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Attachment Therapy with the "Three Pillars Method"

The Method

It's never too late to develop secure attachment!

We are not only interested in a person's history, but also in the here-and-now indications of how they consciously and unconsciously organize their relational experience.  Adaptations in response to early relational experience manifest as attachment patterns that include the body, emotions, thoughts, and self-and-other experience.

 

By honoring and directing attention to bodily sensations, emotion, and cognitions, we access  all the ingredients for transforming insecure patterns into secure self and other dynamics.

 

In the context of a good collaborative therapy relationship and of helpful perspective-taking amidst the therapy process, we co-create immersive, embodied, healing imagination that fulfills our deepest relational longings.  This rich experience allows the problematic protective and survival strategies to be less needed, and supports the person gradually finding inner relational peace.

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The Origin

The "Three Pillars Method" by Dr. Daniel P. Brown & Dr. David Elliott

The therapy method "Integrative Attachment Therapy" (IAT) is based on the Three Pillars of attachment repair.  The Three Pillars model was first introduced in the book Attachment Disturbances in Adults: Treatment for Comprehensive Repair (2016) by Dr. Daniel P. Brown and Dr. David S. Elliott.  Developed collaboratively with others also affiliated with Harvard Medical School, this approach effectively and efficiently addresses problematic attachment patterns.

 

The March 2025 training teaches the method in its original form while adapting it to the European cultural context. We integrate concepts familiar in this region, such as body psychotherapy, hypnosystemic therapy, and humanistic therapy, to facilitate an effective integration into the German therapeutic landscape.

The model and this training focuses on how the three pillars that support each other in an integrated and holistic approach: Collaboration, Metacognition, and engaging the imagination to create new, positive internal working models of attachment.

 

At the heart of this approach is the Ideal Parent Figure (IPF) protocol. Inspired by Tibetan Buddhist meditation techniques and Western hypnotherapeutic methods, it consists of guided imagery where clients imagine ideal parents who embody qualities that contribute to attachment security. Through the repeated experience of positive attachment experience, new neural pathways develop in the brain, which results in new, positive, secure patterns in relation to self and others.

The Principles

Loyalty to One's Essence and the Unfolding of Individuality

Integrative
Rather than addressing only individual parts of the patient, we encourage connection and communication among these parts.

Values

Organic
Instead of following a manual, we create space for an organic process that emerges from the client.

Collaboration
Instead of leading or leaving the lead to the patient, we develop together the best way to work in partnership.

Experiments
Instead of knowing the right way or what is correct, we explore together with the client to discover the unique path that works for them.

Solution-Focused
Instead of merely understanding early conditioning and having to live with it, we invite the client to lay a new foundation through imagination.

Self-Regulation
Instead of acting out emotions or processing attachment patterns, the method supports the client in regulating their nervous system.

A comprehensive treatment approach for the repair and resolution of attachment disturbances in adults, for use in clinical settings.

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The Name?

Embody the Soul, Enliven the Body

The "Three Pillars Method" integrates psychodynamic, body-oriented, and hypnotherapeutic concepts based on current neuroscientific insights.

The psychodynamic approach helps us understand how early experiences shape our later relationships. Accessing these early memories through the body provides a way to retrieve them. Hypnotherapeutic techniques allow us to counterbalance these old experiences with new, positive ones through guided imagination.

Present relational challenges guide us to uncover protective strategies and the unspoken longings behind them. Only when we feel accepted and secure in our true selves can we access the wounded, repressed, and split-off parts of our identity.

The method is theoretically grounded in the understanding of nonlinear complex systems and over 80 years of research in attachment theory, with core ideas inspired by Tibetan Buddhism

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Becoming a Three Pillars Therapist

Finding the Melody of One's Own Life

  • Creating a relational space in which therapist and client work together effectively.

  • Mindful observation and exploration of the client’s relational and attachment patterns.

  • Incorporating the body as a means to access implicit memory.

  • Using jointly created imagery to foster new secure attachment experiences.

  • Strengthening the client's metacognitive abilities through compassionate, mindful exploration of how they construct their relational reality.

  • Integrating repressed and split-off parts of the self, thereby fostering the development of a more secure attachment style.

Three Pillars Method Germany

Äußere Welzereute 24, 87509 Immenstadt

E-Mail: stefan.passvogel(a)gmail.com

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© 2023 Stefan Passvogel

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