Being the Best Therapist You Can Be
In the description of the elements in my book Building a Sucessful and Ethical Therapy Practice, Fiona Biddle and I highlighted the need to Be the best therapist you can be
We will look at this element in more detail here. Therapies vary in terms of how much freedom the therapist has in terms of the treatment they offer. Some therapies are more formulaic or mechanistic than others, but we would argue that in all of them, the contribution of the therapist to the therapy is a vital factor.
For example, reflexologists may be taught a specific set of techniques and the order in which these techniques are applied, but they are not robots, and the manner in which the client is dealt with, before, during and after their session will impact greatly on its perceived success. It is interesting to compare this with allopathic medicine, where we all understand the relevance of the âbedside mannerâ. But there are cases where the doctor has no relationship with the patient at all. One of us had the experience of having an operation and being visited the next day on a ward round, and on asking who had performed the operation, none of the doctors present could remember whether it was them or not!
In all therapies the therapist offers
- Their skills and knowledge
- A relationship
