The purpose of this document is to set guidelines and standards for ethically and clinically appropriate treatment. In this document, treatment means both psychotherapy and parenting. ATTACh firmly believes that coercion has no place in the therapeutic milieu that therapist and family create in order to help heal a child with a disorder of attachment.
As a matter of policy and practice, ATTACh prohibits the use of coercive interventions by parents or therapists. ATTACh does not condone its members, registered clinicians, or registered agencies using coercive therapies or parenting techniques.
ATTACh believes a central focus of attachment-focused treatment is to create a developmentally appropriate therapeutic environment for the individual to safely work through and integrate previously unmanageable or traumatic experiences and emotions that interfere with the capacity to develop secure attachment relationships.
ATTACh opposes coercion in treatment.
ATTACh opposes abuse in any form at any time.
ATTACh opposes any intervention or activity that endangers a person’s physical or emotional well being or that purposely and intentionally seeks to increase a client’s dysregulation.
ATTACh believes all therapeutic interventions and treatment should be conducted in a respectful manner.
ATTACh believes that all attachment-based treatment should be based on sound theory, research, and principles, and that therapists should practice within their competence and training and with appropriate supervision/consultation.
For further theoretical rationale for this position statement, see the following:
1. “Theoretical Rationale for the Treatment of Disorders of Attachment” by Victoria Kelly, Psy.D.
2. White paper on Coercion….
Ratified: 4, 2003
Revised: 5, 2006
