Attachment Trauma Institute of Atlanta

The Atlanta Marriage and Mediation Clinic works closely alongside the Atlanta Center for EMDR and its specialty division, The Attachment Trauma Institute of Atlanta, to provide relationship-focused counseling, mediation, co-parenting support, and trauma-informed services for couples, families, and individuals navigating conflict, divorce, parenting disputes, and relationship distress.

The Attachment Trauma Institute of Atlanta serves as a specialized training and consultation division focused on attachment trauma, developmental trauma, family systems dynamics, and relationship-based emotional injuries. Attachment trauma often contributes to patterns such as emotional reactivity, fear of abandonment, chronic conflict, distrust, emotional shutdown, insecurity, people pleasing, or difficulty maintaining healthy and stable relationships. These dynamics are particularly important in marriage counseling, co-parenting work, and high-conflict family situations, where unresolved attachment wounds frequently drive communication breakdowns and recurring relational patterns.

William A. Smith serves as Chair and Lead Instructor of the institute and integrates concepts from EMDR, attachment theory, emotionally focused therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and family systems theory into his clinical, mediation, consultation, and training work. The goal is to help individuals and families better understand the emotional roots of conflict while building healthier communication, emotional regulation, trust, and long-term relational functioning.