Addictions and Attachment: Connection as a Path to Healing
Addiction gets treated as a medical problem, a behavioural problem or a moral one, depending on who is in the room. Robert Cox teaches it as an attachment problem. Numbing out is what a person does when there is nobody safe to regulate with, and the substance is standing in for something the nervous system was built to get from another human being.
That reframe has consequences you can act on. It explains why shame makes everything worse rather than motivating change, since shame is the thing driving the disconnection in the first place. It explains why a client with an insecure attachment history arrives in your room already braced for you to confirm what they expect. And it puts the therapeutic relationship at the centre of the work rather than alongside it.
Four and a half hours, and he builds it in order. Trauma and attachment damage first, kept deliberately brief, enough to see how the developing brain is shaped and what that does to the capacity to attach. Then the attachment styles and how each one feeds a different part of the addictive cycle. Then substances, and what different ones actually do in the brain, including the process addictions that do not involve a substance at all. Then the second half, which is the part worth buying the course for: holding space, rupture and repair, and how a clinician moves a client from numbing out toward being able to risk connection with another person.
You’ll walk away with
- Addiction understood as a substitute for co-regulation, and what that changes about how you treat it
- The reactive brain: what happens to the prefrontal cortex under threat, and why that makes reasoning with a dysregulated client pointless
- Attachment styles mapped to the addictive cycle, with the distinct pattern each one produces
- Why shame drives the cycle rather than interrupting it, and how to work without adding to it
- What different substances do in the brain, including the process addictions that involve no substance
- Rupture and repair with clients who are watching for evidence you are not safe, which they will find
- Holding space long enough for a client to risk attachment, and what that looks like session to session
- Developmental stages interrupted by trauma, and how the unfinished ones show up in adult presentations
- Case material worked through in detail, including clients with severe dissociation and complex presentations
- Why connection is the mechanism the recovery literature keeps pointing at, and how to build it deliberately
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CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. This course is included with your Tatra Training membership, along with every other course in the library.
Where this sits: Early Trauma, Attachment, and Repair covers the developmental groundwork in more depth. This course applies it to addiction, and the trauma section here is deliberately condensed.
Course Duration: 4.5 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records. Your certificates are yours to keep.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Revisit Anytime: Come back to the course as often as you like while your membership is active, whenever you want a refresher for practice.
CPD Eligibility: This program may be suitable for CPD for professionals such as:
- Psychologists
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Social Workers
- Community Workers
- Mental Health Nurses
- General Practitioners (GPs)
- Occupational Therapists
CPD requirements vary between professional bodies, so please check with your association or credentialing body to confirm you can claim CPD hours/OPD points for this program and what evidence they require.
Course Content
Meet Your Instructor
Individuals with autism spectrum disorders struggling with undiagnosed trauma - and practitioners working with clients whose behaviors don't respond to traditional approaches - can miss the critical connection between developmental differences and traumatic stress. Robert Cox has spent over 20 years pioneering this intersection, becoming one of the few experts who understands how autism and trauma interweave to create complex presentations that require specialised treatment approaches informed by lived experience with recovery.
As Owner/Therapist at Life Recovery Consulting and Executive Director of The Tristn Jevon Center for Recovery, Cox brings unique expertise grounded in both professional training and 33+ years of personal recovery from addiction (clean since 1988). His book The Life Recovery Method: Treating Autism From a Trauma Perspective represents groundbreaking work in understanding how developmental differences affect trauma processing and recovery. His role as President-Elect of the American Counseling Association of Missouri and presentations at Autism Society national conferences demonstrate his leadership in advancing trauma-informed autism treatment approaches.
Cox's expertise spans trauma treatment from an autism perspective, addiction counseling, complex trauma and PTSD, mindfulness-based interventions, dissociative disorders, and what he calls helping clients "live vulnerably in an uncertain world with real joy, connection and courage." His approach recognises that many individuals with autism spectrum disorders have experienced significant trauma related to their developmental differences - from bullying and social rejection to medical trauma and sensory overwhelm - but traditional trauma treatments may fail if they don't account for autistic processing differences. He specialises in cases where standard approaches haven't worked, particularly with clients who have dual diagnoses of autism and addiction, or trauma presentations complicated by sensory processing differences.
What sets his training apart is lived experience combined with clinical expertise. Cox doesn't just teach theoretical approaches - he shows practitioners how his own journey through addiction, trauma, and recovery informs his understanding of resilience and healing. His 30 years of mindfulness practice and specialisation in DBT mindfulness techniques give him deep insight into helping clients develop distress tolerance skills that work for neurodiverse populations.
For your practice, expect to gain specific techniques for treating trauma in autistic individuals, tools for adapting traditional trauma therapies for neurodiverse clients, and frameworks for understanding how developmental differences affect addiction and recovery processes. His approach particularly benefits clinicians working with autistic clients, those treating dual diagnosis presentations, or practitioners wanting to develop trauma-informed approaches for neurodiverse populations.
Quick Win: Cox's "sensory-informed grounding" technique helps autistic clients access present-moment awareness during trauma responses - sometimes providing the first effective self-regulation tool they've ever had while honoring their unique sensory processing needs.
Qualifications
- MA, Counseling, MidAmerica Nazarene University, 2015
- BA, Social Psychology, Park University, 2011
- Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Missouri
- National Certified Counselor (NCC)
- Provisional Licensed Professional Counselor (PLPC)
- 20+ years experience in mental health field
- 33+ years personal recovery experience (clean since 1988)
- 30 years mindfulness practice, specialised in DBT mindfulness techniques
Authored Publications
- The Life Recovery Method: Treating Autism From a Trauma Perspective (2016)
Leadership & Professional Service
- Owner/Therapist, Life Recovery Consulting, Richmond, MO & Liberty, MO
- Executive Director, The Tristn Jevon Center for Recovery, Richmond, MO
- Adjunct Professor, MidAmerica Nazarene University, Graduate Counseling Program
- President-Elect, American Counseling Association of Missouri, current
Professional Experience
- Opened trauma treatment center in Richmond, MO, December 2017
- Various capacities in mental health field for 20+ years
- Volunteer, Kairos Prison Ministry, Crossroads Correctional Center, Cameron, MO
- 20+ years working specifically with autism spectrum individuals
- Podcast Host, "Mindful Recovery," 2016–2018 (37 episodes)
- International speaker on trauma and addiction
Clinical Specialties
- Trauma treatment for autism spectrum disorders
- Addiction counseling for neurodiverse populations
- Complex trauma and PTSD in autistic individuals
- Mindfulness-based interventions adapted for autism
- Dissociative disorders and attachment issues
- Dual diagnosis treatment (autism and addiction)
- Sensory processing trauma and medical trauma
- Rural community mental health services
Ready to develop expertise in the overlooked intersection of autism and trauma? Discover how Robert Cox's Life Recovery Method can transform your understanding of how developmental differences affect trauma processing and give you the specialised tools needed to help neurodiverse clients achieve genuine healing and recovery.
Feedback & Reviews
This course includes:
- Lessons 5
- Topics 0
- Duration 4.5 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English