Attachment Styles Treatment

Attachment-Focused Therapy & Treatment at KwikPsych

What Is Attachment-Focused Therapy?

Attachment-focused therapy addresses the relational patterns, fears, and emotional regulation difficulties that stem from insecure attachment in childhood. Rather than just talking about past experiences, this approach helps you develop new neural pathways, learn to self-soothe, and build secure ways of connecting with others.

At KwikPsych in Austin, our therapists and psychiatrist use evidence-based attachment treatment to help clients move from insecurity toward earned security—the ability to trust, be vulnerable, and sustain healthy relationships.

The Attachment-Therapy Process

Assessment and Diagnosis

Your first session involves a thorough attachment history. We explore:

• Your early relationships with parents or caregivers
• How your family handled emotions and conflict
• Patterns you notice in adult relationships
• Current relationship challenges
• Any trauma or loss experiences

This creates a map of how your attachment system developed and where it's causing struggles now.

Identifying Your Attachment Style

Through conversation and sometimes formal assessment tools (Adult Attachment Interview, Experiences in Close Relationships questionnaire), we pinpoint whether you're anxiously, dismissively, fearfully attached, or working toward security.

Goal Setting

We establish clear, measurable goals:

• "I want to feel less anxious when my partner needs space"
• "I want to be able to express my emotions instead of shutting down"
• "I want to stop repeating the same relationship patterns"
• "I want to trust my partner even when they're busy"

Active Therapeutic Work

Using specific modalities (detailed below), we work to:

• Recognize triggers and your automatic responses
• Understand the survival logic of your attachment style
• Develop new emotional regulation skills
• Practice vulnerability in a safe relationship (with the therapist)
• Transfer new skills to relationships outside therapy

Attachment Treatment Modalities at KwikPsych

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)

What it is: EFT, developed by Sue Johnson, is the gold standard for attachment-based therapy. It focuses on identifying and changing emotional responses and the negative cycles they create.

How it works:

• Therapist helps you identify the emotion beneath your behavior ("What's happening when you shut down?")
• You learn that avoidance, pursuing, or attacking are all attachment-driven survival responses
• Instead of judging these responses, we compassionately understand why they made sense
• You practice new responses: being vulnerable instead of defensive, asking for connection instead of demanding it

Best for:

• Anxiety about relationships
• Fear of abandonment or engulfment
• Communication breakdowns
• Couples therapy (EFT is extremely effective for couples)

Timeframe: 12-20 sessions for noticeable change; 20-40 sessions for significant transformation.

Psychodynamic Therapy

What it is: Psychodynamic therapy explores how unconscious patterns from childhood play out in current relationships. It's investigative—understanding the "why" beneath your behavior.

How it works:

• Therapist helps you connect dots: "I notice you react harshly when your partner asks for reassurance. What does that remind you of?"
• You explore how your parent's unavailability or criticism shaped your current expectations
• As unconscious patterns become conscious, you gain choice about whether to repeat them
• Understanding builds compassion for yourself and others

Best for:

• Deep-seated attachment wounds
• Understanding why certain relationship types attract you
• Processing childhood neglect or rejection
• Unresolved grief in the family

Timeframe: 30+ sessions for meaningful insight; often ongoing.

Cognitive-Behavioral Approaches

What it is: CBT adapted for attachment focuses on the thoughts and beliefs that maintain insecure patterns, plus behavioral experiments to test and change them.

How it works:

• Identify attachment-related beliefs: "If I ask for what I need, they'll leave," "I don't deserve good relationships," "Love means sacrificing myself"
• Question the evidence for these beliefs
• Practice behaviors that contradict the belief: asking for a need, setting a boundary, expressing emotion
• Notice that the feared outcome doesn't happen

Best for:

• Anxious attachment and reassurance-seeking
• Black-and-white thinking about relationships
• Behavioral avoidance
• Quickly building practical skills

Timeframe: 12-16 sessions for skill-building; ongoing for deeper change.

Somatic/Body-Based Therapy

What it is: Attachment trauma lives in the body—as tension, holding patterns, dissociation, or hypervigilance. Somatic therapy accesses healing through the body.

How it works:

• Therapist notices where tension shows up when you discuss relationships
• You learn to notice your own body responses (racing heart, tight chest, numb feeling)
• Instead of fighting the sensation, you learn to befriend it and understand its message
• Techniques like grounding, breathwork, and slow movement help re-regulate your nervous system
• Over time, your body learns that closeness is safe

Best for:

• Trauma-related attachment patterns (fearful-avoidant)
• Emotional numbness despite desire for connection
• Hypervigilance and anxiety
• Dissociation or "not feeling present" in relationships

Timeframe: 20+ sessions; often combined with other modalities.

Psychiatry & Medication Support

While therapy addresses relational patterns, sometimes anxiety or depression is high enough that it interferes with therapy's effectiveness. Psychiatrist Dr. Monika Thangada offers medication management to:

• Reduce anxiety so you can be present in therapy without being flooded
• Treat depression that accompanies attachment insecurity
• Stabilize mood to practice new skills more effectively

Medications used in attachment treatment:

• SSRIs (sertraline, escitalopram) for anxiety and depression
• Buspirone (Buspar) for generalized anxiety
• Low-dose benzodiazepines (short-term) for acute anxiety
• Prazosin for trauma-related nightmares or hypervigilance

Medication is never a substitute for therapy but a tool to make therapy more effective.

Treatment Plans for Different Attachment Styles

Anxious-Preoccupied Attachment

Primary goals:

• Reduce reassurance-seeking and fear of abandonment
• Build self-soothing capacity
• Develop independence and secure sense of self

Therapeutic approach:

• Identify triggers (partner busy, not texting back) and your automatic escalation
• Learn grounding and self-soothing techniques (breathing, journaling, movement)
• Practice tolerating aloneness and building trust gradually
• EFT or CBT is often most effective
• Couples therapy to teach partner how to respond to anxiety differently

Timeline: 16-24 sessions for noticeable improvement; 40+ for stable change.

Dismissive-Avoidant Attachment

Primary goals:

• Increase emotional awareness and expression
• Reduce avoidance and walls
• Build capacity for vulnerability

Therapeutic approach:

• Explore what emotions feel dangerous ("If I let myself need you, I'll lose control")
• Practice identifying and naming feelings (often avoidant clients disconnect from emotions entirely)
• Gradually increase vulnerability in safe doses
• Psychodynamic therapy effective for understanding the pain beneath the wall
• Couples therapy focuses on helping partner understand avoidance isn't rejection

Timeline: 20-30 sessions for noticeable shifts; avoidance takes longer to change than anxiety.

Fearful-Avoidant Attachment

Primary goals:

• Resolve the core conflict (wanting and fearing closeness simultaneously)
• Process underlying trauma
• Build secure internal resource

Therapeutic approach:

• This style often requires trauma-informed therapy
• Explore the source of the fear (was the attachment figure also the threat?)
• Help nervous system learn that closeness can be safe
• Somatic therapy often helpful
• Extended timeline important—this is the most complex attachment style

Timeline: 30+ sessions before stability; often requires ongoing support.

Earned Security (Secure with Insecure Residues)

Primary goals:

• Consolidate secure patterns
• Identify remaining vulnerabilities
• Prepare for deeper relationships

Therapeutic approach:

• Shorter, goal-focused therapy
• May address specific triggers or past events
• Maintenance sessions as needed
• Couples therapy if transitioning into long-term relationship

Timeline: 8-16 sessions for skill-building; ongoing maintenance.

Why Attachment Therapy Works

Research shows attachment-focused therapy is highly effective because it:

1. Addresses root causes rather than just symptoms. Depression and anxiety often resolve when attachment security increases.

1. Changes the nervous system. Through repeated experience with a safe, attuned therapist, your nervous system learns that connection is safe.

1. Builds earned security. You develop new neural pathways. Years of insecure relating can shift with consistent, intentional effort.

1. Creates lasting change. Because you're rewiring relational patterns at the core level, changes persist.

What to Expect in Your First Session

When you arrive at KwikPsych for your first appointment:

1. Check-in (5 min): Confirm your information and privacy preferences.

1. History gathering (30-40 min): We'll explore your childhood, family dynamics, current relationships, and what brought you in.

1. Symptoms and goals (10 min): You'll describe what's not working and what you hope will be different.

1. Psychoeducation (5 min): We'll introduce the concept of attachment and how it might apply to your situation.

1. Plan discussion (5 min): We'll outline a treatment approach and next steps.

The first session is assessment-focused; deeper work begins in session two.

Commitment and Timeline

Attachment therapy requires:

• Consistency: Weekly sessions, at minimum biweekly
• Honesty: Willingness to share difficult feelings and experiences
• Openness: Flexibility to try new approaches
• Patience: Change takes time—usually weeks to months

Typical timelines:

• Quick wins (anxiety reduction, communication improvement): 8-12 weeks
• Moderate change (noticeable relational shifts): 4-6 months
• Deep transformation (earned security, pattern resolution): 12+ months

Many clients choose to continue therapy beyond symptom relief, using it for ongoing growth and maintenance.

Insurance and Payment

Accepted Insurance:

• Aetna
• BCBS (Blue Cross Blue Shield)
• Cigna
• UnitedHealthcare
• Superior HealthPlan / Ambetter
• Baylor Scott & White
• Oscar
• First Health Network
• Optum
• Medicare

Self-Pay:

• Initial consultation: $299
• Follow-up sessions: $179

We verify insurance before your first appointment and discuss any out-of-pocket costs upfront.

Telehealth Options

Therapy works just as effectively online. We offer telehealth across Texas for clients who:

• Prefer not to come to our Austin office
• Have scheduling constraints
• Live far from our location
• Value the comfort of their own space

Get Started Today

Ready to develop a more secure attachment style and healthier relationships?

Contact KwikPsych:

• Phone: 737-367-1230
• Address: 12335 Hymeadow Dr, Ste 450, Austin, TX 78750
• Telehealth: Available across Texas
• Online: Schedule a consultation

Crisis Disclaimer

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 911 or the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, or text HOME to 741741 (Crisis Text Line).