ABSTRACT
Attachment theory as initially conceptualised by Bowlby was an integrative theory which drew on systems theory, evolutionary biology, ethology, cognitive neuroscience and object relations theory. This chapter draws on the attachment narrative therapy (ANT) model which details how concepts from attachment theory, systemic theory and practice and narrative theory and therapies can be brought together in ways that offer some potential for extensions of each of the three approaches. It offers a framework with some new ways of seeing what we already do – an alternative lens with which to look at systemic and narrative therapies. The chapter attempts to show with many examples how interactional patterns, narratives and attachment dynamics are interconnected and mutually complementary.
