Corrective attachment episodes in attachment-based family therapy: the power of enactment.

Corrective attachment episodes, therapeutic enactments designed to increase openness and trust between young adults and their parents, are the purported primary change mechanism in attachment-based family therapy. This study examined whether sequences of therapist interventions, young adults' productive emotional processing, and parental behaviors thought to reflect corrective attachment episodes were characteristic of good versus poor outcome cases. Thirty conjoint attachment sessions were analyzed using the THEME algorithm.

Therapist interventions and emotional processing in attachment-based family therapy for unresolved anger.

A growing body of research suggests that emotional processing is a central and common change mechanism across various types of therapies (Diener & Hilsenroth, 2009; Foa, Huppert, & Cahill, 2006; Greenberg, 2010), including attachment-based family therapy (Diamond, Shahar, Sabo, & Tsvieli, 2016). The purpose of this study was to examine which therapist interventions facilitated productive emotional processing in a sample of 15 young adults receiving attachment-based family therapy (Diamond, Diamond, & Levy, 2014) for unresolved anger toward a parent, and which therapist interventions led to a discontinuation of productive emotional processing once it had begun. Therapist interventions and productive emotional processing were measured during the course of individual, alliance-building sessions with the young adult.

Attachment-based family therapy and emotion-focused therapy for unresolved anger: The role of productive emotional processing.

A growing body of research suggests that emotional processing is a central and common change mechanism across various types of therapies (Diener & Hilsenroth, 2009; Foa, Huppert, & Cahill, 2006; Greenberg, 2011). This study examined whether 10 weeks of attachment-based family therapy (ABFT), characterized by the use of in-session young adult-parent dialogues, were more effective than 10 weeks of individual emotion-focused therapy (EFT), characterized by the use of imaginal dialogues, in terms of facilitating productive emotional processing among a sample of 32 young adults presenting with unresolved anger toward a parent. This study also examined whether greater amounts of productive emotional processing predicted more favorable treatment outcomes.