Professor's Research Reveals Insight on Client-Therapist Attachment

Dr. Crook-Lyon's research on relationships between clients and therapists comes from applying similar characteristics from child-parent relationships.

As a graduate student at the University of Maryland, Rachel Crook conducted research on therapists' levels of attachment towards clients, testing to see if therapists' own attachment history influences their behavior towards their clients. She was surprised to find that it doesn't. Today Dr. Rachel Crook-Lyon may have changed her name and become a wife, mother, and professor, but she is still exploring this relationship. In the journal Issues in Religion and Psychotherapy, Crook-Lyon recently published some further research on the topic. 

Attachment theory, in general, begins with relationships between infants and caregivers.  Current research is applying what is known about child-parent relationships to relationships between clients and therapists. Crook-Lyon cites such research in explaining that “the therapist’s own experiences in close relationships may, in fact, interfere with his or her ability to provide a secure base for the client.”

Using three simulated patient-therapist relationships on audiotape, Crook-Lyon questioned 46 students from counseling programs at the University of Maryland and BYU about their attachment histories.  On the first tape the client was extremely curious about the therapist’s personal life.  According to Crook-Lyon’s article, this desire to probe portrays the client as being uncomfortable without close relationships and having anxiety that people in her life do not value her as much as they value others.  Crook-Lyon also notes that this client does not have a consistent supportive relationship with her parents. This individual would be designated professionally as a preoccupied-merger client.

Another tape portrayed a client who dismissed all that the therapist had to offer.   This client, classified in the counseling profession as the avoidant-fearful client, feels uncomfortable about trusting and depending on others, having had a cold, distant relationship with his parents.

The last client presented on the audiotapes is called by counselors the secure client. This client is comfortable, depends on others, and has a good, comforting relationship with his or her parents.  “This is the relationship you hope to have in therapy,” explains Crook-Lyon.

In relation to her research, Crook-Lyon defines adult attachment as “the ability to develop healthy relationships,” and measures it using the Adult Attachment Scale.  The scale, she explains in her article, consists of three subscales: Dependency, Anxiety, and Closeness.  The scales range from 1 to 5--1 being “not at all characteristic of me,” and 5 being “very characteristic.”

Results of Crook-Lyon’s research showed that all therapists, regardless of their own attachment histories, consistently rated the insecurely attached client audiotapes lower on expected working alliance. “It is very encouraging to note the finding that therapists’ own attachment dimensions did not seem to influence their perceptions of audio taped client,” Crook-Lyon noted. In reflection, she hopes that the research will enlighten practitioners as well as specialists to the possible various attachment styles within their relationships with their clients.

2 July 2008