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Social media is full of claims that meditation can rewire an anxious or avoidant attachment style. A 2025 review set out to see what the experiments actually show. The answer is cautious: there are early signs of benefit for attachment anxiety, but very few studies, and they do not support treating meditation as a reliable way to change an attachment style for good.

What the researchers did

The paper, published on 24 January 2025 in Behavioral Sciences, comes from a team at the University of Edinburgh. It is a preregistered systematic map, which is a method for charting how much experimental evidence exists on a question rather than adding up effects in a single pooled number. The authors chose it because, as they put it, the research in this area is still at an early stage.

They searched five databases and screened 725 studies. Five studies met their criteria: four journal articles and one dissertation. The studies had to test multi-session mindfulness, loving-kindness or compassion-based meditation programmes. Researchers looked at two things: whether meditation changed how attachment orientations affected outcomes over time, and whether meditation changed attachment orientations themselves.

Four of the five studies examined whether meditation could buffer attachment insecurity, and one looked at enhancing attachment security. All five included a mindfulness meditation programme, and one also included loving-kindness meditation.

What they found

Most of the studies reported benefits for people with higher attachment anxiety, meaning those who worry about closeness and rejection. There was some evidence for people with higher attachment avoidance, meaning those who feel uncomfortable with closeness, though the summary describes this as less consistent.

All of the studies were conducted in Western cultures. The authors call the early work promising and say there is a critical need for more research that applies meditation in the context of attachment and personal growth.

One practical reading is that the early results are encouraging for people who struggle mainly with worry about closeness, but that the evidence for those who tend to pull away is thinner. The published summary does not give effect sizes, program lengths or the number of participants, and the map is not designed to produce a single combined result. We therefore cannot say how big any benefit was, how long it lasted, or whether it differed between mindfulness and loving-kindness.

What this does and does not show

It helps to be clear about what a systematic map is. It is a careful survey of the literature, with a preregistered plan and a reproducible search, so another team could repeat it and check the result. Its main finding here is as much about the gaps as the benefits: there is not yet much experimental research on this question.

Five studies is a small base. Because a systematic map charts what exists rather than weighing how strong each finding is, it should be read as a signpost for future research, not a verdict. The evidence comes from Western settings only, so it may not hold elsewhere.

The review does not show that meditation permanently changes an attachment style, and it does not support promising transformation. Long-term follow-up was limited, so we do not know whether any change lasts. It also does not compare meditation with other approaches, such as therapy, so it cannot say which is better.

Attachment styles are also patterns shaped by many things, including life experiences and relationships, and they can shift over time for reasons unrelated to any practice. Some people find meditation uncomfortable or unsettling, particularly if they are dealing with trauma or severe distress, and anyone dealing with trauma or severe distress may wish to mention it to a qualified professional when considering an intensive practice.

This is general education, not advice. If your relationships feel painful or unsafe, speak with a doctor or another appropriately qualified professional. In Australia, Lifeline is on 13 11 14, and 000 is for emergencies.

Questions to ask

• What am I hoping a meditation practice would change in my relationships, and is that realistic given that the evidence so far is early?
• How would I notice if a practice were helping, or making me feel more anxious or disconnected, and who could I talk to about it?
• Would it help to explore my relationship patterns with an appropriately qualified psychologist or counsellor, alongside or instead of a self-guided practice?

Source: Mindfulness, Loving-Kindness, and Compassion-Based Meditation Interventions and Adult Attachment Orientations: A Systematic Map DOI: 10.3390/bs15020119

Illustration of meditation as a practice, without implying that it changes attachment patterns. AI-generated editorial illustration. This article summarises published research in our own words and is general information, not personal health advice.