During this Free Webinar You Will Learn:
We are created with the desire and capacity for joyful connection, but this is often interrupted by life circumstances or negative experiences. One’s attachment style begins in infancy, solidifies in early childhood, and influences meaningful relationships throughout the lifespan.
Three powerful core questions that influence attachment style are:
- Are people available for me when I need help?
- Will this current distress end?
- Do I have agency?
The way each person answers these questions based on their early life experiences helps to direct their attachment style. Whether the style is secure, anxious, avoidant, or disorganized has significant long-term impacts in a wide variety of occupations. For those familiar with the typical neonatal experience, it is easy to see that attachment is easily interrupted as early neuronal pathways are formed when the baby is alone or disconnected from their families, in distress or pain often, and unable to affect their own outcome, therefore, they are answering the three attachment questions above negatively which could steer them toward a more disorganized attachment style.
This session will use Attachment Theory language as a lens from which to view neonatal therapy interventions and maximize the opportunities for both attachment (from the infant’s perspective) and bonding (from the parent’s perspective). It will defend compassionate, trauma-informed, individualized care as a key component in both short-term and long-term health as we as neonatal therapists are educated in evidence-based methods to assist in both baby and parent in their abilities to answer positively to the three core attachment questions.
Learning Objectives:
- Differentiate and define the four types of attachment styles discussed.
- Identify at least three ways to adapt your own current practices to maximize bonding and attachment opportunities to support both baby and family.
- Strategize at least two methods to defend and value attachment opportunities through process and policy at your workplaces.
Register below to watch the RECORDING:
Our Speaker:
Kelly Simpson Dr.OT, OTR/L, MATS, BCP, CNT, NTMTC
Dr. Kelly Simpson has been an occupational therapist for 20 years, practicing primarily in the Neonatal and Pediatric intensive care units at AdventHealth in Orlando, Florida. She currently serves as the Clinical Manager for occupational therapy, providing support for 16 hospital campuses throughout central Florida, including research initiatives, fieldwork coordination, competencies, staff education, and staffing emergencies! She also finds time to break away from the scheduling software to continue her primary passion of seeing patients.
Kelly seeks to inject whimsy into her life both at work and outside of work, and can often be found designing an outfit to coordinate with her emotional support water bottle.
Kelly believes in the power of involving families and the science of tiny snuggles. She is happy to share her research with others who share her passion through this webinar!
