Here’s a little tip for those of you new to private practice or being a therapist.
Sometimes you will have to negotiate hard for your clients. You will have to advocate and stand your ground with other helping professionals in organisations.
It’s tempting to believe that all other professionals involved in your clients care want the best for them and are creatively trying to assist them. Unfortunately not all of them are.
Many helping professionals come from systems with a strong gatekeeper model. The system they work for trains them to look out for how a client doesn’t belong in their system.
It’s to do with system overwhelm.
These same helping professionals go team meeting where their peers will also evaluate whether the client should have access to the service.
It means you have to have a strong voice when you have a conversation with a duty officer, a case manager or a claims manager.
If you go in soft without expectation of needing to firmly advocate I can guarantee you, you will be left putting the phone down feeling frustrated and unsure of what just happened.
Learning how to navigate gatekeepers requires a certain skill set.
It’s a tricky conversation that you need to have, not just for your clients but also to feel confident when dealing with complex systems.
My Course Tricky Conversations for Therapists can be purchased now. Click here to register or for more information.
Love what you read and want more insights from Nadene? Book a coaching consult here or join my mailing list to receive your free Self-doubt Busting Cheatsheet and get regular quality information and offers straight to your inbox.