by Adriano Schimmenti, Benedetto Farina

Key words: attachment, attachment trauma, child maltreatment, psychotherapy

This paper responds to expert commentaries on our original formulation of attachment trauma. By synthesizing the commentators’ critical perspectives, we refine the conceptual boundaries of attachment trauma, elaborate the mechanisms of therapeutic change, and discuss the need for an integrated model that spans phenomenology, neuro‑somatic dynamics, narrative emergence, existential motivation, and ethical co‑presence in clinical settings. We examine how rupture and repair manifest in clinical interaction, the role of somatic co‑regulation in reshaping neural attractors, the emergence of patient narratives as both symptom and remedy, the existential motivations driving attachment and defense, and the ethical imperative of clinical presence with individuals exposed to child maltreatment. We believe that further developing this dialogue may advance a scientifically rigorous yet deeply human approach to assessment and intervention for attachment trauma.