Listen More And Talk Less

Vibing With Psychiatric Patients

Many times, we attempt to help our patients by talking about everything that comes to our mind in regards to their treatment plan. We’ll talk about medications, symptoms, groups they attend, appetite and sleep and their future plans. But over time, this can become very redundant and taxing on the patients.

Patients want more than just a psychiatrist who asks them similar questions, day in and day out. After a while, your patients will start to tune you out and just answer your questions out of respect, but not out of interest. Our goal should be to keep their interest level alive!

This is where listening more and talking less comes in beautifully. We must work on maintaining a flow to the conversation during our individual sessions, and this flow must go back and forth like a playground seesaw. When this occurs, the conversation becomes much more pleasant and easier to carry out.

You see, patients have a lot to reveal to their psychiatrist if you just give them time to flow; it just requires more listening on your part. But when you interrupt them with endless questions and challenge their delusions without giving them a chance to explain themselves, you are essentially burning away your therapeutic alliance.

Patients don’t want a robot as their psychiatrist. They want a human being who is willing to carefully listen about where they are coming from. They want to know that you are listening to their words without making them feel rushed or pressured. In a way, they just want you to vibe with them.

If you can tap into this vibing state of mind with a psychiatric patient, you will start to feel like you and the patient are on the same wavelength. This is the best feeling during individual sessions, because it makes the patient extremely relaxed and comfortable, allowing them to divulge more information about their symptoms.

Sometimes you just have to listen more to patients!

Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)