Attachment-Focused Therapy
in Los Angeles & Pasadena, CA

Build Healthier Relationships with the Support
of an Attachment-Based Therapist

An attachment-based therapist—available in Los Angeles and Pasadena, CA, and online—can help guide you toward healthier relationships and more meaningful connections, while supporting you in breaking free from past hurt.

Couple holding hands, represents how you can move from past hurt and build healthier relationships with the support of an attachment-based therapist in Los Angeles & Pasadena, CA.

The way we form relationships as adults is often rooted in early attachment patterns—that is, how our primary caregivers connected with us.

These patterns can lead to fear of abandonment, challenges with trust and connections, or cycles of closeness and withdrawal, continuing to affect us throughout adult life and making relationships feel consistently challenging.

At Thomas Blake Therapy, this is where we come in—helping you heal and grow through attachment-focused therapy.

Common Challenges Attachment-Focused Therapy Can Help With

An attachment-based therapist can support you with a broad range of difficulties related to attachment—particularly those that show up in relationships—including:

  • Emotional distance and difficulty trusting others

  • Feelings of loneliness or alienation

  • Betrayal or breaches of trust in relationships

  • Addictive behaviors

  • A general lack of connection, intimacy, or affection in relationships

Overall, attachment-related issues can make it challenging to form meaningful connections, develop a positive sense of self, and regulate emotions.

What Attachment-Focused Therapy Is

Attachment-based therapy is a process-oriented approach in which the client–therapist relationship centers on emotional expression and the development or rebuilding of trust. It explores how early attachment experiences with primary caregivers shape the ability to form healthy relationships in adulthood.

By focusing on a secure therapist–client connection, this approach helps address challenges rooted in negative early attachment experiences. As this bond strengthens, therapy shifts toward open communication and exploring how early experiences shape current emotions and behaviors.

Overall, an attachment-focused therapist can help treat conditions such as anxiety and depression, among others.

Start Healing with Attachment-Focused in Los Angeles & Pasadena, CA

Taking the first step can feel intimidating, but we’re here to help you embark on this journey of self-discovery, resilience, and renewed hope.

Schedule a free consultation

How Attachment-Focused Therapy Works

This approach uses attachment theory in therapy, which suggests that positive early attachment experiences foster secure, supportive, trusting, and healthy relationships in adulthood. In contrast, the absence of a strong emotional foundation in childhood can contribute to fear, confusion, and insecurity later in life.

For these reasons, attachment-based therapy aims to establish a secure, healing bond with the therapist. This process typically involves exploring your childhood experiences, relationships with parents or caregivers, family dynamics while growing up, and other significant life experiences that may continue to influence you today.

In addition, we can work on developing skills to improve your relationships, emotions, and behaviors. Depending on your unique needs, we may combine this approach with other therapeutic methods to achieve the best results.

Men couple in a cute, intimate moment represents how working with an attachment-based therapist in Los Angeles & Pasadena can help you in your adult relationships.

Our Approach to Attachment-Focused Therapy in Los Angeles & Pasadena, CA

At Thomas Blake Therapy, an attachment-focused therapist will draw from various approaches to meet each individual’s unique needs. Our approach includes traditional attachment-focused therapy or specialized methods such as Attachment-Focused Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (AF-EMDR).

Attachment-Focused Therapy

Focuses on creating a secure bond between client and therapist, particularly for clients who experience difficulty forming healthy, trusting relationships. By establishing a strong and supportive therapeutic foundation, it becomes possible to begin working through these challenges.

As therapy progresses and the therapeutic relationship strengthens, our attention can then shift toward addressing other difficulties.

Attachment-Focused EMDR (AF-EMDR)

This approach is especially beneficial for those struggling with insecure attachment patterns, relational or developmental trauma, or Complex PTSD (CPTSD). It addresses the impact of neglect or abuse on the brain and on the development of attachment styles.

An attachment-focused EMDR therapist uses this approach to support individuals experiencing difficulties such as:

Alongside standard EMDR, this approach incorporates components that foster nurturing and safe experiences the client may not have had, such as an imagined support system or an imagined peaceful place.

In essence, it helps reprocess trauma by pairing it with a sense of protection, comfort, and safety, supporting healthier relationships and improved emotional regulation.

Get Started with Attachment-Focused Therapy in Los Angeles & Pasadena, CA

Ready to take control of your life and find healing? Attachment-based therapy offers a powerful path toward emotional well-being, a brighter future, and breaking free from past hurt.

1. Schedule a free consultation

Book a free 15-minute consultation to explore whether attachment-focused therapy is the right fit for your unique needs.

2.  Meet your attachment-based therapist

Begin your first sessions with a skilled attachment-focused therapist who will take time to understand your story, goals, and needs.

3. Create lasting change

Start your healing journey with attachment-based therapy in Los Angeles & Pasadena, CA—or online across California, Idaho, Wyoming, New Jersey, and Maryland.

Attachment-Focused Therapy FAQs

  • Attachment theory identifies four main attachment styles, which describe how individuals form emotional connections based on early childhood relationships with primary caregivers and how they approach relationships in adulthood.

    Three of these styles are considered insecure, often involving difficulties with trust and closeness.

    The four attachment styles are:

    • Secure: Generally comfortable with intimacy and trusting relationships

    • Anxious (or Preoccupied): Often fear abandonment or rejection

    • Avoidant (or Dismissive): Tend to place too high a value on independence and distance themselves emotionally

    • Disorganized (or Fearful-Avoidant): Exhibit confusing “push-pull” behaviors, often stemming from trauma

  • Attachment-based therapy applies attachment theory to the therapeutic process, addressing emotions, behaviors, thoughts, communication patterns, and interpersonal dynamics rooted in early attachment experiences.

    Clients may have developed unhelpful ways of responding to these experiences—either by suppressing and avoiding them or by amplifying and overemphasizing them. This therapy specifically targets those patterns to promote healthier relationships.

  • Attachment trauma often stems from negative childhood experiences with parents or caregivers. To begin healing, therapy is the most effective starting point, helping you develop self-awareness, build secure connections, practice self-compassion, and learn emotional regulation.

    In addition to attachment-based therapy, Attachment-Focused EMDR (AF-EMDR) can be a valuable alternative to traditional talk therapy, depending on your individual needs.

  • The goal of attachment-based therapy is to help individuals develop healthier relationship patterns and cultivate a more secure attachment style. By addressing the impact of early attachment experiences, this therapy supports clients in building trust, improving emotional regulation, and fostering stronger connections with others.

  • A toxic attachment style refers to an unhealthy way of connecting with others, often rooted in fear and characterized by clinginess, anxiety, insecurity, emotional dependency, or extreme avoidance.

    These unhealthy attachment patterns can lead to jealousy, poor boundaries, self-abandonment, and chaotic relationship dynamics, ultimately affecting self-worth and daily functioning.

Other Therapy Services—Online and in Los Angeles & Pasadena, CA

In addition to attachment-based therapy, we offer other services such as:

Start your healing journey in Los Angeles and Pasadena, CA, or online across California, Idaho, Wyoming, New Jersey, and Maryland. For more information, contact us directly and explore additional resources through our blog.