7 Revelations to Becoming A Supertherapist

Welcome back!

In our first article in this series, entitled, Becoming a Supertherapist, we outlined the benefits of being one, and we promised that we would be letting you know what the secrets are.

Rest assured, you will receive all of them. Part of the process is to let you in on the following 7 Revelations. Are you ready? Here you go:

Revelation # 1: What we think about ourselves as clinicians may be totally different from what our patients really think about us.

To this, we can say, “What anyone else, including my patients, thinks about me is none of my business.” Yes, except that here we are talking about their outcomes[1], not ours. So what they think and believe about us does matter, matter a lot, and actually, that’s all that matters.

Why do we say that’s all that matters? Because once again we are talking about their outcomes. It means we cannot make our patients fit our treatments. Rather, our treatments ought to fit them. We cannot make our patients fit our personality, our bedside manner, or our values. No, we just cannot make our patients fit our belief system, our culture, or our way of doing things. Why not? Because it’s their lives, their outcomes[2], it is their life at stake.

Revelation #2: What our colleagues think about us as clinicians may have nothing to do with the actual results we have with our patients.

Why is that? Because we are not treating our colleagues, we are treating our patients. Our colleagues are not at the receiving end, our patients are. Our colleagues’ feedback could not possibly replace our patients’ feedback. Not if we want to know how we are really doing with our patients.

Revelation #3: The best and most competent appraisers for our patients’ outcomes are our patients, themselves.

Yes, that’s it. We cannot know how well we are really doing with our patients without our patients’ letting us know[3]. Said in another way, your patients’ assessment of you as it relates to how the treatment is going, how helpful you are being, and how much you are truly meeting their needs is by far the most superior way to measure whether you are a Supertherapist or not.

Revelation #4: Our patients’ assessment of us is not always accurate.

What?  We just said that our patients’ assessment of us is the most superior way to measure whether we are a Supertherapist or not, so how then can we reconcile that with the fact that it is not the most accurate? The answer is in:

Revelation #5: How we obtain assessments from our patients can make or break.

Yes, indeed. Sitting down in front of our patients and asking them to assess us[4] can trigger a variety of conflicts, emotions, and baggage. While we are not going to elaborate on this, let us simply state that it changes everything. It changes how we come across, what specific questions we ask, how we ask the questions, the sequence of the questions, the tone of our voice, and how much anxiety, or fear, or concern, or frustration we convey as we sit with our patients. Of course, our patients, in turn, pick up on many of those, even when they are not aware of that; but what is certain is that it will all affect our patients’ assessment of us.

Agree?

Then what is the solution to that? The answer is in:

Revelation #6: The best way to obtain the most accurate assessment of us from our patients is by using systematized measures[5].

“What are the systematized measures?” you may be asking. The answer will be part of the secrets of becoming a Supertherapist.

Here’s one last revelation, for now.

Revelation # 7: What we do with our patients’ assessment of us will determine whether we become a Supertherapist or not.

Of all the current 7 revelations, this one may be the most important one.

We may not be aware that:

1. What we think about ourselves as clinicians may be totally different from what our patients really think about us
2. What our colleagues think about us as clinicians may have nothing to do with the actual results we have with our patients
3. The best and most competent appraisers for our patients’ outcomes are our patients
4. Our patients’ assessment of us is not always accurate
5. How we obtain assessments from our patients can make or break
6. The best way to obtain the most accurate level of assessment of us from our patients is through the use of systematized measures

We may know all this. So what? We know that knowledge is not power (contrary to what we hear out there). We know that knowledge is power only when we can implement it to change either belief or behavior to then affect real and lasting change. And our patients’ assessment of us will be the basis for that change. For, it is about them, and not about us. Remember?

What do we then do with our patient’s assessment?

Stay tuned for the answers in our subsequent articles. Meanwhile, here’s what you can do:

1. Be one of the first 100 hundred clinicians to send your thoughts on what you think we can do, and you may earn a free 6-month one-on-one coaching session with SWEET. Email us at contact@sweetinstitute.com, Subject Line: 6 Month One-one-One Coaching.
2. Click here to register for one or both of our upcoming Certificate Courses
3. Trauma Treatment Protocol Certificate Course: Click here to join us
4. Loneliness Certificate Course: Click to join us

[1] Owen, Jesse, and Mark J. Hilsenroth. “Interaction between alliance and technique in predicting patient outcome during psychodynamic psychotherapy.” The journal of nervous and mental disease 199.6 (2011): 384-389.

[2] Lambert, Michael J. “Outcome in psychotherapy: the past and important advances.” (2013): 42.

[3] Høglend, Per. “Exploration of the patient-therapist relationship in psychotherapy.” American Journal of Psychiatry 171.10 (2014): 1056-1066.

[4] Lambert, Michael J., and Kenichi Shimokawa. “Collecting client feedback.” (2016).

[5] Reese, Robert J., Larry A. Norsworthy, and Steve R. Rowlands. “Does a continuous feedback system improve psychotherapy outcome?.” Psychotherapy: Theory, research, practice, training 46.4 (2009): 418.