Introduction to the TAIP Training

"Healing the Fractured Mind" by Felicity de Zulueta and her three co-authors introduces the Traumatic Attachment Induction Procedure (TAIP). This novel therapeutic approach challenges traditional views on dissociation and offers new perspectives for treating complex psychological disorders.

Key Concepts

The Traumatic Attachment Induction Procedure

The Traumatic Attachment Induction Procedure (TAIP) is a groundbreaking therapeutic procedure designed to address the unconscious Traumatic Attachment formed during early development when a child experiences the terror of abuse or neglect at the hands of the person they totally depend on to live. The need for a loving parent is such in childhood that these early traumatic experiences must be “forgotten” or “dissociated off” to enable vulnerable infants to maintain a life-giving “idealised” attachment: the price is a divided Self.

The TAIP developed by Felicity de Zulueta and her colleagues both elicits this Traumatic Attachment and reverses its dissociative effects thereby facilitating recovery and wellbeing for individuals previously considered untreatable and offering hope for those struggling with addiction, prolonged grief, and other complex disorders.

Human Mindsets

The book also challenges the notion of a single human mind, proposing instead that multiple mindsets exist, influenced by early attachment experiences. It explores how these mindsets can lead to destructive behaviours when individuals have not felt safe and cared-for during their early upbringing.

Unique Techniques in TAIP

The TAIP process employs an embodied response to an imaginary separation with the patient’s caregiver to elicit their Traumatic Attachment. For example: “Mum, I am now an adult and I don’t need you any more as I did to when I was little.”

This adult declaration of independence will evoke the same emotional and physical response that Ainsworth elicited when she developed the Strange Situation Procedure for one year old infants to determine if they had had a secure loving early attachment or an insecure one. The TAIP is an imagined simplified version of this procedure adapted for adults which need only last one or two minutes in order to manage the intensity of the client’s response while accessing their Traumatic Attachment.

Throughout this procedure, the attuned therapist provides gentle encouragement and support to his or her adult clients as they become aware of their hitherto dissociated emotional experiences of their childhood: this process of integration renders obsolete the early structural dissociation that protected them from these terrifying memories resulting in the integration of the once divided Self.

Effectiveness for Borderline Personality Disorder

TAIP offers unique advantages for treating Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) by addressing unconscious traumatic attachments formed during early development. The procedure's brief, focused exposure helps manage emotional intensity while facilitating the integration of dissociated childhood self-states, potentially healing the underlying structural dissociation. This approach provides therapists with an alternative explanation for clients previously labeled as "resistant" to therapy, one that promotes healing of the divided Self resulting in overall wellbeing. TAIP's compatibility with other therapeutic modalities makes it a versatile tool for treating BPD, though more research is needed to fully establish its comparative effectiveness.

TAIP Training Requirements

Practitioners interested in utilising the TAIP must first establish a trusting relationship with clients before its implementation. Specialised training is available for psychotherapists, with an introductory course offered at £80 that provides in-depth understanding of the traumatic attachment’s origins and symptoms. The training covers research on the previous use of the Strange Situation in mammalian infants, its practical application, and up-to-date knowledge of attachment and complex trauma.

A background in psychotherapy or counselling, with experience in trauma and attachment issues, is essential.

Six montly online sessions of ongoing supervision and support are recommended for the accreditation of trainees to ensure proper implementation and address challenges that may arise during the use of the TAIP so as to be able to carry out outcome research.

About the Book

Healing the Fractured Mind

A Revolutionary Method for Treating Addiction and Other Disorders

by Felicity de Zulueta, Leonor de Escoriaza, Jayshree Unadkat, Monique Notice

£32.99

Healing the Fractured Mind: A Revolutionary Method for Treating Addiction and Other Disorders offers the reader a journey into the human mind in search of an answer to the human paradox: how can we be both so loving and also so destructive, to ourselves and to others? The answer: there is no such thing as a human mind; there are in fact many different human mindsets. The way people feel and behave depends so much on how safe they felt in the hands of their parental figures and on the social context in which they are brought up in and live.

The human infant’s utter dependency on the mother in early development means that, should she become unavailable or threatening, the infant can neither fight nor flee but only freeze and thereby disconnect. It is at this point that the infant brain adopts an alternative developmental mode referred to as the “traumatic attachment” with the potential to develop different mindsets to ensure survival in a frightening world where others cannot be trusted.

For many, the cost of these ways of feeling, thinking, and behaving outweighs the benefit: they suffer from the effects of addiction, prolonged grief, domestic and other forms of violence, borderline personality disorder, developmental or complex trauma, and other ‘disorders’. Conventional treatment often fails to find a way out of these debilitating behaviours. Through years of research and clinical practice, Felicity de Zulueta has developed the Traumatic Attachment Induction Procedure (TAIP), a revolutionary method which can lead sufferers to full recovery. Through the TAIP, it is possible to gain access to the hitherto unconscious or implicit traumatic attachment and its accompanying internal working models.

Healing the Fractured Mind is an uplifting account of several clients’ therapeutic journeys from a past of chronic suffering and shame to the discovery of their true selves with the freedom to realise their long-hidden potential. It opens a new avenue of therapeutic practice and research in the field of early developmental trauma which could alleviate the suffering of so many. This book offers comfort and hope to therapists, the general public, and society as a whole by sharing the knowledge that these conditions are now treatable.

Publisher: Karnac

Published: September 2022

Format: Paperback

Pages: 272

Dimensions: 15.6 x 1.5 x 23.4 cm

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Training Opportunities

If you are an individual who meets the training requirements and is interested in receiving TAIP training, please email [email protected] for more details.

For organisations interested in training opportunities for their staff, please review our In-House Training Details.

About the Author(s)

Dr. Felicity de Zulueta

Dr. Felicity de Zulueta is an Emeritus Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust and an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Traumatic Studies at King's College London. She developed and headed both the Department of Psychotherapy at Charing Cross Hospital and, later, the Traumatic Stress Service in the Maudsley, which specializes in the treatment of people suffering from complex post-traumatic stress disorder and other trauma-induced dissociative disorders.

She has published papers on bilingualism, PTSD, borderline personality disorder, and dissociative disorders from an attachment perspective. She is the author of From Pain to Violence: The Traumatic Roots of Destructiveness and is a founding member of the London ACEs Hub to promote the study of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the application of trauma-informed care. She is the recipient of the Sándor Ferenczi Award 2020.

Dr. de Zulueta lectures worldwide on the origins and treatment of complex PTSD and violence, has been a consultant to UNICEF and the Singaporean army, and promotes the use of video-based therapy called Video Interaction Guidance for treating traumatized families in the UK, Italy, Mexico, Ecuador, Ireland, and Tanzania. She works as a freelance consultant psychotherapist with training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, systemic family therapy, group analysis, EMDR, and Lifespan Integration.

She developed a new therapeutic procedure called the Traumatic Attachment Induction Procedure (TAIP) and is currently conducting clinical research on traumatic attachment, its different manifestations, and its theoretical and therapeutic implications. This book is based upon that research.

More titles by Felicity de Zulueta: From Pain to Violence: The Traumatic Roots of Destructiveness

Monique Notice, MA, MBACP (Accred)

Monique Notice is a psychotherapist in private practice with a very diverse demographic for short- or long-term psychotherapy. She has a background in nursing (RGN) and completed her master’s degree in psychodynamic therapy in 2012. In 2013, she became an accredited member of the BACP.

She previously worked in an alcohol and drug agency that provided one-to-one and group therapy to people struggling with addictions. She joined the TAIP research group in 2012.

Jayshree Unadkat, MBACP (Accred)

Jayshree Unadkat is a psychotherapist in private practice working with culturally diverse individuals and couples, and also works in NHS mental health services. She completed her master’s degree in contemporary psychodynamic counselling/psychotherapy in 2013.

She previously worked as a counsellor with adults struggling with addictions and also with young and older carers. She joined the TAIP research group in 2012.

Leonor de Escoriaza

Leonor de Escoriaza is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Madrid. Her initial training in both France and Spain was the foundation for her integrative and transcultural approach. Leonor is a certified Lifespan Integration therapist, working mainly with adults with complex trauma and attachment issues.

While in the UK, Leonor worked with several charities focusing on expatriates, refugees, victims of abuse, and adults with intellectual and learning disabilities. She is also interested in equine therapy and therapy with the help of animals. She joined the TAIP research group in 2018.