Promoting Attachment and Wellbeing Part 1: Concepts for Medical Doctors

This session is the first of two in this series focusing on attachment and wellbeing. This first session will provide an overview of attachment whilst the second (Positive Parenting and Parenting Issues/Promoting Attachment and Wellbeing Part 2: Practice) will explore the range of attachment-based interventions that help to foster secure attachment.

Learning objectives

By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Define ‘attachment’
• Explain how attachment theory was developed
• Provide an overview of the essential features of attachment theory
• Summarise the key characteristics of the four attachment types
• Identify links between attachment and health and wellbeing
• Understand the relevance of attachment theory to clinical practice

This sesssion aims to help learners understand the key features of attachment theory and its relevance to their work with families particularly with regard to the way that parent-infant relationships develop and the implications of those interactions for the future health and wellbeing of the child.