Looking after your well-being while building relationships in practice

Relationships matter. Evidence shows that the quality of relationships is a key determinant of health and wellbeing, acting as both a protective and a risk factor in health outcomes.

This isn’t just the romantic type, but any relationship in our lives – even the professional ones. 

A quality relationship with a healthcare professional, a social worker, a community worker, a teacher or any ‘one good adult’ as the charity, Jigsaw, suggests can make a difference to an individual’s life.

But really ‘being there’ for a client, a patient or a service user when they want to express their concerns or troubles is a big ask, particularly when services are under so much pressure today.

Time constraints, worries about professional boundaries and even fear of saying the wrong thing can sometimes limit frontline staffs’ ability to interact.

You may also feel that you might be expected to come up with solutions, taking you beyond your role, your competency and boundaries and that you might get overwhelmed yourself . This is only natural.

Every single one of the 2,500 empathic and caring frontline practitioners whom we have trained to date has identified with some of these dilemmas.

When dealing / encountering with other people’s stress and emotions, sometimes it’s easier not to go there for all sorts of reasons, whether it is time limitations or feeling out of one’s depth.

What our ABLE (Adopt a relational approach, Build, Listen and Empower) brief intervention model does is give you the skills, knowledge and a framework to follow during every brief interaction so that you have the confidence to make the most of that time.

Dr Karen Treisman, a specialist clinical psychologist, trainer and author, believes that ‘every interaction is an intervention’, and we agree.

Our vision is to equip every frontline worker in Ireland with the skills to make the most of every intervention by building quality professional relationships.

Imagine how empowering it would be for you and those you are supporting if those ten or fifteen minutes of ‘turned to’ time could be maximised for better outcomes for you and your clients.

Think about the difference it would make to your wellbeing by knowing how to manage your time and boundaries and to be able to draw a conversation to a close in a way that leaves the door open for future interactions.

Is this about communications skills?

Yes. But it goes way beyond that.

It’s about relationship-building skills, which start by taking reflective time and space out of your routine practice to understand why relationships are so important to you, your clients and well-being in society

By sharing the four steps of ABLE, we support you in communicating with compassion. We help you to listen actively and reflectively so that people feel heard, respected, understood and empowered.

Last but not least, we share a framework to follow so that you can mind yourself while supporting others.