Assessment

Short Quiz to Assess your Attachment Style

• https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/ECR.php
• https://www.yourpersonality.net/attachment/

Here are two quizzes to give a general idea of your attachment conditioning. The reliability is not very high but it can be a good start. They take around 10 minutes to complete.

Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)

It is recommended but not required to take the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) before you start the IPF. The AAI is a semi-structured interview that takes about an hour to administer. The interview triggers the client’s ‘attachment mechanism’ by asking the client questions about childhood attachment situations. The responses are then coded for patterns that place the client into one or a combination of attachment styles (secure, dismissing, preoccupied, unresolved/disorganized).

The interview it self takes between 60 and 90 minutes. The scoring is detailed and takes another two to three hours to render. It takes a comprehensive look at childhood experiences in terms of the caregiver’s level of:

• rejection
• role-reversal
• pressure to achieve
• neglect
• overall “loving-ness”

Dissociation, trauma and loss are also assessed. And then more importantly, the client’s current state of mind relative to attachment is also assessed such:

• degree of idealization of attachment figures
• degree perseverating anger
• derogation of caregivers
• derogation of attachment

The following are determined as well:

• Meta-cognitive/reflective functioning
• Passivity of thought process
• Coherence of transcript and mind

Final scoring produces a detailed assessment of the client’s attachment style based on these factors. The AAI is so valuable as it gives us a pre-IPF-treatment diagnosis. Then at the end of treatment it is best re-administered and thereby produces pre/post scores which validate the client’s move from one of the insecure attachment types (dismissing, preoccupied, and disorganized) to security. This helps with motivation and faith in the practice inasmuch as the transformation of the internal working model of attachment and therefore core mental health is quantified and tracked.

Moreover, by knowing the details of your attachment style it becomes easier focus the IPF work on correcting identified deficits with specificity. To that point; when the client’s primary attachment style is known then the IPF with the corresponding emphasis (dismissing, preoccupied, or disorganized) is used with that client. Furthermore, the AAI identifies meta-cognitive deficits for which certain meditations are assigned in order to correct. To sum up; the AAI highlights the specific deficits in the ‘internal working model’ of attachment. Those are then systematically corrected for in the IPF facilitation by focusing on the ‘positive opposites’.

So, taking the AAI within the first month of one-on-one treatment is very helpful as it optimized the course of IPF treatment. However, it is not obligatory. For many clients, it makes sense to put off the AAI until full faith in the therapeutic/corrective process of the IPF is developed. Moreover, after the second phase of IPF treatment (working through ‘early maladaptive schemas’) secure attachment conditioning is assumed to be in place. At that point we re-administer the AAI to verify the attainment of secure attachment. This is very satisfying as it assures all parties of the success of the treatment.

Schedule AAI Appointment

(Results are not official. Cedric is still in the reliability verification process.)