The Little Book of Attachment: Theory to Practice in Child Mental Health With Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy

by Daniel A. Hughes

This book both explains and illustrates how the practice of child mental health professionals can be enhanced, whatever their treatment approach, to encourage engagement, resilience, and development in children with mental health problems. Alongside practical recommendations, Daniel Hughes and Ben Gurney-Smith use dialogue from clinical work to illustrate applications of these principles from Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy as well as other attachment-based practices with parents and children. This “little book” will demystify how attachment theory—one of today’s most in-demand approaches—can actually be brought into clinical work.


Topics include regulating emotional states; repairing ongoing relationships; establishing an attachment-based therapeutic relationship; accepting a child’s inner life; assessing the caregiver’s need for safety, regulation, and reflection; the importance of nonverbal and verbal conversations in facilitating secure attachment; and strengthening the mind of the child.

Genres: Parenting

1 pages, Audio CD

Published July 21, 2020

Reviews

[Wilme ("Vilmie") Steenekamp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very valuable approach for therapists focussing on Attachment informed processes. Valuable for me as adult therapist working with the kids inside of adult bodies.

[Neil Toplis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I work as a manager in a mental health team working with looked after and adopted children, where conversations around attachment theory, DDP and mentalization, amongst others, regularly occur. I am not though a clinician myself, and so whilst the names of these theories are familiar to me my understanding has been limited. This book has been a great introduction, eminently readable even for me as a non clinician, it has greatly aided my understanding and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone as an introduction to DDP and attachment theory.

[Maddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting introduction to DDP