Clients do not generally intend to leave important information out, but they do.
As a clinician, a proper intake of a clients medical history, and their personal situation is a legal requirement. Clinicians have to confidentially ask questions to stay insured. Sometimes clients leave out important issues because their purpose for seeing me, is (for them), different, or overarching.
A while ago, someone attended my clinic to get help to get through an issue , but they had a lot more going on than first realised. During their trance it became obvious that they were experiencing some discomfort. This isn’t usual,sessions are generally a lot more comfortable. At first I considered it to be a resistance response that could potentially be utilised as part of their therapy, then they settled back in , all good – but then it happened again.
The changes with my client were witnessed over a period of less than half an hour, except all the other indications of a good trance generally led me to believe things were going well. What was happening?
My client’s sporadic discomfort had obviously been interfering with their trance, but as it calmed down pretty quickly, we finished up as usual, and I had to ask what had they had experienced.
The After Talk
After their trance work, my client told me that for years their heart had been skipping a beat intermittently at bedtime.
It’s not the first time there’s been a revelation, and it won’t be the last, but I didn’t expect the aha! moment to be mine! Even when their heart returned to normal they regularly experienced a very strong, loud heartbeat, which interrupted their sleep.
We had a chat about how they handled these episodes. They revealed more evidence for a potentially serious health issue, that wasn’t mentioned in their list of session priorities. These events had regularly affected the quality of their sleep for a concerning number of years, but they had never reported it to their GP.
It’s not the first time an important piece of information has been left out by a client until later in a session. Once a decent rapport is established, clients rarely intend to leave out important information. Sometimes a clients focus isn’t aligned with their needs.
Since the level of information my client shared beforehand was already quite different, I had no reason to expect this new information before initiating their trance. The necessary feedback required to help them required a steady, and immediate diplomatic response.
In situations like this my clients receive a letter to take to their doctor. Sometimes people do not want a letter sent directly to their doctor without knowing exactly what is being said about them. In order to compromise, the letter is sent to the client, with a strong suggestion that they share the information with their doctor. At this point I have to respectfully leave the matter to the client, hoping that they get timely medical treatment. Some clients may decide to withhold information from their doctor, but if they admit to this it is my Ethical choice whether to continue treating them. I have to stand back. Hopefully, they will do the best thing for themselves.