Mentoring: remedy for feeling overwhelmed in practice
It’s common to feel overwhelmed when starting in practice. We’ve all been there and, even with experience, will feel this again. But sometimes clients with complex presentations provide the greatest opportunities to learn.
Keep it simple
In my first clinic year I had a profound interaction with a client that has stayed with me. With hindsight and decades of experience, the case doesn’t seem particularly complex now. A woman in her 20s with endometriosis was also a heavy drinker, smoker, recreational drug user and very overweight. Her blood pressure was high, she likely had undiagnosed type 2 diabetes and a ‘suboptimal’ diet at best. Though she admitted they were not ready to have children, the woman and her husband were considering IVF.
While I had protocols for endo, there was something about all the concomitant issues that made me pause. I spent the initial consultation building trust and gaining a full picture of her life and health. I said I wanted to do more research before prescribing any remedies, and negotiated the simplest dietary changes to begin with. Instead of feeling under treated, she later told me she felt special.
To my absolute surprise, two weeks later the client bounded into the clinic full of energy. The shift in her was remarkable. Surreptitiously, I looked back at my notes to see what the magical herbs were! I couldn’t believe such a turnaround came from the simplest lifestyle tweaks.
Of course she was still ‘clinically obese ’, smoked and partied. But she was motivated someone understood her and negotiated changes without judgement – that were actually working! The client had new-found confidence that she could improve her health, working with a professional who listened and backed her.
The whole person
We say this so often it’s become a cliché, but a central principle of naturopathy is treating the ‘whole person’. The client isn’t an ‘endo case’, she’s a person with complex physical, psychological and even spiritual needs.
This client inadvertently taught me so much that decades later I still remember her clearly. Instead of zoning into the biomedical diagnosis, I took a step back and looked at the whole picture. It reminded me that when confronted by too many conditions to ‘treat’, start simple, go back to the basics of diet and lifestyle in a way that won’t be overwhelming.
The power of witnessing
After a few years into practice I joked, “naturopathy has become the new confessional”. In an increasingly agnostic culture, we sometimes have the privilege of witnessing our clients’ greatest fears or deepest regrets. At times it feels like the ritual of confession — a role most of us aren’t trained in.
While we can refer the client to a psychologist, simply acknowledging how tough their situation may be or how unsupported they feel is a deeply therapeutic act.
Witnessing comes with the job of caring for the whole person and, when mastered, is one of our naturopathic superpowers.
The remedy for feeling overwhelmed in practice
We frequently work with people who have increasingly complex aetiologies and highly stressful lives. While mentally triaging what to tackle first, I often step back to consider where are they struggling the most. Surprisingly it’s often not the shopping list of pathologies farmed off to various medical specialists for treatment. Usually it’s about having enough energy to deal with children, aging parents, work and relationships, or less critical symptoms such as reflux or strained muscle.
Use what you know and spent years studying, when feeling overwhelmed by clients with complex presentations. Rather than by immediately going down the research rabbit hole, go back to the basic tenets of naturopathy.
1. First do no harm.
2. Treat the underlying causes.
3. Treat the whole person.
Start simply, take a comprehensive case history and gain your client’s trust. It’s still important to use the experience to learn more about presentations you’re unfamiliar with. However by beginning with what you know, you can grow your confidence instead of spiralling into self-doubt.
At a time when many clients have already consulted AI or googled complementary protocols or for their conditions (which a practitioner recently admitted was as good or even be better than their own), our holistic and very human skills are more important than ever.
Gill works with established health practitioners and business owners, big and small, to create a balanced and sustainable career.
Book your exploratory mentoring session.
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