John Launer: On being stuck

A lot of my work consists of supervision—not in the sense of training and managing people or telling them what to do, but instead offering a reflective space for them to consider their thornier problems. This kind of supervision is regarded as essential in some other professions dealing in complexity, such as social work. In general practice, and medicine more widely, it’s far less common beyond the training years than it should be.Recently I offered this kind of supervision to a young GP who felt stuck with a patient. He was seeing a woman with multiple symptoms that had eluded diagnosis or successful treatment. He was trying to help the patient see things in a different light—as the consequence of life experiences perhaps or in a way that might be tackled through her own strengths. Nothing he did or said seemed to make a difference. This is of course the…
Read Original Article: John Launer: On being stuck »