Understanding how our childhood affects our adult selves will ultimately help us improve our interpersonal relationships. We will gain a deeper understanding of our motivation, basically why we behave the way we do. Our very first relationship – that with our parents or primary caregivers – shapes the way we behave in all of our future relationships (romantic and otherwise). We learn how to interact by observing, and we learn how to attach based on our earliest experiences with attachment. If our parents support us, nurture us, and work to instill in us a sense of self-identity and inherent value, we will be more inclined to develop healthy and secure relationships in the future. If our parents abandon, neglect, or excessively criticize us, we will likely struggle to develop strong and secure relationships during adulthood. We will lack a solid sense of self-esteem, and our adult attachment style may prevent us from obtaining authentic intimate connections.
Attachment Styles and Healthy Relationships
Jessica Baum
Jessica Baum is a licensed mental health counselor based out of Palm Beach, Florida. She is a certified addiction specialist, with a focus on chemical abuse and dependency, co-dependency, and anxiety. Jessica is also a certified Imago Therapist. By using the Imago approach as a way to help treat family systems and couples issues, she has extensive knowledge on relationships.
