Psychology Today, Feb 2009.
"We're constantly making decisions, ranging from what to eat for dinner each night to whom we should marry, not to mention all those flavors of ice cream. We base many of our decisions on whether we think a particular preference will increase our well-being. Intuitively, we seem convinced that the more choices we have, the better off we'll ultimately be. But our world of unlimited opportunity imprisons us more than it makes us happy."
If you want happy clients, don't present them with a smorgasbord of treatment options. Give them your best treatment recommendation. They will be happier and you will be blessed with greater compliance.
I have witnessed this repetatively and especially from less seasoned practitioners. I fully support treatment options but believe the differential diagnosis and variable treatment lists should exist in my mind for my benefit decisions. It took me a long time to learn to offer the client what I knew was the best diagnostic and/or treatment option and then SHUT UP. Of course when that wasn't suitable to the client, sometimes because of costs, I started to move through other less favorable treatment plans, but more often than not, they really trusted my recommendation, and felt they should do what I though would create the best results.
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