This resource is a bonus chapter – Angry Patients and Soft Eyes: Connecting with the Help Rejecting Patient from the book ‘Real Behavior change in primary care” by Patricia J. Robinson, Debra A. Gould, and Kirk D. Strosahl.
Including sample worksheets and case studies this resource helps address those difficult encounters with patients who are rejecting the help on offer from their therapist.
Download sample - Working with help rejecting clients
PATRICIA J. ROBINSON is the cofounder of the Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) model and Focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (FACT)
DEBRA A GOULD holds the position of an associate clinical professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. Her areas of interest encompass evidence-based practice, mental health considerations within primary care, community medicine, practice-based research, and physician well-being.
KIRK D. STROSAHL is a co-founder of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and has long been a chief proponent of using Focused ACT (FACT) as a brief intervention.
Chapter overview
Help rejecting patients, who often make various demands such as additional tests or medications, can leave their therapists and care providers feeling defensive and exhausted. The challenging aspect lies in the difficulty for providers to stay fully engaged during these encounters and subsequent visits. The mere presence of a demanding patient’s name on the clinic schedule can evoke anxiety among primary care providers, as they struggle to determine how to offer assistance. This chapter uses TEAMS (Thoughts, Emotions, Associations, Memories and Sensations) to understand how the client and care provider might both be feeling and demonstrates how this can cause sessions to become stuck. Using case studies and worksheets to explore how to create a workable behaviour from both parties and focus on action to ensure more successful therapeutic outcomes.
