In April’s DMM Coffee House we’ll discuss Charley Shult’s new book, Attachment Centred Therapy: Therapeutic practice with attachment issues. The book describes an integrative therapeutic approach for psychotherapists utilizing the Adult Attachment Interview and the DMM analysis method as a basis for intervention.
Charley Shults was a U.K. therapist who published his book in the fall of 2024. He developed ACT over 30 years working with a range of clients with complex difficulties including childhood trauma and addiction. It is a growth orientated model that also incorporates Maslow’s modified hierarchy of needs, which Charley preferred to call motivations.
The aim of ACT is to re-programme the unconscious mind, and help clients develop a more coherent narrative of their life story, a marker of psychological well-being. The book describes a number of tools that support the changes, including Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), but the core of the therapy is collaborative discourse analysis of the AAI transcript. One of ACT’s goals is to help clients improve their information processing by integrating their attachment opposite attachment pattern. Charley weaves clients’ stories, and his own experiences into the theory to create an engaging and informative textbook.
Some useful questions to start the discussion are:
- The relationship between ACT and attachment narrative therapy (ANT)?
- How replicable is the therapy, given Charley’s wealth of experience and unique therapeutic style?
- Could a training programme be developed or is AAI training sufficient?
- Is an accurate coding of the AAI necessary to do ACT?
- What about the therapists’ attachment style and errors of information processing? How might they impact the efficacy of ACT?
- Does the therapy need a somatic element to be truly effective?
Please contact us for registration information, and include some information about your practice and where you work. Attachment Centered Therapy (US spelling) is a wonderful book and model for conducting attachment-based therapy with safe and proven methods.
Session details
Date: April 1st, 2025
Time: 9:00 a.m. in Seattle. Noon in Miami. 5:00 p.m. in London
Session length: 2 hours
Host: Discussion guided by Mark Baumann. Charley’s widow, UK psychiatrist Louise Atkin will join the conversation.
Cost: free
Registration for Zoom link: Contact us, and please include some brief information about your practice and workplace (so we know you aren’t an AI bot).
The DMM stands for Dynamic Maturational Model of Attachment and Adaptation.
In memoriam. Charley passed away in 2024 shortly after his book went to press. He saw the completed book, but never saw the published book. Charley was loved by family, friends, colleagues and clients, many of whom attended his funeral in Manchester UK. Charley was kind, caring, generous, full of life, and was a frequent contributor to the DMM community and DMM Coffee House. It’s still hard to imagine he is not here in body.