All newborns, whether human or animal appear to be born with some innate bonding mechanism, relying on our birth mother to ensure our emotional and physical needs are met and to protect us from danger. It is in a way a form of survival. This forms the crux of Bowlby’s work on attachment, which grew out of his work with emotionally disturbed children. Making a connection between how these children coped being taken from their mothers at such a young age and any subsequent neurosis in later life formed the basis for his theories of attachment behaviour.

Bowlby proposed that the roots of any satisfying relationship must start at the beginning, between mother and baby; the infant must feel safe, secure and protected in order for a secure attachment (1979: 23) to take place. Many of our negative and positive personality traits about how we relate to others are linked to our earliest attachment experiences (1979: 127), and they are just as likely to get played out in the therapeutic relationship, hence the importance of understanding its significance and context in child development.

Examples of dysfunctional behaviour that can result in attachment issues in children include the caregiver being persistently unresponsive, rejecting or threatening. Childhood loss or trauma such as bereavement or extended absences from the attachment figure can also cause a child and adult “to live in a constant state of anxiety lest he lose his attachment figure” (Bowlby, 1979: 137).

Mary Ainsworth developed The Strange Situation test (Ainsworth et al, 1978: 32) as a way of classifying attachment behaviour. In essence the test involves an infant spending time in a room with its mother or a stranger. When the Mother returns to the room, the way the infant copes with the reunion is observed leading to four potential classification types being diagnosed for the infant. The four attachment styles are secure, avoidant, resistant and disorganised, and each of them reflects the quality of the relationship between mother and infant, indicating potential attachment concerns in later life (Ainsworth et al, 1978: 120 – 124).

In this example from a toddler observation, Lee gets upset w