Awareness Psychology Clinic

22/12/2025

Thank you everyone for your support this year. It was a big year, with over 1000 therapist practitioners trained in attachment focused practice through our webinars, our online courses and in-person training events.

I’ve taken a break for the last couple of months but I’ll be back with regular posts and more training opportunities in 2026!

Have a lovely Christmas everyone! Warmly,

Matt 🙂

30/10/2025

Happy Halloween everyone!

To “team with the theme”, I read an article this morning about Attachment Styles and Horror Movies! (Ting, 2025)

As we know, attachment is a system for regulating emotion. People with secure vs. insecure attachment use different strategies for managing stress and fear.

Students with higher attachment closeness (i.e., more securely attached) actually reported less positive emotional experiences of horror films. Anxiously attached people (high emotional worry about closeness) did not show a significant correlation to emotional experience of horror films. Avoidantly attached people (low attachment closeness) tended to LOVE horror films and use them as a way of releasing stress without requiring interaction with others.

Fascinating! I still love horror movies though ;)

19/10/2025

Hi everyone!

On Monday 27th I’m running a webinar on Attachment Theory & Meaning in Life!

It’s a topic I really love and there will be plenty of practical things to take with you into your work with your clients.

I’d love you to join! Link in comments. :)

Live Training Events for psychologists, counsellors, or other trained therapists. Work with us for your next event.

12/10/2025

We've just added our two latest webinars to our on-demand content! Watch them anytime, anywhere.

- Beyond Secure: Secure Attachment Isn't Always Best 1.5HR CPD
- Attachment Theory & Fear of Death 1.5HR CPD

$40 each only :D

We've also added a new bundle deal - the Triple Webinar Bundle which includes all three of our webinars (4.5 CPD hours) for just $90 (save $30).

Check them out!

E-Learning for psychologists, counsellors, or other trained therapists.

21/09/2025

Don't miss our webinar tonight, Introduction to Attachment Focused Treatment - 7pm Melbourne time.
Get tickets here https://www.awarenesspsychologyclinic.com.au/livetrainingevents.html

Live Training Events for psychologists, counsellors, or other trained therapists. Work with us for your next event.

18/08/2025

Please join us and share with your colleagues! 1.5 Hrs CPD https://www.awarenesspsychologyclinic.com.au/livetrainingevents.html

18/08/2025

Please join us! https://www.awarenesspsychologyclinic.com.au/livetrainingevents.html

28/07/2025

Attachment and Hypomentalisation! Results of a new study…

Hypomentalisation: Refers to difficulty understanding or recognising mental states like thoughts, feelings, desires, or intentions in oneself and others. Someone who is hypomentalising will struggle to accurately “read minds.”

This can mean they:
• Miss emotional cues (e.g., not realising someone is upset)
• Misunderstand intentions (e.g., thinking someone is angry when they’re just tired)
• Feel confused about their own emotions or behaviour
• Struggle in relationships because they can’t make sense of social dynamics or emotional responses

It’s different from hypermentalisation, which is when someone overinterprets others’ mental states, often imagining intentions or emotions that aren’t really there - a key feature of attachment anxiety.

Sekowski & Gambin (2025) just released findings from their new research about how disorganised attachment fits in with the more commonly studied styles of anxious and avoidant attachment.

They identified three key features of attachment (which weren’t a surprise):
• Anxiety (worry about being rejected or unloved)
• Avoidance (discomfort with closeness)
• Disorganisation (conflicted or chaotic feelings about relationships)

But, they ALSO found four common attachment profiles - and attachment anxiety was reclassified as having disorganised features in practice:
1. Secure (low on all three) – most common (about 54%)
2. Anxious with disorganised features (high anxiety, some disorganisation) – 28%
3. Avoidant (high avoidance, low on the others) – 10%
4. Generalised insecure (high on all three) – smallest group (8%)

Key findings:
• People in the “generalised insecure” and “anxious” groups had more trouble understanding others’ mental states, or a tendency towards “hypomentalisation” and depression and suicidality. People in the “secure group” had the best skills at mentalisation and lowered depression and suicidality… Even within insecure groups, the presence of disorganisation made things worse.

Read more here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/393780064_Attachment_Anxiety_Avoidance_and_Disorganization_Latent_Profiles_of_Attachment_and_Their_Associations_With_Hypomentalization_Depressive_Symptoms_and_Suicidality

25/07/2025

https://www.psypost.org/new-psychology-study-inner-reasons-for-seeking-romance-are-a-top-predictor-of-finding-it/

Think pressure to find a partner will help your search? Think again. New psychology research suggests motivations based on avoiding shame or meeting others' expectations are ineffective. Genuinely valuing connection is what actually predicts finding a relationship down the line.

22/07/2025

🧠 New research on emotional abuse and attachment

A recent study in the Journal of Affective Disorders examined how emotional abuse from parents relates to depressive symptoms in adolescents.

The researchers found that when both parents engage in similar levels of emotional abuse, adolescents are more likely to report depressive symptoms than when the abuse comes primarily from one parent.

From an attachment theory perspective, this may reflect the impact of having a more consistent—but negatively patterned—caregiving environment. When both caregivers are emotionally harmful in similar ways, the adolescent may develop a stable but maladaptive internal model of relationships, expecting rejection or emotional unavailability from others.

In contrast, when only one parent is emotionally abusive, the adolescent’s experience of caregiving may be more inconsistent, which could shape a different kind of attachment representation and influence emotional outcomes in more complex ways.

This study highlights the importance of considering both caregivers’ roles when working with adolescents from an attachment-informed perspective—especially in the context of emotional abuse.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165032725012418

19/07/2025

I highly recommend numbers 3, 6, 8, & 10!

Has anyone else read the others? What did you think?

https://www.timesnownews.com/lifestyle/books/10-psychology-books-that-explain-why-you-keep-falling-for-the-wrong-people-article-152185620i

If love keeps going wrong, these psychology books reveal the hidden patterns behind your choices and offer a path to healthier, lasting connection., Books News - Times Now

16/07/2025

Using attachment theory in teams:

When people feel supported and secure, they help build a better society in the long term.