Therapy for Attachment Wounds and Relationships
Why You Struggle to Feel Safe in Love, Connection, or Conflict—Even With the People Closest to You
You might be someone who shows up for everyone. You know how to take care of others, how to stay calm in chaos, how to hold it all together.
But when it comes to your own needs—your own vulnerability—it’s complicated.
You may long for closeness but feel overwhelmed when you get it.
You may trust easily on the surface but find yourself shutting down when things get too emotional.
You may crave stability, but fear abandonment every time someone pulls away.
Does this sound familiar?
These aren’t just personality traits.
They’re often attachment wounds—shaped in early relationships and reinforced by cultural expectations.
What Is Attachment Trauma?
Attachment trauma refers to emotional wounds that develop when your need for connection, safety, or attunement wasn't consistently met as a child.
That doesn’t mean something dramatic had to happen.
Sometimes the trauma is subtle—chronic emotional neglect, feeling invisible, being parentified, or always walking on eggshells.
In some families, these dynamics are often complicated by cultural norms:
Love shown through sacrifice, not emotional expression
Parental roles shaped by survival and duty, not attunement
Gender roles that ask daughters to mature too early
Silence or shame around emotional needs
When your caregivers couldn’t meet your emotional needs—not out of malice, but because they never had theirs met—you learned to adapt. But those adaptations now show up in your adult relationships, especially the ones that matter most.
How Attachment Wounds Show Up Now
Over-giving in relationships, hoping to earn love or stay “safe”
Feeling unseen or misunderstood, but unsure how to ask for more
Avoiding conflict because you fear it will lead to rejection
Feeling anxious when someone pulls away, even slightly
Shutting down emotionally when things feel too intense or uncertain
Struggling to trust—yourself, or others
Even in secure, stable relationships, these patterns can feel confusing. You might know something’s off, but you can’t quite name it. That’s often how relational trauma works—it lives just beneath awareness.
Therapy: A Relationship That Repairs Relationships
In therapy, we’re not just talking about relationships—we’re experiencing one. The therapeutic relationship becomes a safe, consistent space where you can begin to explore trust, set boundaries, express needs, and reconnect with parts of yourself that have long been hidden.
Together, we’ll work to:
Understand your attachment patterns without judgment
Explore the roots of your relational triggers and reactions
Identify what safety really feels like in connection
Practice new ways of relating that don’t rely on over-functioning or withdrawal
Learn how to tolerate intimacy, repair conflict, and express emotion without fear
This isn’t about “fixing” yourself—it’s about understanding the patterns that once protected you, and learning how to choose something new.
Cultural Sensitivity Matters in Relational Healing
Attachment work often requires navigating a deep web of cultural values, generational loyalty, and emotional suppression. What you learned about love, worth, and boundaries was shaped not just by your family—but by a collective culture.
I understand how enmeshment can look like closeness. How guilt can feel like love. How saying “no” might feel like betrayal. These aren’t just psychological patterns—they’re cultural ones too.
This work respects that complexity. We move gently, with cultural attunement, so you never have to choose between healing and heritage. We create space for you—not just who you were told to be.