Lend me your watch and I’ll tell you the time: the thorny issue of leadership in training healthcare professionals in counselling and communication skills

Perry, John and Smale, Richard (2009) Lend me your watch and I’ll tell you the time: the thorny issue of leadership in training healthcare professionals in counselling and communication skills. International Journal of Clinical Skills, 3 (1), 19-22.

Abstract

It would clearly be risible if someone were to ask you for the time, and you in turn asked them to lend you their watch so you could tell them. Much criticism has been levelled at counsellors who will not give a direct answer but rather turn questions back on their clients. Many teachers, subscribing to the Socratic imperative, may do likewise and assume the role of a conduit rather than a leader. Whether they do so through a belief in the process, or a lack of belief in their own leadership skills, they risk evoking frustration or even resentment.

We the authors make the following contentions: if the leadership of the teacher or therapist (as director or wise one) is reneged on in place of a laissez-faire client-centeredness, then are we willing to work without goals or outcomes, to set off on a journey without maps, and indulge in a relationship of pure process? Perhaps for the client or student who has made little contribution or sacrifice to be there, this may be acceptable. But in a time when students pay high fees, and clients of all services are increasingly charged, don’t these groups have a right to receive a degree of direction from the professionals they encounter?

One assumes that even before Freud’s day, people were helped by being listened to. But today, talking therapies have been subsumed into the ‘toolkits’ of many professionals and, as a consequence, have been substantially demystified. Clients may not know ‘the answer’ but tend to be more able to formulate their questions. And they deserve the respect implicit in the professional’s honouring of their leadership commitment. Both teachers and clinicians therefore need to be able to address their own issues of power and influence, perceived expertise and validation of feelings and expectations. Professionals need to be accountable not only for what they can do, but also for what they cannot do. An honest understanding and acceptance of this does not preclude honouring a leadership role.

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