emotional awareness

Danger, Not Damage: Attachment, Emotion, and the Somatic Language of Relational Threat

Bowlby’s insight was somatic before it was interpersonal: the attachment system is fundamentally a threat-regulation system. The infant’s nervous system is organized around a question it continues to ask throughout life: am I safe, and is help available (Bowlby, 1969/1982)? Viewed this way, attachment does not simply shape how clients relate to others. It also […]

Joel Jin, PhD

July 28, 2026