[Attachment Based Short Intervention During Inpatient Treatment of Adolescents]

Attachment Based Short Intervention During Inpatient Treatment of Adolescents In clinical attachment research the established and economic Adult Attachment Projective Picture System (AAP) has been increasingly used in the past few years to assess the attachment representations in adults and recent studies demonstrated sufficient validity for assessing attachment representations in adolescents. Apart from coding attachment classifications, the AAP provides useful and clinically valid information concerning attachment related defences, aspects of capacity to act and synchrony in relationships and emotion regulation strategies with respect to attachment related traumatic experiences. These valuable aspects with respect to individual resources led to the conceptualization to implement the AAP in the therapeutic setting as a feedback tool. In this pilot case we report on an adolescent patient in an inpatient setting. The therapist received an individualized feedback on the patients' AAP to focus on specific attachment related themes used as a short intervention respective an add-on treatment. This paper presents the first results of this new approach by demonstrating the potential therapeutic effects and process of therapy.