Poster #27

Healing Ambivalent Attachment in Trauma-Informed Psychotherapy: A Client's Use of SoulCollage®

By: Cathy S. Harris, LCSW. Co-authored by Laura Callies

Abstract:

Therapeutic art process in trauma-informed psychotherapy

Helping clients with commitment and trust issues is often impeded by an ambivalent attachment style that developed in childhood. Inconsistent parenting and/or abuse and neglect can lead to an adult with a “push/pull” style of relating to others.

How can psychotherapists help these clients integrate extremes of emotion in relationship?

In recent years, researchers and practitioners alike have recognized that talk therapy is not the only tool for assisting clients to heal from the effects of trauma and family dysfunction. Somatic work and therapeutic art processes can help.

In order to experience this process therapists can learn to make their own SoulCollage® cards.

This investigation focuses on a single subject and her use of an art process (SoulCollage®) to integrate extremely ambivalent feelings in familial and marital relationships.

SoulCollage® cards tend to uncover parts of self, including shadow parts. Would the client be able to receive the revelations resulting from the card making process? Indeed, this client was able to significantly come to terms with love/hate feelings toward individuals in her past. She created a new type of card, the “AND” card, using both sides of the 5” x 8” surface.

While the results of this client’s work focus on her specific issues, the process is applicable to many. SoulCollage® cards are easily created using household items. Ambivalence in relationships can result in confusion and an inability to trust in new relationships. Unhealed ambivalent attachment issues can be passed on to the next generation, resulting in dysfunctional parenting. Using AND cards is an accessible way to focus on this common concern for many trauma survivors.

cathy S. harris, LCSW

Cathy has provided psychotherapy and assessment for over 20 years. She has practiced the art of therapy in a variety of settings including: inpatient trauma treatment, intensive outpatient program, in-home, agency, private practice, crisis center, phone crisis center, military and civilian substance abuse treatment, residential treatment for adolescents and children, and others. She offers counseling, training and consultation services from a trauma-informed perspective using a variety of approaches: cognitive, art (SoulCollage®), expressive anger, skills building for emotion regulation and distress tolerance, guided visualization and more.

Cathy works with The Headstrong Project to provide therapy to veterans and active duty personnel. In addition, she helps individuals who have left high-control, cultic groups move on from their traumatic experiences.

Cathy recently published: So, What Happened To You?: Survivors' & Healers' Intro to Trauma-Informed Theory & Practice, available on Amazon.