Relationships

People seek relationship support for a variety of reasons, most typically to navigate communication interruptions, betrayal, intimacy matters, or to navigate life’s meanings. Counseling can also support the complexities of financial pressure, parenting dissimilarities, absence of emotional sustenance, and the intricacies of blended families.

You may be in a relationship, but it does not seem as nurturing as you anticipated. You may struggle, and your mind is occupied with thoughts questioning if your partner sincerely loves you, and why you do not feel confident in your relationship. You find yourself scrutinizing what your partner does or says, as you try to figure out how they truly feel about you.

Affection within relationships is an all-purpose way to explain numerous analogous things: How steadily you connect with others, the level of closeness you feel with others, and how you translate or recognize others’ regard towards you. The fidelity to which you feel comfortable being vulnerable with others is controlled by attachment.

Attachment styles are the pattern of attributes or behaviors that you have developed that reveal themselves when interacting with people — especially those with whom we share a profound emotional connection. These attachments styles are not accidental – they are the outcome of years and years of connecting to others and the natural progressions of relationships.

While it is called “attachment styles”, they are essentially more like “attachment states” - meaning we cannot alter them solely based upon how we feel. A person’s attachment style will endure, possibly for the balance of their life, unless they vigorously work on changing it.

The four primary attachment styles:
1. Secure attachment.
2. Anxious attachment.
3. Avoidant-insecure attachment.
4. Disorganized attachment.