The Dynamics of Caregiving: Why are Professional Caregivers Vulnerable to Anxiety and Burnout, and How Do We Support Their Well-Being?

Part-time senior research fellow at the University of York and a psychoanalytic psychotherapist (UKCP). She has carried out extensive research in the field of empathic attunement in adult psychotherapy. She introduced the concept that the “offer of a relationship” arouses the dynamics of attachment in both the care-seeker and the caregiver and that the psychotherapeutic process is one of emotional regulation in the interest of exploration and development. She has been working extensively with members of the caring professions over the past ten years on their own attachment dynamics. Based on the outcomes of this work a form of psychotherapy is emerging that she is calling “exploratory goal-corrected psychotherapy” (EGCP). Several people have already been trained in this model in the UK, Ireland, and Portugal. Her work is being applied in diverse contexts such as in mental health, private practice, adoption and fostering, pastoral work, schools, end of life care, general practice, nursing, and counselling, In addition, this approach is being used with children and families, people with dementia, legal professionals, people who are homeless, doctoral students in clinical psychology at a number of universities in Ireland, and with psychology students and MBA students in Portugal. E-mail: info@unamccluskey.com

Graduated with a degree in geography from the University of Sheffield in 2003 and since then he has worked as an academic researcher. He has been working with Una for ten years, transcribing the group sessions on the courses for professional caregivers described in this paper and analysing the data produced. E-mail: