Understanding Love and Connection
Attachment Survival States Interview (ASSI)™
ARPT-ASSI -drawing by Dr.Julie
Relationships and attachment are vital to our survival, intimacy, trust and safety. Therefore, understanding one’s attachment survival state can help one understand how to move forward, build healthy long-term intimate partnerships, and experience interpersonal safety.
The ASSI is a clinical and research instrument that offers a reliable and valid assessment of adult attachment survival states and strategies. It is a semi-structured interview procedure for assessing adults’ attachment survival states for identifying, preventing and protecting the self from perceived relationship betrayals, dangers, abandonment and loneliness in intimate relationships.
The interview takes between 90 to a maximum of 120 minutes. The data gathered from the interview is coded in an ASSI digital platform. The interview maps four primary relational survival responses and five subcategories through 42 clinical interview questions.
4 Main Relational Survival Responses in Search of Love and Connection
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Connect
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Appease
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Compensate
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Reject
6 Subcategories of Relational Survival Responses address the intersectionality of the four main areas with intensity on one of the dimensions (avoidance or anxiety).
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Appeasing Connectors
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Connecting Compensators
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Compensating Rejectors
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Rejecting Appeasers
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Connecting Rejectors
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Appeasing Compensators
Register ASSI™ Advanced Clinical Training 2023-2024