First Step’s Lived and Living Experience Reference Group (LLE Group) put on a remarkable event recently. It centred around a reframing of the client/carer relationship, inspired by the work of Vikki Reynolds, a clinical supervisor and trainer from Canada.

Vikki focusses on the use of language to stigmatise and remove agency from people living with mental distress and people who use drugs. She particularly dislikes the common term ‘vicarious trauma’ - the notion that a carer can themselves be traumatised by working with people living with their own traumas.

She insists that carers/workers are far more frequently burnt-out by injustice and heartless bureaucracy than by their clients themselves.

She argues in fact, that if you properly engage with clients in the mental health and alcohol and other drug sectors, you are more likely to be inspired and transformed by their resilience, than traumatised by their pain. She has therefore coined the term ‘vicarious resilience.’

Inspired by these ideas, the LLE Group hosted an event entitled “Is Resilience Contagious?” To investigate this question, they engaged four pairs of speakers - each pair included a client of First Step and their main worker (past or present), some who had been on this journey together for several years.

There were many amazing moments for the audience as the pairs recounted their journeys, and, it seemed, many amazing moments for them on stage together as they arrived at new perspectives and new realisations:

• ‘Recovery requires a witness, and I have had the privilege of being a witness to your recovery and your getting better.’ 
• ‘Decades is how long it can take to grow and change and get to a better place.  It is a privilege to be a witness to both the small victories and the large ones.’ 
• ‘It’s about walking with people rather than doing to them. I’ve learnt about harnessing the power of bipolar from this guy.’
• ‘These are projects we commit to with our clients.’
• ‘Build rapport, have a laugh and get to the deep stuff.’

The overriding thoughts and feelings coming from the event related to the critical importance of trust and mutual respect. Yes, perhaps a clinician can help someone with dispassionate clinical advice, but that person is unlikely to open up enough for you to really understand them anyway. If, however, the atmosphere is one of mutual learning and a journey being travelled together, anything is possible.

We can imply some advice for workers, therapists, carers from this event and indeed for clients and consumers too:

• ‘I’m not going to open up to you unless you give me something back.’
• ‘Don’t tell me this is a safe space.  Show me.’
• ‘Always remember to share your life with others, including your resilience.  They might need your resilience one day too.’

And finally, the group offered the following keys to success in a therapeutic partnership:

• Mutual respect
• Be able say and to hear dangerous and controversial things
• Be prepared to sit with uncertainty and complexity