure attachment style in relation to their parents, contrasted with a relatively secure sibling attachment system, is discussed. The implications of improved parent–child relationships on family outcomes, as well as on sibling relationships, are also explored.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The term “avoidant” will be used throughout the paper to refer to avoidant, dismissing, or dismissing-avoidant attachment.

  2. For this case, the first author (M.F.) was the therapist, working under the supervision of the second author (R.M.).

  3. The concept of sharing “by proxy” refers to the phenomenon of a child being more likely, in the initial stages of therapy, to share traumatic memories on behalf of their sibling, instead of about their own experience.

References

  • Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: a psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bank, S. (1992). Remembering and reinterpreting sibling bonds. In F. Boer & J. Dunn (Eds.), Children’s sibling relationships: developmental and clinical issues (pp. 139–151). Hillsdale: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bank, S., & Kahn, M. (1997). The sibling bond. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baradon, T., & Steele, M. (2008). Integrating the AAI in the clinical process of psychoanalytic parent-infant psychotherapy in a case of relational trauma. In H. Steele & M. Steele (Eds.), Clinical applications of the adult attachment interview (pp. 195–212). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bateson, G. (1972). (1972, 1999) Steps to an ecology of mind: collected essays in anthropology, psychiatry, evolution, and epistemology part III: form and pathology in relationship. University of Chicago Press, 1999, originally published. San Francisco: Chandler Pub. Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowlby, J. (1940). Personality and mental illness. Florence: Taylor & Frances/Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss: Vol 2. separation: anxiety and anger. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowlby, J. (1977). The making and breaking of affectional bonds: I. aetiology and psychopathology in the light of attachment theory. British Journal of Psychiatry, 130, 201–210. doi:10.1192/bjp.130.3.201.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bowlby, J. (1982). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1 attachment. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brennan, K. A., Clark, C. L., & Shaver, P. R. (1998). Self-report measure of adult attachment: an integrative overview. In J. A. Simpson & W. S. Rholes (Eds.), Attachment theory and close relationships (pp. 46–76). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryant, B. K., & Litman, C. (1987). Siblings as teachers and therapists. J Child Contemp Soc, 19(3–4), 185–205.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cassidy, J., & Kobak, R. R. (1988). Avoidance and its relation to other defensive processes. In J. Belsky & T. Nezworski (Eds.), Clinical implications of attachment (pp. 300–323). Hillsdale: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caya, M. L., & Liem, J. H. (1998). The role of sibling support in high-conflict families. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 68(2), 327–333. doi:10.1037/h0080342.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Collins, N. L., & Read, S. J. (1990). Adult attachment, working models, and relationship quality in dating couples. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58(4), 644–663. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.58.4.644.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cummings, E. M., Schermerhorn, A. C., Davies, P. T., Goeke-Morey, M. C., & Cummings, J. S. (2006). Interparental discord and child adjustment: prospective investigations of emotional security as an exploratory mechanism. Child Development, 77(1), 132–152. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00861.x.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dozier, M., Stovall, K. C., & Albus, K. E. (1999). Attachment and psychopathology in adulthood. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: theory, research, and, clinical applications (pp. 497–519). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edelstein, R. S., & Shaver, P. R. (2004). Avoidant attachment: exploration of an oxymoron. In D. J. Mashek & A. P. Aron (Eds.), Handbook of closeness and intimacy (pp. 397–412). Mahwah: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feeney, J. A., & Noller, P. (1990). Attachment styles as a predictor of adult romantic relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58(2), 281–291. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.58.2.281.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forehand, R., Long, N., & Brody, G. (1988). Divorce and marital conflict: relationship to adolescent competence and adjustment in early adolescence. In E. M. Hetherington & J. D. Arasteh (Eds.), Impact of divorce, single parenting, and stepparenting on children (pp. 155–167). Hilsdale: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foroughe, M. F., & Muller, R. T. (2011). Dismissing (avoidant) attachment and trauma in dyadic parent–child psychotherapy. Psychol Trauma Theory Res Pract Policy, 4(2), 229–236. doi:10.1037/a0023061.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • George, C., Kaplan, N., & Main, M. (1996). Adult Attachment Interview. Unpublished manual, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Psychology

  • Goldsmith, J. (1982). The postdivorce family system. In F. Walsh (Ed.), Normal family processes (pp. 297–330). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg, M. T. (1999). Attachment and psychopathology in childhood. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: theory, research, and, clinical applications (pp. 469–496). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hetherington, E. M. (1988). Parents, children and siblings: Six years after divorce. In R. A. Hinde & J. Stevenson-Hinde (Eds.), Relationships within families (pp. 311–331). Oxford, England: Clarendon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins, J. (1992). Sibling relationships in disharmonious homes: Potential difficulties and protective effects. In F. Boer & J. Dunn (Eds.), Children’s sibling relationships: developmental and clinical issues (pp. 125–138). Hillsdale: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, J. B. (2000). Children’s adjustment in conflicted marriage and divorce: a decade review of research. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 39(8), 963–973.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kempton, T., Armistead, L., Wierson, M., & Forehand, R. (1991). Presence of a sibling as a potential buffer following parental divorce: an examination of young adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 20(4), 434–438. doi:10.1207/s15374424jccp2004_12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Main, M., & Goldwyn, R. (1984). Predicting rejection of her infant from mother’s representation of her own experience: Implications for the abused-abusing intergenerational cycle. Child Abuse and Neglect, 8, 203–217. doi:10.1016/0145 2134(84)900097.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Main, M., Hesse, E., & Goldwyn, R. (2008). Studying differences in language usage in recounting attachment history: an introduction to the AAI. In H. Steele & M. Steele (Eds.), Clinical applications of the adult attachment interview (pp. 31–68). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mikulincer, M., Shaver, P. R., Gillath, O., & Nitzberg, R. A. (2005). Attachment, caregiving, and altruism: Boosting attachment security increases compassion and helping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89(5), 817–839. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.89.5.817.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mikulincer, M., Shaver, P. R., Sapir-Lavid, Y., & Avihou-Kanza, N. (2009). What’s inside the minds of securely and insecurely attached people? the secure-base script and its associations with attachment-style dimensions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(4), 615–633. doi:10.1037/a0015649.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Muller, R. T. (2009). Trauma and dismissing (avoidant) attachment: Intervention strategies in individual psychotherapy. Psychother Theory Res Pract Train, 46(1), 68–81. doi:10.1037/a0015135.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muller, R. T. (2010). Trauma and the avoidant client: attachment-based strategies for healing. New York: W.W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shumaker, D. M., Miller, C., Ortiz, C., & Deutsch, R. (2011). The forgotten bonds: the assessment and contemplation of sibling attachment in divorce and parental separation. Family Court Review, 49(1), 46–58. doi:10.1111/j.1744-1617.2010.01352.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simpson, J. A. (1990). Influence of attachment styles on attachment relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(5), 971–980. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.59.5.971.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steele, H., & Steele, M. (2008). Ten clinical uses of the adult attachment interview. In H. Steele & M. Steele (Eds.), Clinical applications of the adult attachment interview (pp. 3–30). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waldinger, R. J., Vaillant, G. E., & Orav, E. J. (2007). Childhood sibling relationships as a predictor of major depression in adulthood: a 30-year prospective study. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 164(6), 949–954. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.164.6.949.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kindercare Pediatrics, Toronto, Canada

    Mirisse F. Foroughe

  2. Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health, York University, 700 Keele St, Toronto, Canada, M3J 1P3

    Robert T. Muller

  3. University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Robert T. Muller

Authors
  1. Mirisse F. Foroughe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Robert T. Muller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mirisse F. Foroughe.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Foroughe, M.F., Muller, R.T. Attachment-Based Intervention Strategies in Family Therapy with Survivors of Intra-Familial Trauma: A Case Study. J Fam Viol 29, 539–548 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-014-9607-4

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-014-9607-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation