Secure Relating

Experienced mental health professionals and hosts of the Therapist Uncensored podcast offer a groundbreaking new clinical perspective that integrates modern attachment theory, relational neuroscience, and current cultural context to create a hopeful framework for deeper and more permanent change, growth and connection in all types of relationships. Secure Relating offers a refreshing and innovative approach to understanding and improving relationships in today's increasingly polarized world. Drawing on over thirty years of professional clinical experience, authors Ann Kelley, PhD and Sue Marriott, LCSW, CGP integrate modern attachment theory, relational neuroscience, and depth psychology into practical tools for deepening self-awareness and navigating closeness with strength in even the most challenging relationships. Instead of the popular broad attachment categorizations, Secure Relating presents a nuanced understanding of attachment and interpersonal defensive patterns, allowing readers to delve into the complexities of their own experience and apply the specific skills they need. Refreshingly, Kelley and Marriott make complex concepts accessible and relatable, emphasizing the realistic capacity for neural change and psychological growth. They provide contemporary concepts and interactive tools such as the Modern Attachment Regulation Spectrum, a new framework that helps readers identify their unconscious defensive patterns, update and revise their personal narratives, and cultivate a secure state of mind amid chaos and adversity. Secure Relating delivers hope, connection, and empowerment amidst the many barriers to emotional closeness and provocations towards self-protection by offering a comprehensive approach to understanding and transforming all kinds of relationships into more secure and satisfying bonds.

Sue Marriott is a clinical social worker, educator, and podcaster who enjoys live music, van camping, and writing in Austin TX (and when possible, Asheville, NC where she loves to spot black bears and occasionally her three young adult kids). Professionally, her passion is bridging the life-changing relational sciences to those who would otherwise not have access to it. In that spirit, she co-founded an organization that brings attachment and relational neurobiology to students, local therapists, and the public called Austin Interpersonal Neurobiology (IN) Connection and served on the Board of The Global Assn for Interpersonal Neurobiology Studies (GAINS). The top-rated podcast, Therapist Uncensored, is an outgrowth of this passion and a partnership with her wife, Dr. Ann Kelley. In it, they enjoy deep conversations with many of the most prominent researchers and clinicians in the field. She has taught nationally on intersubjective therapy, attachment, trauma, and the translation of relational neuroscience to clinical practice. In her private practice, even after thirty years, she continues to enjoy working with individuals, couples, and groups, as well as providing professional study and consultation for therapists.