Excerpt from a YouTube video discussion emphasizing the ethical principle of 'do no harm' in patient care and counseling. Speakers discuss entering sessions/bedside with the intention to avoid harm, to support patients, and to encourage self-compassion and merciful awareness—both in clinicians and patients.
Our relationship to our patients, to our clients, to ourselves, to not knowing, to coming in and really trying to, at the minimum, do no harm. As a threshold test, if you will, can you talk about the importance of that and how that interplays with the situation?
Well, I think it's a double play, really, because not only when we go into our sessions or our bedsides with our patients, and we are coming from a place of above all, I want to do no harm, we're also wanting to do our best to support them, to think that way for themselves. So above all, I hope at this point in time you're being kind to yourself. This would be so difficult on anybody or challenging for almost anybody. And if in any way we see them being, let's say, critical of themselves, then we really want to support them, to only be critical of themselves if there's something they can do about us. At this point, isn't it time to be a bit supportive of yourself? Isn't it time for you to be in a merciful awareness? And of course, as a counselor, we're going in with that intention. And that dual guideline where whenever I can reach you and wherever I can reach that place inside me is what allows us to feel like we're closer to our hearts and going to be able to support theirs as well.
