ABSTRACT
Third order change requires therapists to attune to clients’ experiences of connection and belonging, apprehending their experience in relation to social locations and societal power. This chapter includes enduring concepts of attachment based therapies and how those working from these approaches can integrate socioculturally attuned theory and practice. As therapists name the clients’ contextual experience, clients feel understood and validated. They see themselves and their place in the world through a wider lens and value relational needs and behaviors that are often minimized or pathologized by the dominant culture. Therapists position their work to intervene in inequitable power processes that interfere with attachment responses and result in isolation and marginalization. The goal is to facilitate new experience that supports attachment bonds that enable couples and families to equitably support each other in the face of life's stresses and to envision and enact transformative action. The chapter concludes with guidelines for socioculturally attuned practice and a case example.
