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We carry the weight of our early attachment relationships for a long time. These early unconscious origins have an enduring impact on our affect regulation strategies and attachment bonds. Understanding five different dimensions of this new paradigm is essential to have a deeper understanding of what attachment theory and research offers the clinician. Affect regulation strategies associated with histories of secure, insecure and disorganized patterns developed in infancy and childhood lead adaptive and less adaptive attachment relations through life. Histories of secure attachment also function as protective factors (resilience) while histories of organized insecure patterns and disorganized patterns function as risk factors for development. These affect regulation strategies are expressed as defensive/coping mechanisms and in transferential/countertransferential reactions in therapy. This seminar will examine how Attachment Theory offers new psychotherapeutic approaches that help our patients carry that weight and lift that burden.