Do they cross the bridge when they come to it? Young adult's engagement in attachment‐based family therapy as part of inpatient care
Abstract
Although attachment seems to be ‘in fashion’ when it comes to discussing mental health issues, there are few evidence‐based therapy models treating attachment issues related to psychopathology. In this paper, we will briefly introduce Attachment‐Based Family Therapy (ABFT) as an evidence‐based intervention for depressed and suicidal adolescents, and its first‐time large‐scale application and implementation in a young adult inpatient care unit. We present our clinical data showing that 98% of the young adults who were proposed ABFT engage into this therapy. In our discussion we briefly describe accommodations to the young adult (YA) age and the inpatient setting and discuss hypotheses about which characteristics of young adulthood, the ABFT core interventions and the residential setting play a role in this high engagement. We discuss how adopting a shared clinical attachment‐based framework as a team might broaden the impact.
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ABFT has been disseminated in mental health care settings in various Western countries to treat adolescents with suicidality and has been increasingly used in emerging adults.
“ABFT has been disseminated in mental health care settings in various Western countries, to treat adolescents with suicidality, and has been increasingly used in emerging adults too [24, 25, 76].”
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Bockting, C., Bosmans, G., Bergers, N., Gavan, L., Hiligsmann, M., de Beurs, D., Molenberghs, G., Wijnen, B., Lokkerbol, J., & van der Spek, N. (2024) · Trials · doi:10.1186/s13063-024-08499-7 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“ABFT has been disseminated in mental health care settings in various Western countries, to treat adolescents with suicidality, and has been increasingly used in emerging adults too [24, 25, 76].”
BackgroundAttachment-Based Family Therapy
Russon, J., Strati, J. R., & Diamond, G. S. (2026) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-443-29009-1.00024-x
- Authors
- Devacht, I., & Carlier, E.
- Affiliations
- Asster Campus Melveren Sint‐Truiden Belgium
- Corresponding author
- Devacht, Ilse
- ORCID
- Devacht, Ilse
- Venue
- Journal of Family Therapy
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2023-08
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 473-483
- ISSN
- 0163-4445 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-6427
- OpenAlex
- W4385496555
- Cited by
- 2
- References
- 16
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 1
- FWCI
- 0.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Family Therapy (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Keywords
- attachment-based family therapy, treatment engagement, residential treatment, adolescent depression, adolescent suicidality, attachment issues
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