Reflect
Forgiveness liberates the soul. It removes fear. That is why it is such a powerful weapon. Nelson Mandela
When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves. - unknown.
You can show compassion, describe personal experiences while upholding ethical standards. - Taylor et al, 2017
Compassionate care involves interpersonal and technical skills. Being friendly, genuine, and warm while showing care in a relationship can impact progress and lead to invested treatment overtime. Inability to control reactions, underestimate abilities, having own agenda, being too busy, being distracted, constantly interrupting, over-focus on challenging behavior or deficits, failure to communicate, using too much technical language, being authoritarian can create problems in the relationship. Repairing relationships is not always easy. It takes commitment and energy to recognize problems and make changes. Reflect on relationships by managing difficult conversations and don’t pass judgment, blame, or be authoritative. Dissatisfaction stems from deficient relationship skills. Negative self-talk, critical verbal behavior and lack of support during treatment can jeopardize the therapeutic relationship, team member placement, treatment efficacy, sustainability, leading to critical error. Active listening uses nonverbal cues, facial expressions, tone, vocalizations, interest, pausing, and validation to respond appropriately. (Taylor et.al., 2019).
Sympathy is feeling sorry for another person’s pain. Empathy attempts to understand a person’s situation, emotions, perspectives and feelings in order to better relay understanding. Compassion uses empathetic understanding to resonate with distress, confirm feelings and then use motivation to better understand the situation and take action. Mindfulness involves objectively observing the situation and understanding and regulating one’s action during distress. Using attentive listening, collaboration, mindfulness, cultural understanding, kindness, open-ended questions, avoiding technical jargon and caring for the entire family helps build collaboration. (Epstein, 2017 in Taylor et al, 2017; Lown et al, 2014 in Taylor et al, 2017).
Recognizing the problem and apologizing is easier said than done. Seek out training programs that teach listening and collaboration skills, empathy skills as well as understanding problems in a therapeutic relationship can counter adverse consequences. Acknowledge mistakes and compromising, asking questions can achieve optimal outcomes.
Asks about happiness and how others are doing
Ask about roles and expectations and clarify needs
Ask about and communicates recent program changes
Ask about concerns and modify procedures and skills based on those concerns, identify skills, reduce behavior to meet the needs of the clients, listen to concerns without being defensive
Ask for valuable parental and child input
Ask other members of the child’s treatment team for suggestions and concerns and collaborates when developing intervention plans for skills acquisition or behavior reduction programs
Ask about understanding and explains treatment decisions and procedure with rationale
Ask how to include other children in therapy
Asks about what it’s like to living with diagnosis, family dynamics and everyday struggles
Ask about fears and anxiety about the future and reassure that things will get better, be optimistic about potential progress and be understanding as it’s difficult talking about challenging circumstances
Ask about social validity and whether or not they feel therapy is effective
Ask about challenges faced with implementing protocols
Ask about culture, traditions and beliefs and show compassion in a nonjudgmental manner
Ask if more training is needed on protocols
Ask about strengths and celebrate accomplishments
References:
TAYLOR, B., LEBLANC, L. A., NOSIK, M. (2019). COMPASSIONATE CARE IN BEHAVIOR ANALYTIC TREATMENT: CAN OUTCOMES BE ENHANCED BY ATTENDING TO RELATIONSHIPS WITH CAREGIVERS? BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS IN PRACTICE. 12: 654-666.