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Avril Butler, To Be Met as a Person: The Dynamics of Attachment in Professional Encounters, Una McCluskey, London, Karnac, 2005, pp. xv + 265, ISBN 1 85575 326, £22.50, The British Journal of Social Work, Volume 36, Issue 5, July 2006, Pages 863–864, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcl067
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This excellent book is a testament to Una McCluskey’s depth of knowledge and experience in psychotherapy, its relationship to social work and to helping more generally, alongside her commitment to helping others to learn. An important addition to the literature concerned with ‘use of self’ in the helping process, this text provides evidence-based theory and practice models for the interaction between helper or ‘care-giver’ and ‘care-seeker’. Her thesis that normal ‘helping’ interactions go through a constant process of rupture and repair is supported by careful scholarly argument and empirical research. The book provides a theoretical framework for understanding how different and sometimes challenging help-seeking behaviours originate in childhood experience. Moreover, it also contains the analytical and practice tools for applying that knowledge in therapeutic interventions with adults. Through practice examples and indeed photographs of ‘care-seeker’ and ‘care-giver’ interactions, she illustrates the importance of attending to ‘affect’ in stimulating people’s own capacity for self-help.
