A proposal for a brief-term post-adoption intervention in the attachment-perspective: a single case study with a late-adopted child and his adoptive mother

Abstract

A growing body of attachment literature has focused on bridging the gap between research and clinical applications, even in clinical work with adoptive families. A brief-term clinical intervention focused on a multi-method assessment of attachment relationships and representations was performed in the first year after placement. This single case study aimed at analysing the attachment outcomes, through a long-term follow-up, both for the adoptive mother and her late-adopted son. We assumed that this five-session attachmentoriented intervention could help the mother enhance her sensitivity skills and her ability to understand both her own past attachment experiences and her child’s insecure attachment as a consequence of the failures of his previous experiences of care, supporting her sixyear old child in acquiring a positive image of himself and of others and the security of the caregiver’s availability up to adolescence.

Keywords

• Brief-term post-adoption
• Attachment-perspective
• Late-adopted child