JCPSLP Vol 22 No 2 2020

Learning from our clients

Viewpoints Learning from our clients Rosalie Martin

S peech pathologists do privileged work built upon connection. A foundation of our craft and science is reciprocity. And a most beautiful thing about positive reciprocity is that it is… well… reciprocal. Positive connection brings extensive benefits to mental and physical good health (Fredrickson, 2016). The benefits help our clients meet their goals. They also help sustain us in our work and lives. But the emergence of joy and health from within human interactions also requires conditions of personal safety (Fredrickson, 2016). This article considers how personal freedom and attentive, other-minded listening in client–therapist interactions contribute to assurance of safety. It introduces the term “dominion”, used in the social sciences to refer to personal freedom that envelops the idea of non-domination of others (Braithwaite, 2002). It links dominion with reciprocity and its benefits. It connects the assurance of dominion at the micro-level of daily interactions, with the power to influence non-domination at macro-levels within society. “Dominion” is personal liberty within social-relational structure. It holds legal rights and freedoms together with a “subjective assurance that others will respect these rights and freedoms” (Walgrave 2008, p.140). Dominion is not a “stable given” in relationships or society. It is “a value to be promoted and expanded by individual and collective action ” (Walgrave, 2008, p.141). It is a collective good ; and “fellow citizens” are as “allies trying to extend and mutually assure dominion as a collective good” (Walgrave, 2008, p. 141). Dominion expands the assurance that one’s rights and personal freedoms are supported by others, even as one simultaneously supports the rights and personal freedoms of others. Expanding each other’s personal dominion is a mechanism to expand dominion within society as a collective good. It becomes the assured atmosphere within which we might all safely live, work, play and create. To promote dominion as a collective good, social institutions and individuals must, with integrity, have other- minded liberty as a held value. Integrity is the integration of actions and values (Francis, 2018). Thus individuals and institutions must patiently apply and devotedly produce the actions which emanate from the value of dominion. As clinicians we can and should contribute to personal and society-wide dominion. We do this when we devotedly produce actions that invite, hear, and enable our clients’ choices and freedoms. Expanding dominion to them expands the dominion we also enjoy. Clients’ choices and responses might surprise us. This can be the beginning of curiosity, which can lead to shared innovations in personal and professional activity, knowledge and growth. We can welcome this. It may also reveal rigidities within ourselves and our institutions. We can welcome this too. Noticing rigidities can vulnerably and boldly open reflective conversation – with oneself and also

with those in positions of power. Courageous conversations are actions integrated with values. Devotedly produced, they build dominion – personal and collective. Attuning to our clients and expanding their freedoms can reciprocally support us to enter every interaction with warm curiosity – even the difficult ones. This supports non-judgmental openness that allows us to learn from them. This further increases their safety in learning from us. Dominion is expanded. Trust flourishes. We are not the keys to a client’s change. We are simply helpers. The client was, is, and will always be, the master of their choice and change. We are merely participants in respectful and dignified encounters to which criminologist Fergus McNeill (2012, p. 31) brings humbling circumspect: “the process of change exists before, behind and beyond the intervention”. For me, this frees me of the need to position myself as an expert. I can just be me. My clients can be who they are. We meet as ourselves: equal in our humanity, differing in our knowledge, each of us needed in the bettering of the world we share. We bring to these encounters the knowledges and stories that lie within us. The client’s knowledge of the unique configuration of their life is present. I can kindly use what I know about welcome, creation of ease, non-judgment, valuing and other-minded care. My clinical knowledge is there too. It offers further possible choices for building communication freedoms of which the client might never have dreamed. All of the following are needed for excellent work to go ahead: the two people in their connection, their two knowledges. I might have a therapy road map in mind. They’ll have a map too. Or confess to being lost. Moreover, their story might make me feel lost. Together we can co-create a route and enjoy the highs and challenges of a trip with new sights and horizons. I have been involved with programs in prisons and homelessness services. The clients are the best teachers: • “I never knew none of that stuff. Do other dads have to learn this? Like… you just think that you know best coz you’re the dad. But you don’t… unless you learn it.” This led to expansion of a parent–child attachment program in prison. • “I wanna do this with my mum. She’d love this. Can you guys do this when I get out?” This led to a program that is now expanding the prison-based parent–child attachment program into bespoke post-release relational support. • “Before I met you I never told no one I couldn’t read. Now I’m getting better. But I’m worried about [son]. I reckon he’s got the same problems as me. I wanna get him help too. Do yous [sic] do this with kids outside?” Leading to development of a program bringing family- based post-release support for language and literacy.

Rosalie Martin

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JCPSLP Volume 22, Number 2 2020

www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au