Life-Long Love: How healthy attachment develops and is maintained across the lifespan
With , Dr Ruth McConnell
According to Bowlby, the father of Attachment Theory, from "the cradle to the grave, the ability to turn to others for emotional support" is a "sign and source of strength".
But what does this "effective dependency" look like beyond childhood? How does attachment influence the intimate relationships we form as adults, and how do our early experiences shape the way we connect with others throughout our lives?
And perhaps most importantly, if we did not experience good enough attachment in our early years, can things change? Or are we destined to repeat the same patterns?
In this presentation, Dr Ruth McConnell will explore the roots of attachment in early life and how these experiences can contribute to emotional maturity, resilience, and our ability to remain open to love and connection throughout the lifespan.
Ruth will introduce the concept of Earned Secure Attachment, exploring how secure attachment can develop later in life even when it was not experienced in childhood.This provides an important and hopeful perspective for understanding how attachment can be healed and how the transmission of attachment wounds can be prevented.
The presentation will also explore Gottman's Strong Relationship House as a practical framework for understanding and building resilient adult attachments within intimate relationships.
All registered ticket holders will receive 30-day access to the webinar recording.
In this webinar, we will explore:
- Roots of attachment – How early experiences influence relationships across the lifespan
- Effective dependency – What this can look like in adult relationships
- Emotional maturity – The development of this and its relationship to healthy attachement
- Earned secure attachment – And the possibility of healing attachment patterns later in life
- Attachment wounds – How these can be prevented from being passed on to future generations
- The role of attachment – In adult intimate relationships
- Gottman's Strong Relationship House – As a practical framework for strengthening adult relationships
About the Presenter
Dr Ruth McConnell
M.A (Honours) in Psychology, PhD (Counselling Psychology)
Dr Ruth has presented professional development workshops for Life A Plenty Charitable Trust on a number of occasions. Her work brings together an understanding of relationships,emotional well-being and family life in ways that are practical and highly relevant to those working alongside children, adults and families.
Who is this for?
This professional development webinar will be relevant to counsellors, social workers, therapists, educators and others supporting individuals, couples and families across Aotearoa. This three-hour professional development webinar provides 3 hours of CPD learning. Participants are encouraged to retain their registration confirmation and attendance details for their professional CPD records.
What people say
Awesome sharing of skills and knowledge, very useful for my practice.
From previous evaluations
Really appreciate Dr Ruth McConnell’s presentation and rich experiences in attachment therapy. Hope to learn more from her in the future.
This was incredibly useful training for me in my work and to share with my team. Lovely presenter and great link from theory to practice.
I would recommend Life A Plenty PD to anyone working in this space.
Upcoming events
Additional professional development sessions are being scheduled. Dates, topics and speakers will be published once confirmed.
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