What was the best compliment you’ve received?

This one I may have already touched on in my “about me” post but I couldn’t resist possibly repeating myself.

When I was transitioning from my last clinic to the current clinic, I conducted what is referred to as termination sessions with my patients. Not being a big fan of surprises I began these sessions as soon as I had submitted my notice and knew for sure I was not going to be continuing to practice at that location.

One patient in particular did not appear to be taking the pending transition very well. This patient had four termination sessions as I recall and every one focused more on my leaving and less on the issues that brought the patient to psychotherapy in the first place.

This happens sometimes and can be very unsettling for me. I care a great deal about all my patients and try to conduct every session with the highest degree of respect for them as I can. It is not an easy thing to decide to and actually show up for psychotherapy, and that deserves kindness and respect.

Not that every session is a pleasant experience for the patient. Depending on the issues and more importantly the awareness of these issues, the patient arrives with some sessions can be quite uncomfortable for the patient. For me too.

This particular patient had worked very hard over the course of 18 months of treatment, and had progress impressively as a result. Truth be told I was sad to be ending treatment but it was for good reasons I was leaving and I knew the patient’s newfound trust in their psyche would result in them being guided to the next place they needed to go to continuing the healing process.

Inevitably the last session came and I did my best to manage my emotions while the patient was make no effort to manage theirs. It wasn’t the worst session, but it wasn’t the best either, and eventually the time came for goodbyes.

The patient paused a moment after I said goodbye and stood up. After several seconds I began to wonder if they had not heard me or had decided we were not ending this session, when suddenly they spoke.

What was said was originally stated in Arabic and though I don’t understand the language at all, it sounded wonderful. It is a beautiful language.

I was about to ask what that meant when the patient translated it for me, “You are not just a healer of the body, you are a doctor of the soul.”

With that the patient stood up, gave me a quick hug, and left.

That is not only the best compliment I have ever received, it is how I came up with the name of my blog; doctor of the soul was taken, as was Soul Doctor. so I chose SoulDoc.