What Every Client Should Hear From Their Therapist
By Jessica Jordan, MS, OTR/L
Why The Reassurance?
As humans, we all need reassurance which is crucial for our physical, mental, and emotional health. Reassurance can help to develop and build trust, strengthen communication, and ease anxious thoughts or anxiety. I know I look for reassurance from my partner in our relationship, so believe me it is just as important for relationships between clients and their therapists.
What Should Those we Serve be Hearing?
Here are a few of our favorite statements to remind any individual we are working with:
I believe in YOU!
Just because you cannot do this today, doesn’t mean you won’t be able to one day!
I am so very proud of you! You should be proud of your hard work and yourself.
I know it may not seem this way, but it is all figure-outable, we will figure this out together.
Look at how far you’ve come!
Let’s take one step at a time, I am here with you.
You were made to do hard things, you can do this!
As your therapist, we truly believe these statements, which are proven by the actions you’ve put forth into your occupational therapy journey so far. We also understand the triggers around comments such as “we are so proud of you” if it is not coming from a trusted source who is part of your care team. We don’t throw around these terms lightly, but do believe affirmations are an essential part of the therapy process.
What Should an Affirmation Include?
We like to be clear in our communication. Brene Brown says, “Clear is kind.” and we live by this in so many ways! In giving someone praise, we really like to focus of the following:
Be specific, give feedback about a specific action, attribute, or obstacle they overcame. (more to come on this in future blog posts!)
Make sure it’s genuine. Don’t just say it to say it.
Think about your tone of voice. Be mindful to not come off as condescending, using a baby voice, or with too much excitement. All of these components of your affect can influence the individuals neuroception of safety.
looking to learn more?
Wanting to learn more about affirmations? Click the link here to learn more about our Amplifying Competence certification where we dive deeper into truly believing and following through with affirmations vs. just saying them to yourself and other without actions to make them reality.