Advancing Psychodynamic-Based Clinical Social Work Practice to Address Structural Trauma: Integrating Neuroscience and Attachment Theory.

This article examines the integration of psychodynamic-based practice (PBP), a therapeutic modality in clinical social work focused on understanding how past experiences shape current emotions and relationships, with insights from sociocultural neuroscience to address trauma, particularly structural trauma. Structural trauma refers to prolonged, collective trauma experienced by marginalized groups due to systemic inequities in areas like healthcare, housing, and criminal justice. The article highlights how neuroscience research supports PBP's effectiveness, especially attachment-based therapies, by elucidating neural mechanisms underlying trauma and resilience. It further proposes incorporating the place attachment framework—exploring emotional bonds to physical spaces—to enhance PBP's capacity to address community-level structural trauma. The authors emphasize the importance of combining neuroscientific evidence with process-oriented, culturally sensitive clinical approaches to foster healing from both interpersonal and structural trauma.