ABSTRACT

This chapter deals with an account of failed careseeking leading to despair and inaction. The goal of careseeking is effective caregiving, and when this does not happen people withdraw, feel angry or go into despair. A related idea was that people bring with them their feelings in relation to their experience of previous careseeking, together with the behaviours they have developed to cope with these feelings, into the relationship with potential caregivers. The chapter sets out to see whether the attachment status of the students affected their ability to attune to client affect and to explore the impact of training on this ability. It shows that what the careseeker seemed to do when they got this response from the caregiver was to inhibit their own exploration, change the direction of their flow and follow the lead given by the caregiver.