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5 | How to Not Panic When You Have a Complicated Case
Have you ever looked through an intake form and started to feel a bit of panic?
I think we've all been there.
It's easy to feel like you're not good enough, you don't know enough, and you'll never be able to help this person.
You are not the only one who's felt this way.
In this episode, I share a few tips for staying calm, trusting yourself, and getting help when you need it.
Many times, it comes back to your underlying philosophy. What kind of work do you do? If you think your job is to fix, to take charge, or to know it all, then that may be feeding your anxiety.
Have a listen, and share your thoughts below.
Getting SupportDon't forget, you don't have to do this alone! Here are a few resources:
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Transcript
(00:03)
Well, hi there. Welcome to In the Clinic with Camille. My name is Camille Freeman. I am a licensed nutritionist and clinical herbalist, and I also serve as a mentor for other practitioners. Today, I want to talk about something that came up recently in one of my herbal observation groups. So these are groups where I see a client, via Zoom, and students or newer practitioners are invited to sit in and watch the intake. And then we meet a few days later to talk about our observations about the client to come up with a plan together. So the client isn't at that second meeting.
(00:39)
And in a recent group, we had a client with a really complicated case. This is not unusual for an herbalist or nutritionist. A lot of times I think we get cases where people have tried a lot of other things and it hasn't worked. And they're really looking for the next step. But one of the things that I find is common, especially in newer practitioners, but really this happens to all of us, is that we look at an intake form before we've seen the client and we might think, oh, my goodness, this is so complicated.
(01:10)
I don't know what to do. Get a little bit of a panicky feeling. And you think, "I'm not sure I know enough to do this. I'm not sure I understand how all of these things fit together." Many clients have multiple diagnoses. They've been struggling with health issues for decades sometimes, and it's all kind of a jumble. What's been happening, especially when you haven't met the client yet. So you can see this intake form and you can start to freak out and think like, "I just don't know if I'm the right person," or "I don't know if I have the training. I don't understand physiology well enough. I don't think I can help this person." So I want to say a few things about this. Number one, it's always good to be aware of your limits. So if you think you really don't have the experience and you don't understand, it's always good to refer out. That's always an option.
(02:03)
I keep a list of people to refer to in cases that where I don't have a lot of experience. So that's always good to be aware of your own limits. Certainly listen to that intuition, but you need to separat it out from imposter syndrome, doubt - self-doubt - and the unwillingness to trust yourself. Those are two separate issues and it can be hard to draw that line. But it's really important that you do it. One of the things that helps me is to come back to my role.
(02:35)
I think about what is it that I do exactly? That sounds so easy and so fundamental. But sometimes I think we get swept up in this idea that we're acting in some ways like doctors or that we're managing someone's care, or that we are external experts that are coming in to know everything and guide the client. And I don't know about you, but that's not how I conceptualize my work. I think of myself as a partner. And I think of myself not as someone who is supposed to know it all and understand it all, but as someone who can listen and help make sense of what's going on.
(03:10)
Create a narrative about what's going on and experiment with the client so we can try some things and see what happens. And that will give us more information. And then we'll try some different things and see what happens then and so forth. So we'll continue to gather information and we'll continue to learn more about what happens under certain circumstances. We'll continue to do real time research in partnership with the client. So when I think about it like that, I think my role is to deeply listen.
(03:42)
My role is to think about what some of the underlying or fundamental themes are that we see. And I also think my role is to loosen up a little bit of the tangle. So I think of a complicated case. A lot of times it seems like there's so many different strands of thread and they've all become jumbled in together so that it's a big mess. A lot of times there isn't one obvious thing. You're not like, oh, well, it's clearly the whatever.
(04:11)
And if we can just get that handled, then everything else would resolve. Sometimes that's the case, but a lot of times it's not clear what the underlying issue is or there's so many subsequent issues that even if you support one area, all the rest are going to also need support. So one thing I like to remember about physiology is that it's all connected. We're all connected. And sometimes when we just pull one little thread, when we loosen up that ball of knotted yarn a little bit, the body can start to shift itself.
(04:42)
So you don't always have to have the answers. You don't always have to have an underlying theme, an underlying knowledge of exactly what is going on. Nobody really knows that, especially in these complicated cases. Nobody can say this is exactly the problem. If we just fix this, everything else will get better. We have guesses. We have stories. We have history. We have research. We have all these things we can draw on. But every single individual is different.Sowhat I'm telling you is that in my experience, sometimes you just need to start with something. Start in one place, start to loosen that area a little bit. Support that area a little bit. In many times, other things will shift, the body will readjust, and the next step will be obvious. The other thing I want to let you know is that many times when you see the intake form and you feel a little panicky, then you feel like I'm not good enough.
(05:37)
I don't know what I'm doing. I'm not trained in this, etc.. A lot of times it becomes more clear when you meet the client. When you hear the client talk about things, you will have a better sense of the story, the timeline and how everything fits together. So remember that your job is not to fix; your job is not to make it all better. Your job is to listen and think through a plan the next steps, and you're going to readjust.
(06:07)
You're going to recalibrate as you go. So when you frame your work in this way, you can feel more confident in what you're doing and your client will know what you're doing as well. So they are on the same page with you in terms of expectations. So I hope that gives you a little bit of food for thought in working with really complicated clients. If you need help with complicated clients, also remember that you can reach out. I do mentoring other people, do mentoring.
(06:33)
There's lots of great mentors available for you to work with. So if you really feel like you're over your head, get some support in other areas as well. Join a clinical roundtable where you can get support from a number of other practitioners. If you don't want to do a one-on-one mentoring situation or if you really do feel like this is out of your league, just go ahead and refer out. If you have any questions or topics you'd like for me to cover in these podcasts,
(06:58)
please feel free to reach out anytime. www.camillefreeman.com/intheclinic. If you'd like to learn more about herbal observations, you can also find out about our next herbal observation on my Web site: www.CamilleFreeman.com. Just go to the "work with me" tab and you'll see one of the options is the herbal observation groups. Id' love to have you join us. And they've been a really fun experience so far. Thank you for listening.
(07:21)
Please be in touch anytime.
Well, hi there. Welcome to In the Clinic with Camille. My name is Camille Freeman. I am a licensed nutritionist and clinical herbalist, and I also serve as a mentor for other practitioners. Today, I want to talk about something that came up recently in one of my herbal observation groups. So these are groups where I see a client, via Zoom, and students or newer practitioners are invited to sit in and watch the intake. And then we meet a few days later to talk about our observations about the client to come up with a plan together. So the client isn't at that second meeting.
(00:39)
And in a recent group, we had a client with a really complicated case. This is not unusual for an herbalist or nutritionist. A lot of times I think we get cases where people have tried a lot of other things and it hasn't worked. And they're really looking for the next step. But one of the things that I find is common, especially in newer practitioners, but really this happens to all of us, is that we look at an intake form before we've seen the client and we might think, oh, my goodness, this is so complicated.
(01:10)
I don't know what to do. Get a little bit of a panicky feeling. And you think, "I'm not sure I know enough to do this. I'm not sure I understand how all of these things fit together." Many clients have multiple diagnoses. They've been struggling with health issues for decades sometimes, and it's all kind of a jumble. What's been happening, especially when you haven't met the client yet. So you can see this intake form and you can start to freak out and think like, "I just don't know if I'm the right person," or "I don't know if I have the training. I don't understand physiology well enough. I don't think I can help this person." So I want to say a few things about this. Number one, it's always good to be aware of your limits. So if you think you really don't have the experience and you don't understand, it's always good to refer out. That's always an option.
(02:03)
I keep a list of people to refer to in cases that where I don't have a lot of experience. So that's always good to be aware of your own limits. Certainly listen to that intuition, but you need to separat it out from imposter syndrome, doubt - self-doubt - and the unwillingness to trust yourself. Those are two separate issues and it can be hard to draw that line. But it's really important that you do it. One of the things that helps me is to come back to my role.
(02:35)
I think about what is it that I do exactly? That sounds so easy and so fundamental. But sometimes I think we get swept up in this idea that we're acting in some ways like doctors or that we're managing someone's care, or that we are external experts that are coming in to know everything and guide the client. And I don't know about you, but that's not how I conceptualize my work. I think of myself as a partner. And I think of myself not as someone who is supposed to know it all and understand it all, but as someone who can listen and help make sense of what's going on.
(03:10)
Create a narrative about what's going on and experiment with the client so we can try some things and see what happens. And that will give us more information. And then we'll try some different things and see what happens then and so forth. So we'll continue to gather information and we'll continue to learn more about what happens under certain circumstances. We'll continue to do real time research in partnership with the client. So when I think about it like that, I think my role is to deeply listen.
(03:42)
My role is to think about what some of the underlying or fundamental themes are that we see. And I also think my role is to loosen up a little bit of the tangle. So I think of a complicated case. A lot of times it seems like there's so many different strands of thread and they've all become jumbled in together so that it's a big mess. A lot of times there isn't one obvious thing. You're not like, oh, well, it's clearly the whatever.
(04:11)
And if we can just get that handled, then everything else would resolve. Sometimes that's the case, but a lot of times it's not clear what the underlying issue is or there's so many subsequent issues that even if you support one area, all the rest are going to also need support. So one thing I like to remember about physiology is that it's all connected. We're all connected. And sometimes when we just pull one little thread, when we loosen up that ball of knotted yarn a little bit, the body can start to shift itself.
(04:42)
So you don't always have to have the answers. You don't always have to have an underlying theme, an underlying knowledge of exactly what is going on. Nobody really knows that, especially in these complicated cases. Nobody can say this is exactly the problem. If we just fix this, everything else will get better. We have guesses. We have stories. We have history. We have research. We have all these things we can draw on. But every single individual is different.Sowhat I'm telling you is that in my experience, sometimes you just need to start with something. Start in one place, start to loosen that area a little bit. Support that area a little bit. In many times, other things will shift, the body will readjust, and the next step will be obvious. The other thing I want to let you know is that many times when you see the intake form and you feel a little panicky, then you feel like I'm not good enough.
(05:37)
I don't know what I'm doing. I'm not trained in this, etc.. A lot of times it becomes more clear when you meet the client. When you hear the client talk about things, you will have a better sense of the story, the timeline and how everything fits together. So remember that your job is not to fix; your job is not to make it all better. Your job is to listen and think through a plan the next steps, and you're going to readjust.
(06:07)
You're going to recalibrate as you go. So when you frame your work in this way, you can feel more confident in what you're doing and your client will know what you're doing as well. So they are on the same page with you in terms of expectations. So I hope that gives you a little bit of food for thought in working with really complicated clients. If you need help with complicated clients, also remember that you can reach out. I do mentoring other people, do mentoring.
(06:33)
There's lots of great mentors available for you to work with. So if you really feel like you're over your head, get some support in other areas as well. Join a clinical roundtable where you can get support from a number of other practitioners. If you don't want to do a one-on-one mentoring situation or if you really do feel like this is out of your league, just go ahead and refer out. If you have any questions or topics you'd like for me to cover in these podcasts,
(06:58)
please feel free to reach out anytime. www.camillefreeman.com/intheclinic. If you'd like to learn more about herbal observations, you can also find out about our next herbal observation on my Web site: www.CamilleFreeman.com. Just go to the "work with me" tab and you'll see one of the options is the herbal observation groups. Id' love to have you join us. And they've been a really fun experience so far. Thank you for listening.
(07:21)
Please be in touch anytime.
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