Talkspace Helps Adults Understand The Link Between Their Childhood And Their Current Attachment Styles

Individuals that have experienced a pattern of unfulfilling or stressful relationships in their adult life may need to look back to their childhood to determine their personal attachment styles. A person’s attachment style is formed through early relationships with parents and other family members.

Talkspace, a company that provides therapeutic services through its online therapy app, stresses the importance of understanding their parents’ influence on their attachment style. This will help them better address negative behavior patterns that have paved the way for problematic relationships.

Attachment Types

Attachment types are divided into two main categories: Secure and insecure.

Secure

Young children that are securely attached understand their parents to be both caring and loving. These households maintain a healthy balance between affection, comfort, exploration, and independence. An example of this concept at work is the child that plays with a beloved toy for a while before returning to the available arms of its mother.

Secure attachment patterns are fostered by parents that display their love to their child while allowing them to explore the world around them. The securely attached child sees the world as a place that is friendly and safe. These children know that they can depend on loved ones to provide them with nurture while also allowing them the space to grow.

Insecure

The insecure attachment type has two subtypes.

Preoccupied Insecure Attachment

Adults with preoccupied attachment likely had parents who failed to provide the comfort and love they needed as children. It may be that these parents only provided these things when it became convenient for them to do so. These parents would other times be cold, and maybe even abusive to the child.

Parents that suffer from borderline personality disorder or are narcissistic often create preoccupied attachment in the children they produce. These children spend a large part of their childhood at the ready in case a loving gesture from their parents take place. They are also waiting constantly for the painful behavior they know will surely come.

The adult versions of these injured children are often jealous and clingy in relationships. They may find it difficult to trust and might smother their partner with attention. The unpredictability of their parents’ love results in attempts to control their partner. Predictably, this only drives a wedge between themselves and their significant other.

Avoidant Insecure Attachment

Parents that are constantly cold or distant often raise children that suffer from avoidant insecure attachment. These children have parents that are completely unavailable for emotional support. They learn not to depend on others for their well-being and become fiercely independent at a young age.

Adults that suffer from avoidant insecure attachment find it difficult to express any type of vulnerability. These individuals will have a hard time connecting on a level that their partner deems necessary for a healthy relationship. Avoidant individuals may become serial cheaters or choose to date multiple people at once. This is to avoid feelings of dependence on another human being

About Talkspace

Talkspace is a company that offers an online therapy app to its customers. The company began its operations in 2012 and is headquartered in New York City.

Clients of Talkspace can access the therapy they need with the use of desktop computers, laptops, or smartphones. Patients are offered their choice of monthly security services that provide the level of counseling to meet their individual needs.

Roni Frank, the company founder, announced through a video that the company will provide complimentary therapeutic services to survivors of sexual violence or domestic abuse. The company has pledged to provide these survivors with 500 months of free therapy.