I posed my attachment-abandonment question to Jeffrey Smith on his blog. I think he avoided the main point. The mother is not present with the child for just 1-2 hrs per week.

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me: Dr Smith, wouldn’t you agree that therapy attachment work puts the client in more of an abandonment state than an attachment state, given that they are away from the attachment figure (therapist) almost all the time? And isn’t this liable to trigger a sort of chronic separation distress in many clients? Seems antithetical.

smith: Thanks for the comment. This warrants a post in itself in response. Let me just say for now, that in childhood development, it is the coming and going of the attachment object that leads to internalization and object constancy. I think therapy can provide a safe environment to do this development work. Simply fulfilling a need does not result in the original trauma being healed, nor does withholding fulfilment.