Our aim is:
- to promote & preserve the work of Dr Una McCluskey
- to continue to develop the theory, practice and contribution of the Dynamics of Adult Attachment and the McCluskey Model across caring, health and educational settings.
We are an inclusive, supportive and informative organisation open to everyone interested in the significance of the dynamics of adult attachment both professionally and personally.
The McCluskey Model
“The dynamics of attachment consist of several goal-corrected systems. These are careseeking, caregiving, sexuality, exploratory interest sharing with peers, the personal system for self-defence, the internal supportive or unsupportive environment and the personally created external supportive environment (home/lifestyle). The theory suggests that these systems work together as a single process to contribute to and maintain maximum wellbeing.”
McCluskey, U. 2014
Una McCluskey
Exploratory Goal Corrected Psychotherapy (EGCP) was developed by Una McCluskey based on her research, which showed that the offer to treat aroused dynamics of attachment in both the therapist (caregiver) and the client (care seeker). Based on this observation, she developed the model as an effective psychotherapeutic/counselling practice centred on a ‘dynamic, interactive and instinctive goal-corrected process’ – the methodology enables the provision of an exploratory space where the client can:
- identify the different aspects of themselves that are aroused in the here and now;
- interact with these aspects in such a way that the person experiences relief, becomes curious and is able to access their inbuilt capacity for attaining or retrieving competence and confidence.
The model is now being used for therapeutic work with individuals, couples, groups and also at The Bowlby Centre for Attachment-based psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The emphasis will be on assessing the nature of the distress being presented and the correct application of the model.
Una McCluskey, PhD, is a retired Senior Research Fellow at the University of York, and clinical member of the UKCP, currently working with and training professionals in the caring professions in the clinical application of attachment theory.
Una is best known for her research into affect attunement. Through detailed analysis of filmed therapeutic sessions, she discovered that assuagement of careseeking in adults requires a specific kind of empathic response from the caregiver—a dynamic she named Goal-Corrected Empathic Attunement (GCEA). This has proved to be a significant development in guiding attachment-based practitioners in their work.
GCEA provides a theory of interaction for adult psychotherapy which is based on extensive investigation of early childhood development and her own and others’ research. Building on the original work of Dr John Bowlby on goal-corrected systems, and subsequently the contributions of Dr Dorothy Heard and Dr Brian Lake, she has developed the model of practice ‘Exploratory Goal-Corrected Psychotherapy (EGCP)’ - a clinical application of attachment theory for use with individuals, couples, families, groups and organisations also known as the McCluskey Model.