Client-centred practice with a focus on best outcomes is core to most practitioners in the therapeutic, holistic, coaching and allied health professions. And rightly so. Keeping the clients welfare as central is not only key to ensuring clients get the best possible service available, but also keeps ethical practice to the forefront. In the professions who have the benefit of clinical or cross-professional supervision, once again these practices are client-centred to ensure best outcomes and ethical practice is maintained. Once again this is essential to gatekeeping the professions and keeping client’s safe and their needs front and centre.
Over recent years I've begun to investigate the expanding and evolving of this core tenet when we bring the practitioner themselves into the centre alongside the client.
How can both be the central focus?
There can only be one element at the centre?
To put the practitioner at the centre relegates the client to some lesser place?
These are questions I have explored and challenged myself with in order to understand how this may indeed be possible. To have a practitioner-centred approach to practice and practitioner wellbeing while still keep the client welfare, outcomes and best practice central. The following are some of the understanding I’ve come to with this enquiry.
THIS IS NOT A LINEAR PROCESS - As much as we like to have a straight line to follow, the nuances of humans , relationship and the challenges of these professions, means that in truth these dynamics are closer to a spiral than a line.
GIVING MUST BE BALANCED WITH RECEIVING: We are conditioned that these professions are about giving therefore the flow is a one-way street. This is reflected throughout our society and looking back in history where there has be a strong precedent of charitable works and vocation in the area of health, wellbeing and support services.
The analogy of Mother and child works well alongside the practitioner-client-patient relationship . Society has curated a children’s first approach to mothering which, in and of itself although logical once again misses the symbiotic relationship between the two. Unless mothers wellbeing is at the forefront and mother is well, no amount of children’s first logic will suffice as the foundation of wellbeing for children is a safe, secure and resourced caregiver, on which all else builds.
When we step back from the linear perspective when it comes to a client-centred philosophy and expand and include the foundational piece of wellbeing within the practitioner, the same applies. As the practitioner is the vessel or conduit through which services are delivered, especially when it comes to wellbeing either physical, mental or emotional , the safety of client and effectiveness of the provision will be directly influenced by the level of wellbeing and resources within the practitioner. Therefore by holding a practitioner-centred orientation with the understanding that from here flows the best practice and care for clients, ensures resourced and resilient practitioners who are able to provide best outcomes and ethical practice for their clients.
When I sit with therapists, nurses, acupuncturists, addiction workers - practitioners across professions working with clients/patients and wanting to do a good job, I can't but see the afterthought which is their own self-care. Most know they need to prioritise themselves but just don't know how and remain in a state of swimming upstream against a strong current. Is it possible that the unspoken culture underlying does not allow for this, therefore it remains an add-on at the end, lip-service to wellbeing at work?
What would happen if we could expand and evolve our understanding to place practitioners front and centre in order to ensure best practice and outcomes for clients? What would this take, what would it look like, what are the concrete actions that we could practice, and finally what would need to shift in our culture and attitude towards these professions? I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
