Corrective Attachment Therapy

Children adopted from foster care or foreign orphanages or biological children who have failed to develop secure attachments

For children/adolescents ages: 0 - 21

Corrective Attachment Therapy is an intensive outpatient program (IOP) that consists of 30 hours of therapy (3 hours per day for 10 consecutive business days). A team of 2 to 5 therapists work with each family. The program is holistic and integrative relying on a variety of experiential and didactic components.

Terry M. Levy, PhD

• Agency/Affiliation: Evergreen Psychotherapy Center/Attachment Treatment and Training Institute
• Website: http://www.evergreenpsychotherapycenter.com/treatment/
• Email: info@attachmentexperts.com
• Phone: (303) 674-4029

The overall goals of Corrective Attachment Therapy are:

• Facilitate secure attachment in the parent-child relationship
• Address the child's trauma
• Address attachment disorder
• Address negative belief systems about self and others
• Enhance secure attachments
• Increase trust
• Increase affection and intimacy
• Increase communication and reciprocity
• Reduce anger and negative patterns of relating
• Reduce negative relationship patterns in family relationships
• Work through sibling issues
• Enhance stability
• Support the family from inside and outside
• Facilitate a climate of hope, joy, and positivity
• Teach parents specific parenting skills and attitudes effective with this population
• Address the parents' historical and current issues that are unresolved, thereby preventing healthy family functioning

The essential components of Corrective Attachment Therapy include that it is:

• Systematic: Attachment develops in the context of overlapping relationship systems, including parent-child, marital, family, extended kin, and community.
• Holistic and integrative: Treatment is focused on mind, body, behaviors, emotions, relationships, and morality. Therapeutic interventions and strategies are varied — experiential, psychoeducational, cognitive, and skill-based. The holistic approach is based on the concept that many factors interact to create both health and dysfunction:
• Attachment trauma is first revisited to address core issues.
• Next, revisions are facilitated, in belief systems, choices, relationship patterns, and coping skills.
• Lastly, revitalization includes celebrating achievements, cementing positive changes, and enhancing hope for the future.

Child/Adolescent Services

Corrective Attachment Therapy directly provides services to children and addresses the following:

• Self-destructive, lack of impulse control, aggression, irresponsible, stealing, lying, lack of cause-and-effect thinking, victim mentality, mood changes

Recommended Intensity

3 hours per day for 10 days

Recommended Duration

2 weeks

Delivery Settings

This program is typically conducted in a(n):

• Outpatient Clinic

Homework

Parents are asked to practice corrective attachment parenting skills

Languages

Corrective Attachment Therapy has materials available in the following languages other than English:

• Japanese

For information on which materials are available in this language, please check on the program's website or contact the program representative (contact information is listed in this page).

Resources Needed to Run Program

The typical resources for implementing the program are:

Sound-proofing, one-way mirror, or video

Prerequisite/Minimum Provider Qualifications

Master's degree in a social science

Manual Information

There is a manual that describes how to deliver this program.

Training Information

There is training available for this program.

Training Contact

Training Type/Location:

Internships and externships are available onsite. Therapists participate as interns in a 2-week Intensive Outpatient Program. 1 and 2-day seminars are also available around the country.

Number of days/hours:

Internship/externship is 2 weeks. Seminars are 1 to 2 days.

• There are currently no published, peer-reviewed research studies on outcomes with the appropriate target population for the topic area(s) in which Corrective Attachment Therapy has been reviewed.

There are currently no references available for Corrective Attachment Therapy.