CUTV News Radio Spotlights Attachment Style Expert Paula Sacks

Chestnut Hill, MA - Paula Sacks is a licensed clinical social worker with expertise in attachment styles and a co-author of Attachment Disturbances in Adult: Treatment for Comprehensive Repair.

There are four attachment styles: secure and three types of insecure. Those with secure attachment seek emotional closeness with others and are able to establish emotional intimacy. Those with insecure attachments are either dismissive in relationships, avoiding intimacy, or they are anxious-preoccupied, displaying excessive worry about relationships. The third insecure attachment style is a combination of both dismissive and anxious-preoccupied.

“As an attachment specialist, I see this across the board,” says Paula. “You see it with mothering, you see it with dating, you see it with marriage, and this tends to be something that kind of gets in people’s way.”

According to Paula, there five primary conditions to promote secure attachment in newborns: felt safety, felt acknowledgment, felt comfort, felt value and felt support for best self. These conditions can be applied in adulthood as well.

“If people are coming to my office as adults, then they've likely been struggling with an insecure attachment style their whole lives,” says Paula.

Paula does this primarily through imagination. Once she can determine her client’s attachment style, she will place the clients in a 20-minute hypnotic state where she has them meet “new” parents who know exactly what they need.

“It's not that we're changing your memories, but experiencing your memories differently,” says Paula.

For more information on Paula Sacks, visit www.paulasackslicsw.com