Trauma, Trauma Bonds and Retraumatization

The Role of Attachment Therapy

Trauma is a word we hear about quite a lot lately. Studies of the effects of trauma on the infant brain are changing the way we look at many psychiatric diagnoses. There is frequent debate over the best ways to help people overcome traumatic experiences, especially when the victims of trauma are children. One critical issue that is often overlooked in much of this discussion has to do with the crucial importance of the person's developmental stage when trauma occurs. A person who has successfully navigated the first few years of life, is well attachment to significant others, has some ego strengths, etc. has the capacity to overcome trauma much better than a person who lacks attachment and ego strength. He has a healthy reference point to return to in times of crisis and stress, as well as the skills to help him through the crisis.

An infant/toddler who is traumatized, however, lacks a healthy reference point and the skills to cope with crises and stress. She must quickly develop defensive strategies to survive the crisis, and these defenses often become locked into place to a degree that they are very difficult to modify later. Children with such early life experiences grow up lacking flexibility, with narrow beliefs about the safety of the world around them, and are often unable to turn to others for help and support. They, in essence, become their defenses.

Treatment issues for these two groups of individuals are quite different. With the first group, standard treatment techniques can help facilitate a return to a previous level of functioning as the person talks through their conflicting emotions and distress. But with the second group, simply talking about the trauma is not enough. It is necessary to change their defensive strategies, and to facilitate the experience of healthy functioning, as well as to resolve the trauma, often through the use of role play and psychodrama. Such treatment requires quite different therapeutic techniques.

What is the relationship between trauma and bonding? We have heard many questions about whether or not attachment therapy accomplishes little more than creating trauma bonds for already traumatized children. Examples of how hostages in terrorist situations often bond to the terrorist are compared to attachment therapy to illustrate examples of "trauma bonds". However, when we explore this subject in greater detail, it is easy to see that there are many other examples of bonding that involve trauma. Birth itself is a traumatic experience for both mothers and their infants. The mother bonds with her infant following a cycle of need/distress, followed by the expression of that need, followed by relief of the distress, followed by the formation of a mother-infant bond. The bonding that follows the cessation of the pain and ordeal of birth is intense, yet most of us would consider it to be a healthy step in the attachment process. Few of us would call such a trauma bond negative.

Other examples of trauma bonds include victims and rescuers. A person who is trapped in a burning building and is then rescued by emergency personnel often feels quite a strong bond to his rescuer. Many victims keep in contact with their rescuers for years after the incident. The bonding cycle of need/distress, followed by relief, followed by trust and bonding in such situations can be called a "trauma bond".

It is not uncommon for clients to feel a strong attachment to their therapist (in fact, most therapists spend years in training learning how to cope with "transference", the bond the client develops with the therapist and that is based on early life experiences with parents). Most people seek out a therapist because they are in some kind of psychic pain and seek relief from this pain. Therapists who facilitate insight, provide support and understanding, etc. become the agents for the relief of this pain, and a bond based upon traumatic experiences connects client and therapist. Therapy involves experiencing the ordeal of examining painful experiences, thoughts, and feelings, with the goal of changing these to more effective thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Again, a traumatic ordeal is followed by attachment.

© The Attachment Center at Evergreen