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Managing anxiety and the practitioner role

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Abstract

In this chapter I want to consider the feelings and anxieties that the practitioner encounters in relation to clients, colleagues, groups, networks and institutions, and how she deals with these anxieties. The feelings aroused in the practitioner can be understood as being, in part, a communication from the client (or another) about experiences that cannot be talked about or perhaps even thought about. The client is using early forms of communication like that of the newborn baby who has no words but communicates through the evocation of feeling in another. Also, the helping task may stir up anxieties in the worker that come from her own unresolved issues and her inner phantasy life. Hence, not only is the worker a receptacle for the feelings and anxieties of others (both clients and colleagues), but she also brings her own anxieties (consciously and unconsciously) into the work situation.

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Authors

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Marilyn Lawrence Marie Maguire Jo Campling

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© 1997 Tara Weeramanthri

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Weeramanthri, T. (1997). Managing anxiety and the practitioner role. In: Lawrence, M., Maguire, M., Campling, J. (eds) Psychotherapy with Women. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25615-0_12

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