Clinicians are asked to bring a presence and calm that patients can co-regulate with — but we're nervous systems too, animals co-regulating with whoever's in front of us. When a patient walks in angry or frustrated, holding actual calm (not a facade) takes real skill. This clip connects that difficulty to how deeply our culture trains us to suppress our own needs — down to ignoring hunger, skipping meals, racing past basic functions all day in clinic. Drawing on Dean Spade's idea of being "de-skilled," it lands on self-compassion: we're being asked to do something we've been trained our whole lives not to do.
Part of Roots of Care, a series on whole-person, trauma-informed primary care. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVtaeaNoZCQ4
