The Briar Patch: Thorny Challenges for Directors
“Few Rules, But —”
Vic Pantesco, Ph.D.
The Thorn
Let’s face it, there is a list of
burrs that get under our skin year after
year as Directors. Somehow the
letter “P” has gotten play in these, as in “pet peeve” or,
as a friend of mine offered, “paltry piques.” What is on
our own particular list of P’s is often a
product of the culture of the clinic/department,
individuals’ styles, and of course the beloved Director’s
special hot spots of irritability. Let me share one of
mine to illustrate.
Years ago a student challenged me in my writing in his notes (I also was the supervisor) that it should be “his being depressed” instead of “him being depressed.” Grammatically, a gerund requires possessive case (OK, OK, - clearly a paltry pique). What got interesting is how the two of us, in retrospect clearly because of personal stylistic clashes, created a veritable hill to die on about this. It was costly in time and energy. And a waste of both.
These may also arise in more clinically focused matters such as following through on contact with clients, informing us about absence and vacation well in advance, collecting fees, or keeping files up to date, for example. Obviously there is a gradation of seriousness, but you get the idea. As I have written before, some of these can send me to the dark chocolate stash.
To Dull the Pain
There is an English boarding school headmaster, Algie Herries, in R.F. Delderfield’s novel about a WWI vet returning to teach the boys. In To Serve Them All My Days (maybe a bumper sticker for Directors?), David Powlett-Jones asks Algie what was his secret in doing the job so well, to which he responds: “Few rules, but unbendables.”
Taking that advice to heart, and sometimes begrudgingly aware that the brain learns only through repetition, I have arrived at a few “rules” that are easily and often repeated in various contexts. They will be familiar to those of you who have been at any of my presentations, so apologies for repetition.
- Benign matter-of-factness. We try to model this for students in some of the more challenging conversations they may need to have with clients, as with collecting money for example. Similarly, we as supervisors try to keep it nourished in such conversations with our supervisees.
- Good clinical care. In individual supervision, team meetings, teaching documentation… this one is easily recognizable when you see it, and also when you don’t. I really burned this one into my cortex at a risk management workshop with attorneys, who indicated that “good clinical care” was a best defense in any complaint or litigation. That, along with—
- Reasonable practice. Again, we know it
when we see it (thank you to Justice Potter Stewart who
fashioned this phrase in a famous pornography supreme
court case in 1963). So many times during the year,
for example, in team case consultation, I propose: “Would
this be considered reasonable practice?” Great
learning. Rinse. Repeat. Rinse.
These have helped me get out of my own way with paltry piques and peeves. There are others we use, but volume often detracts from message, - and matter of factness too.
- Rinse. Repeat.
These have helped me get out of my own way with paltry piques and peeves. There are others we use, but volume often detracts from message, - and matter of factness too.