Difficult Appointments

I just had my shadowing appointment with my writing consultant, and the hour could not have been more applicable to what we have been talking about in class. The past appointments I've shadowed have been extremely successful, with a wonderful level of communication between the consultant and the student, and with everyone leaving happy, feeling like they made a contribution to both the paper and the idea of writing as a whole. Consequently, I have to admit I've begun to view the Writing Center through rose colored glasses, pardon the cliche. I began to think that every appointment was successful, every student was receptive, every paper was improved by an hour with a consultant.

Unfortunately, this week presented a more difficult situation, one not so nice and neat and pretty and clean. The girl who came in brought a creative writing assignment, which was interesting in itself because I had never considered how to edit something like a creative writing paper. However, it posed problems, most obviously description. The student was having a very hard time describing the gravestone about which she had to write, and no matter what kind of coaxing or methods the instructor attempted to use, she just seemed to shut down, unable to come up with adjectives or metaphors or similes of any kind. I just watched this tortuous dance for 15 minutes, both lamenting at the ineffectiveness of what was taking place but also not knowing what I would do differently if I was in the consultant's shoes.

I suppose sometimes you get students with whom you cannot establish a rapport with - but should we just resign ourselves to failure (to use a very relevant word in relation to our class discussion)? What can we do in these situations?