Affect regulation theory--the science of how humans regulate their
emotions--is at the root of all psychotherapies. Drawing on attachment,
developmental trauma, implicit processes, and neurobiology, major
theorists from Allan Schore to Daniel Stern have argued how and why
regulated affect is key to our optimal functioning. This book translates
the intricacies of the theory into a cogent clinical synthesis.
With clarity and practicality, Hill decodes the massive body of
contemporary research on affect regulation, offering a comprehensible
and ready-to-implement model for conducting affect regulation therapy.
The book is organized around the four domains of a clinical model: (1) a
theory of bodymind; (2) a theory of optimal development of affect
regulation in secure attachment relationships; (3) a theory of
pathogenesis, in which disordered affect regulation originates in
relational trauma and insecure attachment relationships; and (4) a
theory of therapeutic actions targeted to repair the affect regulating
systems.
The key themes of Hill's affect-focused approach include: how and why
different patterns of affect regulation develop; how regulatory patterns
are transmitted from caretakers to the infants; what adaptive and
maladaptive regulatory patterns look like neurobiologically,
psychologically, and relationally; how deficits in affect regulation
manifest as psychiatric symptoms and personality disorders; and
ultimately, the means by which regulatory deficits can be repaired.
Specific chapters explore such subjects as self states, mentalization,
classical and modern attachment theory, relational trauma (and its
manifestations in chronic dissociation, personality disorders, and
pervasive dissociated shame), supporting self-development in therapy,
patient-therapist attunement, implicit and explicit therapeutic actions,
and many more.
