Research

Attachment Theory

Attachment theory is based on evidence that the connection between parent and child downloads into the neural circuits of the infant the tools to respond effectively to stress and support development. The Solution Method trains participants in the tools to respond to stress effectively and promote the experience of developmental rewards.

Attachment theory originated with the work of John Bowlby who explored that attachment between mother and child and developmental processes. Later Mary Ainsworth developed the concept of a secure base, a safe place for the infant to return to after disruption and an attachment "schema," a mental representation of the responsive parent. In a limbic/right hemisphere connection, the mother responds to the emotional state of the infant in an infant-led orchestration, with the mother returning the infant to homeostasis from the whole bandwidth of arousal states. In addition, that contact transmits basic expectations about self, others and life to the infant that are either adaptive or maladaptive. A secure, responsive relationship between parent and infant facilitates psychosocial development and favors resiliency. Repeated contact with a responsive parent regulates the infant's maturing regulatory systems and "programs" the emotional and behavioral responses of the offspring. A responsive connection between parent and child promotes a secure attachment and predictive of resiliency in adulthood and a permissive, neglectful or abusive connection between parent and infant is considered an insecure connection and promotes vulnerability to stress.

There is a 70 percent transmission rate of attachment style between parent and child which favors the intergenerational consistency in stress symptoms and developmental rewards. Later research by UCLA's Allan N. Schore and Daniel Siegel explored the effects of secure attachment on brain development, affect regulation and mental health, as well as the neurobiological basis for development.

How attachment theory is applied in Emotional Brain Training

Secure attachment is based on a parent focusing attentions, attuning to the child's emotional brain state, then finding the quickest, easiest way to return the child to a brain state that favors survival of the species. The work of neuroscientist Antonio Damasio has forwarded the idea that the goal of regulation is not mediocre states, but joyous states of balance and well- being. The child's experience of feeling seen, heard and felt, and then returning to a state of well-being which occurs repeatedly strengthen neural circuits of secure attachment and resiliency, which promotes health and happiness. The Check In Tool of the method is based not on the dyadic regulation between parent and child, but on the capacity of the prefrontal cortex (consciousness) to focus effective dyadic regulation and appraise the brain state of the child. The five skills of EBT mirror the authoritative parenting style associated with secure attachment for each level of stress. The brain integrates stress from psychological, metabolic and physical stressors, and EBT includes attention to good health care and self care, and health promoting lifestyles to decrease the frequency and duration of stress, and increase the brain and body's capacity for disease prevention and health promotion. The early encoding of false generalizations and false attachments associated with stress and the maladaptive stress processing associated with insecure attachment are seen as the primary sources of stress in daily life for most people, exacerbated by situational stress. The reconsolidation of those stress circuits is the primary focus of EBT.