Level 2 DBR training forms the second part of DBR training and offers participants a more comprehensive understanding of the role of midbrain-based systems in attachment pain and attachment shock – and their healing. We further explore brainstem responses to the relational or interactional stimuli which underpin attachment patterns and consider how these can activate basic affective and defensive responses and, ultimately, modify the seeking of connection.

Early life adversity and trauma compromise the functional integrity and fluency of these brainstem-based networks, thereby setting a developmental trajectory that shapes attachment capabilities throughout life. This is reflected in the relational disturbances routinely encountered in therapeutic work with traumatised clients. Such relational disturbances are often embedded in conflicted orienting and response patterns linked to the seeking of attachment. There can then emerge relational conflicts and affective responses that have their explanation more in past events than in present circumstances.

Working with conflicted relational orienting patterns derived from prior experience of attachment pain and attachment shock offers access to the associated physiological residues using the O-T-A-S sequences mapped out in Deep Brain Reorienting. This promotes a liberation of the brain’s healing mechanism so that blocked processing can be released and, optimally, allow resolution of the past attachment adversity.