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A Chance for Change: Treating Disorganized Attachment with the Attachment Healing Center Model of Treatment Michele Coleman

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A Chance for Change: Treating Disorganized Attachment with the Attachment Healing Center Model of Treatment Michele Coleman University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Individual, Family, and Community Education Education ETDs ETDs 6-9-2016 A Chance for Change: Treating Disorganized Attachment With The Attachment Healing Center Model of Treatment Michele Coleman Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/educ_ifce_etds Recommended Citation Coleman, Michele. "A Chance for Change: Treating Disorganized Attachment With The ttA achment Healing Center Model of Treatment." (2016). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/educ_ifce_etds/13 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Education ETDs at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Chance for Change i Michele H. Coleman Candidate Individual, Family and Community Education Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Dr. Kristopher Michael Goodrich , Chairperson Dr. Bruce Alan Noll Dr. Sharon Warner Dr. Thomas Anthony Chavez A Chance for Change ii A CHANCE FOR CHANGE: TREATING DISORGANIZED ATTACHMENT WITH THE ATTACHMENT HEALING CENTER MODEL OF TREATMENT BY MICHELE H. COLEMAN B.A., Psychology, Wesleyan University, 1976 M.S., Human Development, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2000 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Counselor Education The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May 2016 A Chance for Change iii DEDICATION To my family, thank you for your love and commitment to my success in this life. Thank you Mom, my Great Aunt Harryette, for loving me and raising me as your precious baby, and instilling in me a love for learning. Thank you Great Aunt Louise, Great Aunt Kitty, Great, Great Uncle George for your loving presence and guidance. Thank you cousin Arthur Thomas for encouraging me to follow my dream. Thank you to my stepdad, Herman Walker, for demonstrating what it means to live a Christ-like life. To my brother Roland Selby who is always in my corner whether I am laughing or crying. Thank you for always being there for me. To my daughters Kathryn James, Kimber Sharp and Kelsi Sharp who provided me the experience of what it is like to be loved as Mom. Thank you for your love and patience with me as I worked tirelessly to bring about change in the lives of children and families. I am so appreciative of everyone at the Attachment Healing Center who supported me in this endeavor, especially Michelle Schilling and Taylor Janis. Without your belief and commitment to the work we do in the community, this study never could have gotten off the ground. Thank you so much for your support. And I am forever grateful to my life partner, Terry Morris for your undying love and support despite the late hours and endless work commitments. It is because of all the love that has been poured into me that I am who I am in the world today. Thank you for believing in me. A Chance for Change iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have been so blessed to have Dr. Kristopher Michael Goodrich chair my committee as you challenged me to be my best. Thank you for being there when I was stranded and in need of guidance and support. When you joined the team the bar was raised. As a result, I rose to the occasion and the result is an outstanding study dedicated to making a difference in the lives of children and families. I am fortunate to have met Dr. Bruce Noll in my minor of Organizational Learning and Instructional Technology. I now know how to teach and reach the adult population like teachers, parents and counselors. Thank you for calling me higher and never accepting anything less than my best. There are things I could hear from you that I might have fought had others tried to share. My writing has improved by leaps and bounds since my first English class with Dr. Sharon Warner. I love the way you challenge us all to examine and consider how our writing will impact our audience. You created such safety and support in your classes that was no way I could emerge from any of your classes without my writing being exemplary. Thank you not only for the instructor you are but for the humble, loving servant you are to all of your students. I have been gifted with your presence in my life. A Chance for Change v Dr. Thomas Chavez I am grateful for your willingness to pinch hit at the last moment. Without you, this dissertation would not have been possible. Thank you for saying yes and for bringing your wisdom about family functioning and qualitative research to the table. The completion of this entire PhD process never could have been accomplished without the undying support of my agency angels Rebecca Sue Hurst and Jane McCoy. Thank you for your commitment to me and the work we bring to the world. A Chance for Change vi A CHANCE FOR CHANGE: TREATING DISORGANIZED ATTACHMENT WITH THE ATTACHMENT HEALING CENTER MODEL OF TREATMENT BY Michele H. Coleman B.A., Psychology, Wesleyan University, 1976 M.S., Human Development, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2000 PhD., Counselor Education, University of New Mexico, 2016 ABSTRACT In this study I investigated the psycho-educational component of the Healing in Resonance model of treatment as implemented at the Attachment Healing Center for working with children who have been identified as having disorganized attachment. Multi-case methodology was used with five families representing five parents and five children. Grounded theory was used to analyze the journals, interviews and focus group discourse of the participants. There were also some quantitative tools used to diagnose the children and to quantify their behavioral changes. The grounded theory analysis revealed the importance of the child’s caregivers taking ownership for how they show up in relationship to their child. In this relationship the parent must address the child’s underlying need and not their behavior. While the therapeutic component of the model of treatment was not studied, the parents reported that the relationship they had with their therapist was critical to their ability to implement interventions and perspectives they were learning in the groups. As the parents saw the interventions modeled by the clinician working with the family, the parents were able to see the changes they needed to implement in the relationship with their child. As the child’s behavior began to shift in response to the parents’ change the parents expressed a sense of hopefulness and gratitude. The change came about more quickly than the parents A Chance for Change vii anticipated as most of the parents had previously implemented a behavioral modification approach to helping their child change and this relationship approach brought about change more quickly than the parents thought possible. As the child’s behaviors began to change the parents were grateful for the changes and stated that the family moved from chaos to calm or from conflict to cooperation. From the research findings the critical training components that most impacted the parents and supported their bringing about change in their parenting style were discussed. Additionally, I also provided suggestions for further research. Keywords: attachment, emotional regulation, attunement, disorganized attachment, adoption, foster care, multi-case study, grounded theory, reactive attachment disorder A Chance for Change viii Preface I was raised by my great-aunt whose relationship with alcohol was less than ideal. Despite her challenges, throughout my life I knew I was loved. Next to alcohol, I was the most important thing in her life. By today’s standards I think they would say we were homeless for the first nine years of my life. We stayed on more people’s spare beds, or couches, and empty basements than I can remember. But despite all of these moves, my Great-Aunt, who I refer to as my mom, was always there with me. For summers, one of my mom’s older sisters would give her a break and I would stay with this great-aunt and her five children. This relationship started when I was just a couple of months old. My mom wanted to go to a party, so she drove the three hours to her sister’s house and asked if they could watch the baby. I was so cute, so of course her sister said yes. Three months later, my mom returned to get me. During this chaotic upbringing, my mother was not always in a state to ensure my safety. From the age of six to nine, I was sexually abused by her main boyfriend. At times, she would call on him to “babysit” me so she could go out. One time she walked in on him and she was outraged. It only took him an hour to weasel his way back into her good graces. However, the next time she arranged for him to “babysit” me, I insisted on having a friend stay with me. It was a good thing too, because he brought a friend. It did not matter because with a friend I could fight my way to safety, and that is exactly what my girlfriend and I did. It was about this time that my mom had a nervous breakdown. One night she started seeing men flying around the bedroom. As she and I shared a bed, this meant the men were flying around me too. She kept swatting at them and yelling at them and bouncing on the bed A Chance for Change ix like they were under the bed trying to get at her.
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