Sublime

Often an undermothered adult child will have a great need to feel that the therapist is not just providing care because it’s his or her job (like Mom) but that this time the caring is personal.

Children who are frustrated too much, or are unable to use play to master their world, retreat into what I call the tower of powerlessness.

When you undergo art therapy, you may be surprised by the feelings that emerge. Having a registered therapist direct these sessions can give you a better understanding of how to deal with the surprising responses and emotions that arise.

Becoming Attached: First Relationships and How They Shape Our Capacity to Love (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 230.

John Bowlby, an anthropologist and psychoanalyst, studied patterns of attachment between mothers and children and came up with four basic schemas: free/autonomous, dismissing, enmeshed-ambivalent, and disorganized.

Running on Empty: Overcome Your Childhood Emotional Neglect, Dr. Jonice Webb

the need to be near someone special is so important that the brain has a biological mechanism specifically responsible for creating and regulating our connection with our attachment figures (parents, children, and romantic partners). This mechanism, called the attachment system, consists of emotions and behaviors that ensure that we remain safe and