Attachment Therapy in Peterborough, Ontario
For children and adults working through how they connect
Do You Recognize Your Attachment Style?
Attachment is the blueprint we build in early relationships, mostly with caregivers, for how safe, close, or trusting connection feels later in life. When that blueprint gets disrupted, by inconsistency, loss, trauma, or simply a caregiver who couldn't be fully present, it shapes how a person relates to others for years afterward, whether that person is six or sixty.
Penny Hope offers attachment-focused therapy in Peterborough, Ontario, for children, adults, and families, in person and online.
Struggling with anxious, avoidant, or disorganized attachment? Penny Hope offers attachment-focused therapy in Peterborough, Ontario, for children, adults, and families, in person or online.
IN CHILDREN
What Attachment Struggles Can Look Like
Attachment issues in children don't always look like what people expect. It's not always clinginess, it can also show up as a child who seems unusually independent, avoids comfort when upset, or has a hard time trusting new caregivers or friendships. Left unaddressed, these early patterns often carry forward into adult relationships.
Working with children in Peterborough, Penny uses art therapy to reach what young clients often can't yet say in words, using play, drawing, and creative process to build a felt sense of safety and connection.
IN ADULTS
When Early Attachment Shows Up in Adult Relationships
For adults, unresolved attachment often surfaces in romantic relationships, friendships, or even at work, patterns like pushing people away right when things get close, feeling chronically unworthy of love, or struggling to set boundaries without guilt. These patterns feel like "just who you are," but they're learned, which means they can be unlearned too.
A Creative, Body-Based Approach to Attachment
Attachment wounds often live below conscious thought, in the body and nervous system, which is part of why insight alone doesn't always change the pattern. As a professional Art Therapist, Penny combines Internal Family Systems (IFS) with creative practice to work with attachment on both a cognitive and somatic level, helping clients in Peterborough and across Ontario build new patterns, not just understand the old ones.
Why This Work Often Involves Family Systems
Attachment doesn't form in isolation, it forms in relationship. That's why this work sometimes involves family sessions alongside individual therapy, especially for children, so that the environment around the client is part of the healing process, not separate from it.
Penny's Background
I hold a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology and work as a Registered Psychotherapist and professional Art Therapist in Peterborough, supervised by Dr. Pati Beaudoin, Registered Psychologist. My approach is trauma-informed, with training in Neurographica, IFS, and EMDR, both especially relevant when attachment wounds are rooted in early trauma.
FAQs
01
Can attachment patterns actually change in adulthood?
Yes. Attachment isn't fixed. With consistent therapeutic work, most people can move toward a more secure pattern.
02
My child seems too independent to have attachment issues. Could that still be a concern?
Yes. Avoidant attachment in children can look like independence rather than clinginess, and it's still worth exploring.
03
Do you work with families, or only individuals?
Both. Depending on the situation, sessions might include individual work, family sessions, or a combination.
04
Do you see clients outside Peterborough?
Yes, online sessions are available across Ontario.
