The Truth about Mental Health: Attachment

In our first article on development, we covered the earliest building blocks of relationship and identity: trust.

In that article I described how we learn trust “when the tiniest version of ourselves are held in the middle of the night” and “when our cries for help are answered, our giggles and grins met with connection and affection.”

In today’s podcast we’ll see more clearly why the tendrils of trust in our life often feel so tenuous, sometimes strong and hearty, other times broken beyond repair. As my guest, Justin Hanneman, pastor, licensed mental health provider, and PhD puts it -

“There are two types of relationships in this life:

attachment relationships and everything else.”

Justin is the founder and CEO of GracePoint Institute for Relational Health and has oodles of research, wisdom, and explanation to share about trust, attachment, and growth.

We’ll unpack together those connections between our early relationships and their impact on the relationships we hold close to our hearts as well as those we are looking for and desire throughout our lives, but sometimes seem out of reach. Justin unpacks for us the interpersonal and neurobiological connections within our bodies, created and knit for us by God, which help us form attachments and grow in relationship. He also explains how our attachments are vital for helping us answer foundational questions about ourselves:

Are we safe?

Are we lovable?

Do we have value?

In addition, Justin looks with me at the spiritual sides of attachment. How do our attachments help to better understand God as our Creator and Christ as our Redeemer? We talk about healing difficult, complicated, or ruptured attachments, as well as providing us with a grace-based lens to understand our early caregivers and ourselves as caregivers by identifying the brokenness of the world all around us and God’s desire to bring healing through Jesus and His Word. When life leaves us wondering:

Am I safe?

Am I lovable?

Do I have value?

God has more and better planned for us.

Find out more about the Truth about Mental Health and Attachment by tuning in:

Looking for more? Dive into our entire series about trust, attachment, and early development

and/or connect with Justin and the folks at GracePoint Institute for Relational Health.