Attachment-Focused Psychotherapy and the Wounded Self

Abstract

The concept of the “wounded self” (Wolfe, 2005) offers an integrative theoretical framework for self-wounds and their developmental origins. Alladin (2013, 2014, 2016) integrated hypnotherapy into this model to comprehensively address the unconscious protective mechanisms and maladaptive conscious cognitive strategies of the wounded self. The purpose of this article is to propose how an attachment-focused psychotherapy could be utilized in working with the wounded self. With its emphasis on developmental maturation through the frame of the attachment relationship, attachment theory is well-positioned to offer conceptual and treatment insights in treating the wounded self. E. B. Spiegel’s (2016) attunement, representation, and mentalization approach to attachment-focused psychotherapy described how hypnosis can be utilized across attachment processes of attunement, representation, and mentalization toward structural maturation and developmental repair of patients with histories of complex relational trauma. In this article, the attunement, representation, and mentalization attachment approach and associated interventions are further explicated in the treatment of self-wounds in the borderline and narcissistic spectrums of personality organization. These principles of conceptualization and treatment interventions are then applied in a case example.

Keywords:

• anxiety
• attachment
• borderline
• complex trauma
• development
• hypnosis
• mentalization
• narcissism
• psychotherapy