ABSTRACT
Mrs Smith, a very experienced and well-respected foster carer, was referred to me as she had thrown a plate of hot food at her ®fteen-year-old foster child and this led to the end of a long-term placement. This was not a simple one-off incident and as her story unfolded it became clear it was the painful culmination of many years of living in a stressful situation. Emotions had been running high for a considerable time and `like those little wooden birds that sit on a pole, we ®ll up . . . until donk, we tilt into the drink' (Enright 2008: 173).
