Attachment Based Play Therapy™ is the first play therapy modality focused entirely on teaching people how to trust “I am ok feeling emotion.” Most therapeutic modalities that we know of are focused on changing the feelings, making them go away, or ‘feeling better.’ Even the most advanced, cutting-edge, brain-based therapies see emotion as indicative that something is wrong (too many negative thoughts, not enough self-care, too much stress, dysregulated nervous system, unbalanced perceptions, etc.). ABPT seeks to support the process of getting comfortable with and making friends with our emotions because feeling our emotion is actually the single most valuable tool that we have to genuinely connect with ourself and with others.

Attachment Based Play Therapy™  seeks to change the way therapists and caregivers view emotions  and the process of attachment. We believe that the root of attachment and the most important thing any human being can learn is how to feel. ATBP defines secure attachment as trusting ourself to feel all of our emotions, and insecure attachment as doubting our own ability to feel our emotion. Learning how to feel emotion is the route to secure attachment and it is something we can learn at any time, not a style we take on based on how we were parented.