Customer Reviews

Handbook of Attachment Interventions,

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The editors have removed at least one unfavorable review, falsely claiming the author of the review was a competing therapist. I would like to declare up front that I am not a therapist nor am I in competition with Levy or Orlans in any way. I simply am appalled by their methods which have no relationship to modern, evidence-based field of child development.

That said, Levy and Orlans demonstrate once again with this book that they promote "Attachment Therapy" (aka Holding Therapy, Holding-Nurturing Process, Nancy Thomas parenting, etc.), claiming that conventional therapy is ineffective. Attachment Therapy/Parenting was specifically denounced by APSAC and the APA's Division on Child Maltreatment (see the journal *Child Maltreatment" Feb 2006) as abusive and "inappropriate for all children." This practice uses the physically and/or psychologically-enforced restraint of the child and highly authoritarian parenting methods. Levy and Orlans describe this "in arms" technique (see page 19) to which children are "resistant." This is supposed to recreate a "first-year attachment cycle" -- a bogus notion invented by Foster Cline, MD, the popularizer of Attachment Therapy.

The book features work by Nancy L. Thomas, a layperson whose methods are especially condemned by APSAC. Her contribution to this book starts out with scare tactics which demonize children, claiming that those who "did not get healing parenting and attachment therapy are Jeffry Dahmer, Edgar Allen Poe, Hitler, Ted Bundy, Saddam Hussein, and Ted Kaczynski..." (page 67)

Note that the diagnosis Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) is redefined in this book. It has no resemblance to the RAD as defined officially in the DSM-IV. Most egregious, this book attributes violent features to children with RAD.

The implication of this book is that harsh, highly authoritarian therapy/parenting methods will result in creating a loving bond between parent and child. That is very unlikely. These methods are only out to break the spirit of the child and destroy the child's personality.

A lot of information coming at you fast. May be a little overwhelming, but then again, so is Reactive Attachment Disorder. Nancy Thomas' "Healing Trust" CD will make the book more understandable.

An excellent reference for workers who support families in repairing damaged children.