12/04/2021
I realise that I have not posted here for a while. The good news is that I have been busy in the clinic, and am always thankful for anyone sharing the news about it with others. :)
The reason I am posting this today, is because of an interesting conundrum that arose during the week. I had been working out some ideas through an online conversation as one does, one of those ideas being that it is a mistake to set experts up as unusually trustworthy. The mistake being in the accompanying expectation that a person should doubt or ignore their own experience if it conflicts with what an expert says, as they are undoubtedly insufficiently qualified to question that expert.
As usual, I was muddling through this half-formed idea and inviting other people, through a post on my personal timeline, to contribute their ideas and help me firm up my own. And one of the commenters threw a challenge at me that has implications that are worth teasing out here, on my professional page. The challenge was, in essence, am I not myself an expert in acupuncture, are people not be entitled to trust my expertise, and if I deny this, then am I being honest in putting myself and my work forward to potential patients?
My immediate, not very carefully considered, reaction was to say, I am NOT an expert, and people should NOT trust me. Of course, then I had to sit down and do the thinking to find my way into what and why this should have felt so right when it was said, and what it means in terms of the work I do, which some of you have availed of in the past, and some of you may avail of in the future.
So, the first thing is that I still do think I am correct to say that I am not an expert. Just now we are seeing a general move to establish a class of experts whose education and credentials sets them above questioning by other people lacking that education and those credentials. And I am certainly not in that category. I do have some education, and I do have some credentials that most definitely entitle you to expect that I know how to avoid harming you, and that I may have access to some useful ways of helping you. To my knowledge, no one has ever sought me out for an expert opinion, and if they did, I hope they went away understanding that my opinions are not expert, just opinions like any person's. But, in any case, there will never be anything I can say or I can do in this clinic that sets me above you, or that sets my judgement above yours. There will never be anything I can say or I can do in this clinic that you cannot question, even if the basis for your question is something you read somewhere on the internet... ;)
The second thing is that I still do think I am correct to say that no one should trust me. Certainly, no one should trust me in the sense that experts are held up to be trusted, in any way that entails doubting or ignoring your own experience. A person who would allow their trust in me to make them doubt or ignore their actual experience with me in practice (should these be in conflict) would be very foolish.
So then I thought, what is the best and most honest way to present who I am and what I can do? The word that eventually came to me is "professional". I am not an expert, what I am is a professional who is here to address your need in a skilled manner. As a professional I have some training, and a great deal of experience, in helping people to obtain respite or relief when they are undergoing some form of physical, emotional or mental suffering. It is what I love doing and I will go on doing it for as long as there is anyone who wants me to attend and care for them.
So, what is a person entitled to expect from a professional? In a general sense, people coming to see me are entitled to expect competence, respect for their person and for their bodily autonomy, as well as discretion and confidentiality in respect of any information shared. During each session a person is entitled to expect my focussed attention and my most skilled care at that moment. At every point a person is entitled to expect to be informed as to what I am thinking of doing, to be invited to ask questions, and may expect that their ongoing consent will be elicited from moment to moment (in both explicit and implicit ways), consent which they are entitled to withdraw at any time.
Is trust necessary? Not at all. If trust grows over time, then that is well and good. But personal trust in me that is gained, over time, FROM ongoing experience will be a very different kind of trust to that kind of blind trust that demands that you first MISTRUST your own experience.
Anyway, be well everyone, and feel free to call me if there is some matter in which my professional skills and knowledge might be useful to you. Remembering that you will be the boss, and your own experience will be the judge. 0872025732