Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy with Trauma Survivors Quotes

“secure attachment bond is the “primary defense against trauma induced psychopathology”
― Susan M. Johnson, Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy with Trauma Survivors: Strengthening Attachment Bonds

“In old Celtic stories, where life is dark and full of danger, poets and seers teach people how to face the darkness. They teach that life is about standing in a narrow passage, in the dark, with your back against the wall, facing a dragon. There is no escape. The only question, in these old stories, is how well you fight. This is a somber vision, but also one that celebrates the courage that the darkness calls forth.”
― Susan M. Johnson, Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy with Trauma Survivors: Strengthening Attachment Bonds

“4. Attachment offers a secure base. Secure attachment also provides a secure base from which individuals can explore their universe and most adaptively respond to their environment. The presence of such a base encourages exploration and a cognitive openness to new information. It promotes the confidence necessary to risk, learn, and continually update models of self and the world.”
― Susan M. Johnson, Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy with Trauma Survivors: Strengthening Attachment Bonds

“It is probably more adaptive, at least in the short run, to believe that you are to blame and deserve cruel treatment, than that you are helpless and dependent on people who wish you harm.”
― Susan M. Johnson, Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy with Trauma Survivors: Strengthening Attachment Bonds

“The first is affect regulation, specifically, the taming of fear and anger. The second is the creation of new meanings that allow the traumatic experience to be integrated into a positive and empowered sense of self. It is interesting, however, that even if the goals of therapy are framed in intrapsychic terms, clinicians generally agree that the “success of treatment depends on the patient’s ability to tolerate intimacy, in other words, the patient’s ability to trust another person with his or her helplessness and pain” (Turner, McFarlane, & van der Kolk, 1996). Success in helping the survivor recast his or her intrapsychic world depends on the creation of new interpersonal connections. This is necessary for the process of intrapsychic change and is also, although often left in the background, a major goal of therapy.”
― Susan M. Johnson, Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy with Trauma Survivors: Strengthening Attachment Bonds