Do You freak out When Client's Question Your Clinical Experience?
It’s not uncommon for clients to ask questions regarding our clinical experience, including our personal experience, with their issue or situation. Clients want to see that we can relate to them, which builds trust that we can actually help them. Oftentimes we’ll react or get defensive, if we believe they’ve asked an inappropriate question, or our imposter syndrome gets triggered. After all we are only human. You have a right to not answer personal questions, if the questions are inappropriate.
I’ve found that most of these questions are asked during the initial consultation, or during the first few sessions. This can make clinicians feel “on the spot,” especially when they’re not sure how to answer these questions. Or if clinicians don’t feel like they are “good enough” as a therapist.
Over the years, I learned how to lean into my confidence to answer these questions, without feeling like an impostor. This is why I love working with clinicians like you, so you too can feel confident in these situations.
Here’s three tips to address your client’s questions with confidence.
Step into your role as an expert. After all you have the higher degrees, clinical experience and skills needed, to be successful in this field. Clients are looking for answers from you, because they believe you are the expert.
Reframe difficult questions with your clients. This will help you to deepen your understanding, rather than feel like they are challenging your expertise.
If you don’t have an answer, let your clients know you’ll do some research or you’ll think it over, and you’ll get back to them. It’s better to show our clients that we are just human, we don’t know everything and we don’t need to have the perfect answer every time.
So the next time you’re faced with a challenging question from your clients, don’t be hard on yourself. We don’t need to have the answers. This doesn’t make us an impostor, if makes us human. We are always learning and growing in our professional development.