The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) television studios, UDCtv, provides the Washington, DC area with programming geared to foster health, political and environmental awareness. Dr. Katherine Marshall Woods hosts this UDCtv show entitled “A Healthy Mind” featuring guests from a myriad of professions lending information to promote healthy living and lifestyles. Entries entitled: “A Healthy Mind” share these interviews.
Dr. Marshall Woods: “Hello, I’m Dr. Katherine Marshall Woods, adjunct professor of psychology at the George Washington University and your host for this edition of A Healthy Mind. The purpose of this video series to educate and inform the public about mental health, from public policy and environmental factors to the various disorders that affect healthy minds.”
“The emotional connection developed between a caregiver and a child during infancy is discussed as attachment. What makes for a healthy attachment to ones caregiver? Based upon the type of attachment, does it have an impact on how the person is able to maneuver through the world, as one ages into adulthood? Does a person’s attachment style influence one’s life? And if so, how?
“Dr. Cheri L. Marmarosh is a full-time associate professor of professional psychology at the George Washington University and is a licensed psychologist. She has published numerous empirical and theoretical articles that focus on how group and individual therapy facilitate change; and is the lead author of two books – Attachment in Group Psychotherapy and Group: Facilitating a Culture of Change. Dr. Marmarosh is a fellow of the American Psychological Association. She has a private practice in Washington DC. Her research applies attachment theory to understand the development of the psychotherapeutic relationship and she has focused on how client and therapist attachments influence both, the process and outcome of psychotherapy. Here with me today is Dr. Cheri Marmarosh, Welcome!”
Dr. Marmarosh: “Thank you!”
Dr. Marshall Woods: “Thanks for coming. So tell us a little bit about what attachment is exactly.”
Dr. Marmarosh: “Attachment is a theory that John Bowlby developed based on what causes individuals to have problems later on in life. Like, why do people struggle with relationships? Why do some people feel really anxious or they don’t trust their partner? And what he found is that, if in early life there’s a sense of safety a child feels with their caregiver, a sense of their worth-while, that their loved, and that their cared for they develop expectations for who they are in relationships, and then expectations for who what other people are like. So other people are trustworthy, their reliable, their loving and we carry those internal representations, or schemas, or ideas with us into our adult relationships. A lot can influence that process but what we’re really looking at with attachment is that, a really secure attachment with that caregiver is kind of a resilient factor in fighting the stressors that we come on in life later, and our ability to trust people later and have an expectation for something positive in our relationships. So that is basically, kind of the overall, kind of idea of attachment.
Dr. Marshall Woods: “So Bowlby’s theory was suggesting that as an infant, that at that time, it’s important to have a “secure relationship” in order to then have healthy relationships later on in life. When you say secure what did he mean by that? Or what do we think about that now?”
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