Listening for Attachment

Inner Working Models, the AAI & the Therapy Room

Listening for Attachment is a 4-hour live online professional development workshop for counsellors, psychotherapists, psychologists and mental health practitioners. The workshop explores attachment-informed assessment through inner working models, narrative coherence, the therapeutic relationship and clinically useful ideas drawn from the Adult Attachment Interview. Participants learn to notice how clients talk about relationships, loss and early experiences, how attachment expectations may emerge in therapy, and how transference and countertransference can inform clinical formulation. The workshop does not qualify participants to formally administer or score the Adult Attachment Interview. It is delivered by Optima Attachment Training and provides 5 ACA OPD points.

Listening for Attachment: Inner Working Models, the AAI & the Therapy Room

Clients do not usually arrive in therapy saying:

“I think I have a dismissing attachment strategy.”

They tell us stories.

They describe relationships.

They remember some things vividly and struggle to remember others.

They may speak about painful experiences with remarkable emotional distance, become caught in detail, contradict themselves, minimise what happened or find that language begins to break down around particular losses or experiences.

And all the while, they are also relating to us.

At the heart of the workshop are inner working models: the largely unconscious expectations we develop about ourselves, other people and relationships. The training explores how these internal relational templates influence what we expect from others, what feels emotionally tolerable and how we understand ourselves within relationships.

We then introduce ideas from the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI).

The AAI is concerned not simply with whether somebody had a “good” or “bad” childhood, but with their current state of mind in relation to attachment experiences and the coherence of the narrative they are able to construct around them.

That makes it particularly interesting clinically.

A client may say that their childhood was “fine”, yet struggle to give any examples. Another may become caught in a long, emotionally charged account of past grievances. Someone else may find that their speech becomes fragmented or difficult to organise when they speak about trauma or loss.

Rather than using these observations to categorise or diagnose, we can treat them as clues.

We will also consider what happens when those inner working models begin to appear in the therapeutic relationship itself.

This is where attachment-informed assessment becomes much more than gathering a history.

Throughout the workshop, the emphasis is on curiosity rather than certainty.

We are not trying to become informal AAI coders, diagnose attachment styles or fit clients into rigid categories. We are developing a richer way of listening and thinking about relational experience.

And we are asking a clinically useful question:

What might the way this person tells their story — and the way they are beginning to tell it with me — help me understand about how relationships have come to feel for them?

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What participants will explore

• inner working models and how they shape expectations of self and others
• attachment-informed assessment and formulation
• what the Adult Attachment Interview is and what it examines
• secure/autonomous, dismissing, preoccupied and unresolved narrative patterns
• attachment-related language, memory and emotional expression
• lhow inner working models emerge within the therapeutic relationship
• the therapist as an attachment figure and secure base
• moving from hypothesis towards curiosity
• the potential for relational experiences in therapy to modify old expectations

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Who is this workshop for?

This workshop is designed for:

• counsellors
• psychotherapists
• psychologists
• mental health practitioners
• clinicians interested in attachment-informed assessment and formulation

It will be particularly useful for practitioners who sometimes find themselves wondering:

“What am I hearing beneath this client’s story?”

or

“I have a sense that something attachment-related is happening between us, but how do I think about it without simply assigning them an attachment style?”

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This workshop introduces clinically useful ideas drawn from the Adult Attachment Interview but does not provide formal training or accreditation in administering, coding or scoring the AAI. Formal AAI coding requires specialist training.

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Training details

Format: Live online
Duration: 4 hours
ACA OPD: 5 points
Provider: Optima Attachment Training

What is attachment-informed assessment?

Attachment-informed assessment considers a client’s relational history, current relationships, coping strategies, expectations of other people and the way relational patterns begin to emerge within therapy. It adds an attachment perspective to clinical assessment rather than replacing a practitioner’s existing assessment process.

What are inner working models?

Inner working models are relational templates that influence how we understand ourselves, other people and relationships. They shape expectations about whether others will be available, how safe closeness feels and how we respond when attachment needs are activated.

What is the Adult Attachment Interview?

The Adult Attachment Interview is a semi-structured interview developed to explore an adult’s current state of mind regarding early attachment experiences. It pays particular attention to the coherence and organisation of the person’s narrative rather than simply whether childhood experiences were positive or negative. Week seven slides

Will this workshop train me to administer or score the AAI?

No. Formal administration and coding of the Adult Attachment Interview requires specialist training. This workshop uses ideas from AAI research to help therapists think about narrative, coherence and attachment-informed clinical listening.

What does narrative coherence mean in attachment work?

Narrative coherence refers to how organised, consistent and understandable a person’s account of their experiences is. Attachment research considers not only what somebody says about their past but how they are able to reflect on and communicate those experiences.

Will this workshop teach me how to identify someone’s attachment style?

The emphasis is not on diagnosing or labelling clients. The workshop helps therapists develop hypotheses about relational patterns while remaining open to complexity, change and the client’s individual experience.

Does the workshop cover transference and countertransference?

Yes. The workshop explores how inner working models may emerge within the therapeutic relationship and how the therapist’s own responses can provide useful information when considered thoughtfully and within supervision.

Is the workshop suitable if I already know attachment theory?

Yes. This workshop moves beyond introductory attachment theory and concentrates on how attachment can be listened for and thought about within assessment, formulation and the therapeutic relationship.

Is the workshop live online?

Yes. It is delivered as a 4-hour live online workshop.

Does it provide ACA OPD points?

Yes. Participants receive 5 ACA OPD points.