ABSTRACT
Some of the couples turning to the courts to help resolve difficulties over child care arrangements following divorce will be locked into the sort of entrenched disputes described by Avi Shmueli and some of these couples find their way to the divorce and separation unit. An attachment perspective helps advance our understanding of how to help couples caught up in these destructive cycles in a number of ways. First, it helps to understand the importance of providing continuity of personnel in the provision of services to such clients. Second, an attachment perspective helps practitioners understand the meaning of behaviour whether this surfaces in the solicitor's office, the consulting rooms of mediators, children and family reporters, guardians ad litem, and centres offering anger management programmes. Third, attachment theory helps practitioners understand the ambiguities and contradictions in the behaviours of parents.
