• Login
    View Item 
    •   DBS eSource Home
    • Bachelors Final Year Projects
    • Counselling & Psychotherapy
    • View Item
    •   DBS eSource Home
    • Bachelors Final Year Projects
    • Counselling & Psychotherapy
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    An exploration of psychotherapist attachment styles and its impact on the therapeutic relationship

    View/Open
    ba_gallagher_h_2016.pdf (722.8Kb)
    Author
    Gallagher, Hannah
    Date
    2016
    Degree
    BA (Hons) Counselling and Psychotherapy
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10788/3008
    Publisher
    Dublin Business School
    Rights holder
    http://esource.dbs.ie/copyright
    Rights
    Items in Esource are protected by copyright. Previously published items are made available in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher/copyright holder.
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    The purpose of this research was to explore the attachment styles of therapists and to investigate if various attachment styles impact the therapeutic alliance and outcome. As this report was based on therapist self-reported attachment styles it was essential that participants had an awareness of their own attachment style. The participants chosen were experienced psychotherapists who had knowledge of attachment theory. This criteria allowed for an in- depth exploration of the research question. A qualitative approach was used for this report where five semi structured interviews were conducted. Questions were designed in order to create as open an exploration as possible. The researcher transcribed the interviews verbatim and used thematic analysis to analyse the data. The findings were compared to existing literature and discussed. The overall findings obtained facilitated the researcher in drawing a conclusion. The findings established that attachment theory was useful and relevant in the field of psychotherapy. Participants reported that they used it as a guide to discover how clients interact in relationships and their world. This was then used as an indication as to how they may interact in the therapeutic relationship. It was found that therapist attachment styles impacted the therapeutic alliance and outcome both positively and negatively. The findings also showed that both insecurely and securely attached therapists reported having both a positive and a negative therapeutic alliance and outcome at some point in their work. This finding differed to literature and other studies conducted in this area. The findings also showed that the activation of therapist attachment styles in the therapeutic relationship and client attachment styles had contributed both negatively and positively to the alliance and outcome. Therefore the findings reflected that therapist attachment styles contribute significantly in shaping the therapeutic alliance and outcome. One limitation of this study was a lack of therapist’s knowledge of attachment theory and their attachment styles which impacted recruitment of participants for interviews. However the researcher did find that relatively little research has been conducted in this area and that it requires further investigation.
    Collections
    • Counselling & Psychotherapy

    Browse

    All of DBS eSourceCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsSupervisorTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsSupervisorTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    DSpace software copyright © 2002-2023  DuraSpace
    Contact Us | Send Feedback
    DSpace Express is a service operated by 
    Atmire NV