Essential Clinical Social Work Series
Series Editor: Carol Tosone
For other titles published in this series, go to www.springer.com/series/8115
Susanne Bennett
●Judith Kay Nelson
Editors
Adult Attachment in Clinical
Social Work
Editors
Susanne Bennett
National Catholic School of Social Service The Catholic University of America Washington, DC, USA
bennetts@cua.edu
Judith Kay Nelson The Sanville Institute for
Clinical Social Work and Psychotherapy Berkeley, CA, USA
jkaynelson@sbcglobal.net
ISBN 978-1-4419-6240-9 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-6241-6 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-6241-6
Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2010935722 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010
All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden.
The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights.
Printed on acid-free paper
With gratitude to:
Catherine “Cay” Hartley
– C. S. B.
To the memory of:
Elise “Lise” Silverman Blumenfeld
vii
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge Dr. Carol Tosone, the Editor of Clinical Social Work Journal, for her support, advice, and encouragement in the creation of this book. We also appreciate the contributors for their professionalism, cooperation, and careful attention to detail. They were delightful collaborators, and their hard work was much appreciated. Our editor at Springer, Jennifer Hadley, has also been a wonderful support to us through the publication process, for which we are most grateful.
We would like to thank the many colleagues who have been part of our journey in the realm of attachment theory and research, the students who have been so enthusiastic and interested, and the clients who are our best teachers. Our partners, adult children, and siblings at the center of our attachment circle are our primary supports with writing, in general, and with the production of this book, in particular. It is, however, our grandchildren Esther and Aurelia, just beginning to establish their “internal working models” of attachment, who have been our inspiration.
ix
Contents
1 Introduction ... 1 Susanne Bennett and Judith Kay Nelson
Part I Theory Development Regarding Adult Attachment 2 The Origins of an Attachment Approach to Social Work
Practice with Adults ... 17 Pat Sable
3 Contemporary Theory and Research on Adult Attachment:
Where is the Field Today? ... 31 Susanne Bennett and Judith Kay Nelson
4 Clinical Social Work and Regulation Theory: Implications
of Neurobiological Models of Attachment ... 57 Judith R. Schore and Allan N. Schore
Part II Applications to Adult Clinical Practice 5 Separation, Loss, and Grief in Adults:
An Attachment Perspective ... 79 Judith Kay Nelson
6 Listening Closely: The Significance of the Therapist’s
Voice Intensity, Rhythm, and Tone ... 97 Kristin Miscall Brown and Dorienne Sorter
7 Using a Mentalization-Based Framework to Assist
Hard-to-Reach Clients in Individual Treatment ... 113 Christine H. Fewell
x Contents 8 Attachment and Caregiving for Elders
Within African-American Families ... 127 Susanne Bennett, Michael J. Sheridan, and Barbara Soniat
9 Attachment in the Family Context: Insights
from Development and Clinical Work ... 147 Janet Shapiro
10 Applications of Attachment Theory to Group Interventions:
A Secure Base in Adulthood ... 173 Timothy F. Page
Part III Attachment Applications to Policy, Research, and Education 11 Policy Implications of Attachment Processes in Adulthood:
Caregiving and Family Preservation ... 195 Joyce E. Everett
12 Attachment Research: Contributions of Social Workers ... 217 Joanna E. Bettmann and Rachael A. Jasperson
13 Implications of Attachment Theory for Social Work Education ... 253 Susanne Bennett and Kathleen Holtz Deal
xi
Contributors
Susanne Bennett, MSW, PhD
National Catholic School of Social Service, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA
Joanna E. Bettmann, MSW, PhD
College of Social Work, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Kathleen Holtz Deal, MSW, PhD
National Catholic School of Social Service, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA
Joyce E. Everett, MSW, PhD
Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, MA, USA
Christine H. Fewell, MSW, PhD
Silver School of Social Work, New York University, New York, NY, USA and
Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, New York, NY, USA
Rachael A. Jasperson, MSW
College of Social Work, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Kristin Miscall Brown, MSW
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center, New York, NY, USA
Judith Kay Nelson, MSW, PhD
The Sanville Institute for Clinical Social Work and Psychotherapy, Berkeley, CA, USA
Timothy F. Page, MSW, PhD
School of Social Work, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA
Pat Sable, MSW, PhD
xii Contributors Allan N. Schore, PhD
UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, CA, USA
Judith R. Schore, MSW, PhD
The Sanville Institute for Clinical Social Work and Psychotherapy, Berkeley, CA, USA
and
Reiss-Davis Post Doctoral Program in Child Psychotherapy, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Janet Shapiro, MSW, PhD
School of Social Work, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA, USA
Michael J. Sheridan, MSW, PhD
National Catholic School of Social Service, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA
Barbara Soniat, MSW, PhD
National Catholic School of Social Service, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA
Dorienne Sorter, MSW, PhD
xiii
Editors
Susanne Bennett, MSW, PhD, is Associate Professor at National Catholic School of Social Service at The Catholic University of America, in Washington, DC. Her teaching in the MSW and PhD programs includes a course titled Attachment and neurobiology: Implications for social work practice and policy. She has published over a dozen articles on attachment processes, and her research focuses on the examination of attachment in caregiving relationships, particularly in social work supervision, elder care, and adoptive families. Dr. Bennett is a Distinguished Social Work Scholar in the National Academy of Practice and has maintained a psycho-therapy practice for over 30 years.
Judith Kay Nelson, MSW, PhD, is on the faculty of The Sanville Institute for Clinical Social Work and Psychotherapy, a Ph.D. program in California, where she teaches attachment and the neurobiology of attachment. She has been in private practice for 35 years, specializing in long-term psychotherapy. She has spent many years studying, writing, teaching, and presenting throughout the United States and Europe on topics related to crying, laughter, and attachment. She is the author of
Seeing through tears: Crying and attachment, published by Routledge in 2005, and numerous articles and chapters on crying, laughter, and attachment. She is currently working on a new book, What made Freud laugh? An attachment perspective on laughter. Dr. Nelson is a distinguished Social Work Practitioner in the National Academy of Practice.