Center for the Study of Aging & Clinical Applications (CSACA)
The Relevance of Attachment Style to the Process of Aging
Date: Sunday, January 12, 2025
Time: 9:00am – 5:15pm
Location: Online via Zoom
7.0 CEs/CMEs
Program Description:
Research consistently demonstrates that close human connections are essential for the well-being of aging adults. Yet close interpersonal relationships do not just happen because we know they are good for us. The attachment styles of older adults can influence how they navigate a life stage full of challenges that can affect their relationships and may lead to withdrawal and isolation. A clinician’s understanding of their own and their patient's attachment style helps shape the treatment and facilitates relational healing, adaptation and growth in our own aging and in our work with older adults.
The Relevance of Attachment Style to the Process of Aging Conference is designed to inform clinicians, social workers, caregivers, and care managers about the manifestations of attachment in the aging process and in psychotherapeutic treatment for older patients. Through the lens of attachment theory, we will explore the impact of these early relational patterns on the experience of aging and on forming and maintaining close relationships as we move through the aging process.
Jane Brewster and George Saiger will present vignettes that highlight how an understanding of attachment styles impact therapeutic work. Tybe Diamond and Glory Fox Dierker will guide participants in assessing their styles of attachment to better analyze the styles of their patients. Strategies for strengthening aging patients’ ability to form and maintain closeness with others will be identified. Noted poetry therapist, Peggy Heller has created a poetry experience that will identify and invoke creative expression for our conscious and unconscious struggles with forming close relationships as we age. The CSACA faculty believe this conference brings a unique deep dive into a treatment realm that promises to illuminate self- and patient awareness, family dynamics, and communication in caregiving.
Schedule:
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Welcome and Overview of Attachment and Aging [Glory Dierker]
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM Discussion of Video Excerpts from Documentary: The Story of John [Glory Dierker]
11:00 AM – 11:15 AM Break
11:15 AM – 12:00 PM Case Vignettes and Panel Discussion [George Saiger, Tybe Diamond, Jane Brewster]
12:00 PM – 12:45 PM Lunch Break
12:45 PM – 2:00 PM Identifying Attachment Styles [Tybe Diamond]
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM Creating Strategies Toward Security [Glory Dierker, Tybe Diamond]
3:00 PM – 3:15 PM Break
3:15 PM – 4:45 PM Poetry Experiential Session [Peggy Heller]
4:45 PM – 5:15 PM Plenary [Conference Faculty]
Learning Objectives:
- Explain the way attachment theory pertains to psychotherapeutic work with aging populations.
- Compare manifestations of dependency in early childhood and late life.
- Assess your own attachment style.
- Describe how a therapist’s attachment style affects the therapeutic dyad.
- List attachment informed strategies that foster a secure therapeutic bond.
