I brought the issue up to my therapist a few weeks ago. She said what everyone here already knows--that we carry our early childhood attachments into adulthood and that it's worth exploring in therapy if the attachment style causes us problems today. For me, it does. And while I don't think I consciously entered into therapy to change my attachment style (seems to be fearful/avoidant), it's looking more and more like a big part of my problem.

I saw an equine therapist for depression and it was the horse, not the human, that was doing the attaching and soothing because that's what they do naturally. For prey animals, it's a safety thing. The human therapist was really bad at it, but I don't think she knew that.

I happen to think it's a big part of what therapists are doing when they talk about building trust. It's not not as creepy as the ones stopdog has uncovered.