Developing a secure-enough base: teaching psychotherapists in training the relationship between attachment theory and...

I present an account of a post-graduate training module I have developed for psychotherapy training students at The Centre for Attachment-based Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy entitled From Attachment Theory to Clinical Practice. I situate my interest in this work in my own life and my background in education. In describing the curriculum content, I focus in particular on an educational process that enables students to engage with the concepts from attachment theory which are both relevant to their own lives and their future work as psychotherapists. I show how the findings of the Adult Attachment Interview can be understood more deeply through a project the students are asked to present and evaluate. The article also includes some personal reflections on my experience of attachment research training from a clinician's perspective as a way to think about the divide between these two worlds. I conclude with a consideration of the strengths and limitations of attachment theory to understanding the effects of inequalities of power relations on the formation of intimate bonds.