When I wrote the article on determinants of the monetary value of practitioner services, I proposed the idea that the success rate of the practitioner, which I referred to as ratio of successful-to-unsuccessful client outcomes, is the superior metric that dictates how much a practitioner should charge per consult. I wanted to delve into this hypothetical ratio that I coined, to highlight where I believe practitioners can flunk in the journey of getting an unwell client back to wellness or balance per say. This opens a can of worms that not many practitioners want to face, as you will have to confront your weaknesses and shortcomings that your ego may want to hide from, preferring instead to put on the façade of competence, regardless of whoever walks into the clinical space. However, I believe the core of what it takes to become a great practitioner, lies in the ability to go within and carefully reflect on where you may be going wrong in the therapeutic process.  

It’s a million-dollar-question, a hypothetical jackpot; what does it take to have a high success rate with clients? I predict that if this question could be answered in the form of a recipe or an instruction manual, then the author of such a recipe would become wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. Even though I have mentioned that there are factors that are beyond a practitioner’s control that can affect the likelihood of a successful outcome to occur (willingness/desire to change, receptiveness to treatment, perception of practitioner’s competence/trustworthiness, discipline, etc.), I do know that there are some critical errors that practitioners can make that will hijack their chances of getting a client from point A to B, as I am convinced that if the likelihood of improvement was solely on the client, then practitioners wouldn’t see much of a change in their success rate as they gained more experienced.

I propose the idea that faulty diagnostics lead to misappropriated treatments, and I find this phenomenon to occur more so in cases where a client has a chronic illness picture with multiple co-morbidities or a broad symptomatology. In this case, the practitioner is less likely to identify to core driver or most pressing issue to treat, and consequently resort to treating every issue/symptom as if they are diseases in and of themselves. Here is where a client will unfortunately fall into the trap of following a laundry list of tips/tricks for good health, rather than homing in on a treatment that will move the needle. I refer to this as “girlfriend magazine” advise because in all seriousness, I find this kind of “treatment” to resemble the kind of advice that you could find in the health section of a girlfriend magazine, full of the newest health trends that despite providing some kind of benefit, will unlikely resolve anything.      

I am not implying that a girlfriend magazine-advice type of treatment isn’t useful as I believe this model of teaching clients to follow fundamentals or “ancestral tenets” of health can make a night-and-day difference if the client has a clearly defined issue with no co-morbidities. Sometimes, a person who experiences sleep-onset insomnia simply needs to use blue light blocking glasses and stop answering emails past 10 pm and read a book instead, or a person who has difficulty losing weight simply needs to prioritize protein and not rely on take-out food by learning how to cook. However, this isn’t always the case, especially, as I mentioned above, when there are complex issues that interplay. A mistake I see here is rooted in the belief that if a client follows lots of health tips with persistence and discipline, then all these little tips and tricks will eventually work synergistically and resolve whatever ails them. I don’t doubt that this hasn’t occurred before, but I find this treatment strategy to be akin to shooting darts whilst being blindfolded. 

The root of this clinical dilemma comes from simply not knowing what is causing the client’s disease/disorder. I can take a complex case and think to myself that instead of seeking where to focus the treatment, I will simply pull a bunch of names (tips/tricks) out of hat and hand them over to the client and hope for the best. I can see where this may come in handy, such as when a client is not health conscious and is lacking the fundamentals but many people with chronic health pictures have been through the gamut with practitioners, so the key remains in finding what others have missed in the hopes of properly guiding the client. Essentially, if the treatment is individually tailored, then you can expect that it was formulated under the premise of; “will this facilitate the change that the client is seeking?”, in comparison to; “will this be of any “help” to or “benefit” the client?”. In saying this, I believe there are a handful of essential traits that will empower any practitioner with a much higher chance of successfully treating any client. 

• Knowledge of functional testing and/or adequate referral network 
  • This comes partly from experience but also from a willingness to expand on learning/training in functional testing and the relevant nuance necessary to apply it for the individual
  • Referral networks also take time to form but are priceless in the grand scheme of things
    • Having a multi-pronged approach to treating complex cases is essential; this requires a basic understanding of all the modalities available and how to review practitioners in each given field to identify the ones you trust
    • Services you may not be able to offer but feel a client is in need of is precisely the reason why referral networks are essential 
• Identify the key underlying/most impacting issue
  • It’s not about treating everything at once with a shotgun mentality, it comes down to using a sniper mentality, tackling the biggest issue first and reassess how the improvement has crossed over into other areas that needed attention
• Ability to rule out certain diagnoses on-the-fly without resorting to unnecessary testing 
  • Certain questions can help rule out some conditions and contributing variables (mast cell activation syndrome, histamine intolerance, etc,) without having to resort to unnecessary testing 
• Identify psychosomatic/psycho-emotional factors that may be unresolved and are key contributors to the symptom picture 
  • This is very important, unresolved trauma and psycho-emotional distress can be the direct cause of many unexplainable symptom pictures
    • A referral network also comes handy in this case where practitioners who specialize in this area (craniosacral therapist, psychotherapist, somatic experiencing, etc.) can cover the other area of treatment  

At the core, I believe almost all practitioners have their clients’ best interest in mind and are set in getting their clients well as soon as possible. Given that, there is a degree of detective work that may be needed to formulate the right therapeutics to move the needle in the right direction.