A Secure Base

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This outcome may be supported by the use of the secure base model across all services to vulnerable children. The ensuing relationships will provide a secure base, from which children can develop and be supported to explore and maximise their potential. The Secure Base model provides a positive framework for therapeutic caregiving which helps infants, children and young people to move towards greater security and builds resilience.

This is, perhaps, one of the most important theories for the understanding of human nature and behavioral patterns. The Strange Situation involves the infant experiencing a series of brief separations and reunions while their reactions are observed.All of us, from the cradle to the grave, are happiest when life is organised as a series of excursions, long or short, from the secure base provided by our attachment figures. The basic idea is very convincing (in that it is based on quite obvious aspects of human nature), but then suddenly he arrives to conclusions that are not actually supported by the facts. When the baby is hungry, lonely or uncomfortable the sensitive and responsive caregiver will both recognise and react promptly to meet the baby's needs. The text cited above also gives an idea of how the author draws from ideas and results from ethology (especially Konrad Lorenz studies). How a caregiver thinks and feels about a child's needs and behaviour will determine his or her caregiving behaviours.

A secure base is provided through a relationship with one or more sensitive and responsive attachment figures who meet the child's needs and to whom the child can turn as a safe haven, when upset or anxious. To understand the lessons that are learned in these early relationships and why they go on to affect subsequent relationships, Bowlby developed the concept of ‘internal working models'.A securely attached child does not only seek comfort from an attachment figure, but through feeling safe to explore develops confidence, competence and resilience. The formation and development of attachment relationships continue through the lifespan, so that adult children's relationships with their parents will change and, for example, as adults we both care for and receive care from our partners.

Bowlby's view of what was necessary for sensitive care relied on the caregiver thinking about the thoughts and feelings of the child, and over time enabling the child to think about the thoughts and feelings of the caregiver and other adults and children. Some children with unpredictable or frightening care may try to make their environment more predictable through role-reversing and controlling behaviour. To treat a deeply distrustful person, therapist should hav prolonged, quiet, and friendly patience — these type of patients have been subjected to prolonged rejection as a child when they asked for comfort or help, and are terrified to receive something similar again. It provides a valuable framework and strengths-based approach for making sense of fostered and adopted children’s needs and behaviours and sets out the dimensions of caregiving that can support children to thrive and to fulfil their potential.

During the earliest years of our lives, indeed, emotional expression and its reception are the only means of communication we have.

It gave me so much to think about as a mother especially how my own childhood has an impact on my kids’ childhoods as well. For example, a caregiver who is playing with a child in a focused, child-led way may be doing so with sensitivity and acceptance as well as demonstrating availability and promoting co-operation. An experienced social worker and academic, she has a special interest in attachment theory, child development and child placement, especially long-term foster care. It's a must-read for any psychologist, psychiatrist, sociologist or social scientist of any sort that wants to understand people--both on the micr0 and macro scale.This process begins with the child's needs and behaviour and then focuses on what is going on in the mind of the caregiver. Whilst Bowlby's background was in psychoanalysis, he eschewed the Freudian concepts of developmental stages and of the inner 'fantasy' life being more crucial in psychopathology than the effect of real-life events upon a person's 'developmental pathway'. Understanding this can help us to challenge and overcome unhelpful or unhealthy attachment behaviours, to form healthier relationships with ourselves and others. But over time the pre-school child starts to develop controlling behaviours to enable them to feel some degree of predictability and safety.