Attachment Therapy In Vancouver: The Impact on Work Relationships

Looking for attachment therapy in Vancouver, WA? We can help.

You may have a tough relationship with one or both of your parents, but what are your expectations at work? Perhaps work is great. You’ve studied and gotten a degree, figured out what you’re good at, and you know your field well. What could go wrong?

No matter how skilled you are at your particular line of employment, the relationships you build at work can make or break your long-term security. If you’re struggling to trust co-workers, your boss, or your company, that may signal a need for attachment therapy in Vancouver, Washington.

Another clue that attachment therapy in Vancouver could be beneficial for your work life is that you tend toward anxiety or depression, which can interrupt or inhibit a positive outlook on work and what you do. It may be that you worry excessively about losing your good standing at a job you love. It may also be that you work tirelessly to prove yourself up against other co-workers because you perceive that they are all competing against you.

While attachment therapy is often connected to interpersonal relationships, it can also have a deep impact on a person’s work life. It can help you grow in trusting others or being confident in who you are apart from your achievements or others’ opinions of you. You will no longer be weighed down by pervasive anxiety or harbor resentment against co-workers who appear to be “one-upping” you.

Believe it or not, there is a way you can feel secure in who you are as a human being, not a human doing.

What is attachment therapy?

Attachment therapy is when a person meets with a licensed clinician to explore how their early attachments in life – with primary caregivers usually – either prepared them well or didn’t prepare them well for bonding with and trusting others.

It may seem that your parental relationships were fine. You had a roof over your head, and your parents provided everything you needed, including food, a safe place to live, and help to get where you are today.

However, if you look a little closer, there may have been a time when one of your caregivers dismissed your emotions, said something to the effect of, “Boys don’t cry – move on,” or simply weren’t healthy enough in their own emotional intelligence to help you process something difficult you experienced as a child?

Attachment therapy helps you identify places where you did not form the kind of bond you needed due to the emotional or physical lack of availability of a primary caregiver.

How does attachment therapy in Vancouver work?

When you meet with a licensed counselor in Vancouver, it’s important to ask if they have an attachment-based therapeutic background. If not, you may want to look for a counselor who does, particularly if you’ve noticed that some of your struggles at work or with anxiety or depression are rooted in something you didn’t receive growing up.

Once you’ve found the right counselor, they will meet with you to get basic information such as your medical history and why you decided to pursue therapy. It may be that you’re fearful of losing your job because you aren’t as “buddy-buddy” with the boss as your co-workers appear to be. Alternatively, it may be because you fear that your battle with anxiety and depression is impacting the quality of the work you do.

During attachment therapy in Vancouver, your therapist will try to uncover what your emotional or physical needs were as a child that were not met. You may even go back to your childhood and imagine what your child self would say was important at the time and how you would have wanted those needs to be met.

Through talk therapy that focuses on childhood detachments, your counselor will aim to help rebuild the security you lost when those attachments weren’t available from one of your primary caregivers. Learning to trust again is a process, but the brain can repair itself when new neural pathways are built because of these new secure attachments that develop.

How can my work improve with therapy?

Over time, you may find that a struggle with anxious thoughts or fears of loss is lessened. You might notice that your work relationships, once rocky, may begin to thrive as you heal. You may recognize that you’re likable and that you have worthiness simply for being who you are.

Also, if depression or anxiety has ever impeded your work progress, attachment therapy can help. It gives you a new value system. Instead of valuing yourself just on your achievements, you can hold onto the secure knowledge that you were created by a loving God. He makes a way for your needs to be met, even restored, through adult relationships.

Another way that attachment therapy can help you at work is because it can impact your treatment of yourself. Whereas you may have once berated yourself and had negative self-talk, the work of attachment therapy helps you accept yourself and your weaknesses. You may find that your confidence and sense of security improves as well.

A failed presentation no longer makes you a failure. You can be patient with yourself, recognizing that you are on a learning curve, as is every human being. You’ll learn from the experience and gain insight for next time.

Finally, attachment therapy can help your work life by arming you with power. While it’s not always appropriate to bring your personal life to work, it can make sense in certain contexts to share parts of your story that you may not have shared in the past.

This kind of behavior can impact others’ views of you simply because you are leading with vulnerability. Any time we can bond with other co-workers over our shared humanity is an experience where the team expands its emotional intelligence. Often, it forms a stronger bond. Most companies thrive on some kind of employee bonding. Unity, honesty, and trust are critical components of teams who work well together.

By simply taking the courageous step to see a licensed counselor, you can heal from childhood wounds. Likewise, you may see the difference your healing makes in the office and your professional productivity. Your team may even notice that you:

• Are less doubtful, now that you are confident in your worth in who you are, not what you do
• Aren’t seeking their approval for every work decision you make
• Connect with co-workers better because you can share vulnerabilities and do not expect perfection
• Are not overly worried about losing your position in the company
• Are not defensive when offered constructive criticism
• Recognize when you are wrong, admit it, and take steps to restore the mistake appropriately without overstepping boundaries or falling into codependent tendencies

The impact of attachment therapy on work relationships is monumental because of how much time the average adult spends working. You want to have a good relationship with co-workers, be appreciated for what you bring to the team, and be engaged in listening to others. You want to give out what you’ve gained so that your work might succeed, and you can develop healthy working relationships.

Reaching Out for Help: Attachment Therapy in Vancouver, Washington

If you’d like to find a counselor who practices using attachment therapy in Vancouver, Washington, we can help. Contact our office today to find a licensed, professional counselor in Vancouver. Your counselor may combine attachment therapy with other forms of therapy, depending on what helps you the most.

The bonds of trust can’t be rebuilt in a day, but as you continue in therapy, you’ll likely find that everything about your life changes: you recognize unhealthy responses to stress, you’re better able to respond to stress, and rectify relational wrongs, and you might choose healthier friends or romantic relationships because you can be more present, secure, and vulnerable than before.