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A Guide for Assessing Clients’ Attachment to the Sacred: The Spiritual Attachment History

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Abstract

Current research supports that many people relate to God or a higher power in ways consistent with attachment theory, yet nothing exists assisting therapists in gathering attachment-focused background information regarding their clients’ spiritual lives. This paper fills that gap with the Spiritual Attachment History (SAH), a semi-structured interview guide adapted from an ICEEFT Training in Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy attachment history handout, to help the authors meet their clients’ spiritual and relational clinical concerns. We describe how we developed the SAH and provide a case study of its incorporation into two treatment plans. We also discuss implications for training, for use by marriage and family therapists, for cross-cultural research, and the ethics of addressing spirituality as a cultural issue.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marriage and Family Therapy Programs, Department of Community, Family, & Addiction Sciences, Texas Tech University, 2500 Broadway Avenue, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA

    Rachael A. Dansby, Nicholas D. Hayes & Cydney Schleiden

Authors
  1. Rachael A. Dansby
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  2. Nicholas D. Hayes
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  3. Cydney Schleiden
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Correspondence to Rachael A. Dansby.

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Conflict of interest

Potential conflicts of interest include participants being approached regarding use of the assessment guide in treatment by their respective therapist, due to the sensitive nature of the guide and its original purpose being for treatment. After completing the assessment, the therapists asked their respective clients about participating in this research project via inclusion of a de-identified case example in the manuscript highlighting how and why the guide was used in their treatment.

Ethical Approval

This research involves human participants, and the primary and secondary authors have completed training on the ethical conduct of research with human participants through CITI and NIH.

Informed Consent

All participants were enrolled only after giving informed consent, which emphasized non-participation would in no way affect their relationships with their therapist, the Family Therapy Clinic, or Texas Tech University.

Additional information

This paper qualified for expedited review and has been approved by the Internal Review Board of Texas Tech University.

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Dansby, R.A., Hayes, N.D. & Schleiden, C. A Guide for Assessing Clients’ Attachment to the Sacred: The Spiritual Attachment History. Contemp Fam Ther 39, 1–11 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-017-9402-5

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