I will be looking at more terms that have crept into our language from therapy consulting rooms and other sources (I’ve peeped at ‘codependence’ which launched into the mainstream after a best-selling book, and ‘gaslighting’ which first became a verb in response to a chilling British play and film, while ‘narcissism’, ‘empath’ and many others have gained their traction online).
I think diagnosis can also scare some therapists away from working with someone too. We hear a diagnosis and project, assume a version of a client - rather than working with who is in front of us. I found this scare mongering started with training, for good reasons but I like to try and keep the “diagnosis” to the back of my mind where possible.
I mean during training we’d be taught about certain diagnosis that we couldn’t work with that because of a,b,c. It came from helping us work to our “limits of ability”. However as I started working with clients with diagnosed mental health conditions (because my placements still provided them) I realised that I could work with many of them and their “diagnosis” rarely painted the whole picture.
And also reminds me of dilemma faced by trainees now - on the one hand taught not to work beyond their competence (absolutely right) but placements are groaning under the weight of serious presenting conditions because there are no NHS provision for them…so trainees get thrown in deep, sometimes too deep…and they have to pay for their supervision or don’t get enough in-house or extra training etc Off on a tangent now, but I feel very blessed by the training and placements I had 20yrs ago…Thanks for reading btw!
I think diagnosis can also scare some therapists away from working with someone too. We hear a diagnosis and project, assume a version of a client - rather than working with who is in front of us. I found this scare mongering started with training, for good reasons but I like to try and keep the “diagnosis” to the back of my mind where possible.
Gosh - you heard ‘scare mongering’? That’s not good to hear.
I mean during training we’d be taught about certain diagnosis that we couldn’t work with that because of a,b,c. It came from helping us work to our “limits of ability”. However as I started working with clients with diagnosed mental health conditions (because my placements still provided them) I realised that I could work with many of them and their “diagnosis” rarely painted the whole picture.
And also reminds me of dilemma faced by trainees now - on the one hand taught not to work beyond their competence (absolutely right) but placements are groaning under the weight of serious presenting conditions because there are no NHS provision for them…so trainees get thrown in deep, sometimes too deep…and they have to pay for their supervision or don’t get enough in-house or extra training etc Off on a tangent now, but I feel very blessed by the training and placements I had 20yrs ago…Thanks for reading btw!
Quick…and often, wrong….thanks for reading.