Kyle: How would you suggest a mental health professional deals with their own uncertainty with a client?
Perhaps a client comes in one week friendly, nice, open, honest and next week harsh, rude, blunt, maybe even mean. There’s an uncertainty there. I don’t know which client I’m getting this week. I have stress about that.
Dr. Taslim: So one of the things is to really turn inward and ask ourselves what about this situation makes me feel like I need to control it? What about this situation is bringing me this type of stress?
Realistically I likely have mean or judgmental or harsher clients and then I also have the friendly, warmer, funnier clients. I know how to work with both of them, but there’s something about the unpredictability of this client you’re saying that’s bringing me some sort of distress.
So if I can really think through what’s going on for me, that might help me figure out what I need to do or how I need to prepare myself, or it might just invite me to sit in that discomfort without trying to change it.
