Live to Love and Love to Live by Understanding Attachment Styles

On February 21, Community 247 proudly hosted the second Mama Bear's Zen workshop of the year: Live to Love and Love to Live, featuring an enlightening presentation on Attachment Styles. Author, mindset coach, inspirational speaker, and House of Ruth Maryland Storyteller Dannie Dee led a dynamic and interactive discussion, delving into the connection between attachment styles and intimate partner violence.

Attachment theory powerfully illustrates how the relationship strategies and styles we develop, often in childhood, persist into our adult relationships. It explains our subconscious reactions under stress and why we tend to favor certain defense tactics over others.

While researchers and experts may use different terminology for the four attachment styles, they generally include fearful avoidant, anxious preoccupied, avoidant dismissive, and secure. Your relationship style is distinct from your personality. Relationship styles can reveal your feelings of worthiness, connection, and safety, as well as your ability to rely on others.

• Fearful Avoidant Attachment (Disorganized) Types desire a closeness but may reject or fear it, often stemming from trauma and inconsistent relationships, may also have trust issues and struggle with vulnerability.

• Anxious Preoccupied Attachment Types have a fear of abandonment, long for closeness, maybe be characterized as clingy and sometimes jealous.

• Avoidant Dismissive Attachment Types value their own independence, have trouble trusting, and view vulnerability as weakness.

• Secure Attachment Types are comfortable with both intimacy and independence, are capable of trusting and relying on others, have high self esteem and able to communicate needs

Attachment styles are not fixed, you can have more than one, and you can work towards developing a more secure attachment style. The initial step is to understand your own attachment style and become aware of how you engage in relationships. Take the quiz (opens in a new tab) today to find out more.

We concluded the workshop with a grounding hands-on activity, crafting personalized body scrub that offered aromatherapy with essential oils such as lavender, lemon, orange, and rose, all known for their positive effects in reducing stress and anxiety.

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