A change in attachment style from insecure to secure can notably affect the quality of an individual’s life and relationships. The current study aims to investigate how change in attachment style in a therapeutic relationship is experienced. Using the framework provided by interpretative phenomenological analysis, the study closely examines the experiences of three participants who entered the therapeutic process of integrative psychotherapy with different insecure attachment styles and who experienced a change towards an earned secure attachment style during therapy. In spite of any initial differences in attachment styles, the process of change was overall experientially similar for all three participants. The investigation determined that the participants experienced three phases of the therapeutic process. The first phase involved establishing the therapeutic relationship, a sense of security, and trust. In the second phase, the participants began experiencing the therapist as a secure base; they opened up to in-depth work and intrapsychic changes, leading to a gradual transformation of relational schemas. Lastly, the third phase involved modifications in relationships outside of therapy and in the experience of self and others: in this phase, there was a transformation of attachment style towards earned secure attachment – which was expressed in feelings of greater independence in the relationship with the therapist – and an improved quality of other relationships. The results of this study shed light on how the process of changing attachment style in the psychotherapeutic relationship is experienced, with an emphasis on the importance of a reparative relational experience. Moreover, they raise new questions about the earned secure attachment style and how it differs from the continuously secure attachment style.
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