Abstract

Abstract This paper describes how a counsellor in education has to take on and respond to a number of transferences in the clinical work in addition to holding onto a number of centres within the institution and personally. It takes a close look at one student presentation and speaks to the quality of the emotional and psychological impact on the counsellor. It argues for the need to be both thoughtfully containing and thoughtfully penetrating in the clinical work despite the bombardment of conscious and unconscious material. Over all, the paper states how important it is for the counsellor to stay in touch with his/her own feelings, thereby effectively maintaining the depressive position, though this is painful given the current predominance of suicide and serious suicidal intentions among adolescents and young adults.