Anxiety Test: Protective Strategy Worksheet
Attachment Style Self-Assessment — An IFS-Informed Reflection
Ever wondered why relationships feel harder than they should?
Attachment patterns are the relational strategies your system learned early in life to navigate closeness, manage the risk of rejection, and maintain connection. They're not personality traits. They're protective strategies — adaptive responses your parts developed based on what your early relationships taught you about safety and trust.
This self-assessment helps you identify your predominant attachment pattern and understand it through the lens of Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy. Instead of labelling you as "anxious" or "avoidant," we're interested in the parts doing the work — the protectors that learned particular strategies to keep you safe in relationships.
What You'll Find Inside
This resource includes:
- Nine questions across three sections exploring how you experience connection, vulnerability, and conflict
- Four attachment profiles: Secure, Anxious-Preoccupied, Avoidant-Dismissive, and Disorganised (Fearful-Avoidant)
- IFS-informed interpretations that reframe each pattern as a protective strategy rather than a fixed identity
- Curiosity prompts to help you explore the parts behind your relational patterns
Unlike traditional attachment assessments that focus on categorisation, this tool is designed to start a conversation with your parts — the ones working to keep you connected, and the ones working to keep you safe from being hurt.
Disclaimer:
This self-assessment is an educational tool for self-reflection. It is not a clinical instrument, does not produce diagnostic conclusions, and is not a substitute for professional support.
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