Back to fundamentals© Bronwen Schoombie
Mar 13, 2001
I think that the one thing that struck me about therapy in my training days was the fact that in therapy, a lot of our responses did not come naturally, but were taught. We were taught to override those responses we had been taught were well-mannered. We had learned (in life) that when someone gave us the non-verbal "don't ask me anything more along this line ", that you left that topic alone. Now, in therapy, I was learning to follow those exact leads. To go past all my learned taboos and do what, if I look back now, is probably the most natural reaction.
Perhaps that is why there were no psychologists in cavemen days!
David Epston said that you don't necessarily need training to be a good therapist... Even a four your old boy knows how he feels when he is in a certain situation. We just need to learn to read our bodies again!
How do you feel about things when you are confronted with them...and more importantly, how would you feel if you were the client?
Think yourself into their shoes ...hear what they are trying to get through to you (without making great and academic hypotheses to be either disputed or proved).Just work with the client...understanding that they need some of the basic treatment anyone of us would expect, namely things like respect!
How, for example, would you feel if lying in a hospital when a group of doctors and students crowd around your bed and begin to talk about you as if you were a dummy?
The least they could accord you is a bit of personal attention. The least they could do is discuss with rather than about you. It is something I think most medical students learn - because it is easier to treat patients as if they are not there - the job goes quicker that way. But does the healing process? Think of the discomfort you felt on the first ward round...and remember it. Don't ignore it. It had a place...and your job is to listen to the human side of yourself..not be deadened by experience (or poor role models).
Therapy and counseling is related to bedside manner. All people in helping professions need to unlearn much of what they have picked up in their practices, and go back to basics. Treat your clients as clients - not patients. Treat them with transparency - let them know what is going on, allow them access to their records, do only what they are comfortable with - don't make them follow certain treatments as if you are the only one who can possibly be right by virtue of your degree. Perhaps it is your degree which has made you less human. Be careful.
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