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2  Working effectively with clients

2  Working effectively with clients

Of course solicitors are supposed to stay emotionally detached and just deal with the issues.

(Solicitor, Scotland)

You’re dealing with people’s real lives here and it’s constant, you’re constantly thinking and worrying about those cases.

(Barrister, Northern Ireland)

Most legal professionals communicate with clients as a part of their role. For some, such as a solicitor or legal executive in private practice, this can be a large part of their workload. For others (such as a barrister or advocate) it may be that some communication is via a third party. Clients may also range from individuals with little or no legal knowledge to lawyers acting for large corporations. Regardless of who you are communicating with, and how often, it is important that your communications are effective. Developing your emotional competence and professional resilience (two concepts described in detail in Managing and understanding yourself) can assist you in this in the following ways:

  • Help you identify and understand the emotions your client is experiencing that are connected with their issue and/or their communications with you.
  • Help you identify and understand the emotions you are experiencing when communicating with your client and/or dealing with their issue.
  • Assist you to regulate your own emotions appropriately and manage those of your clients, including communicating appropriately, managing their expectations and establishing appropriate boundaries.
  • Enable you to understand the wider emotional context and factor this into your advice and approach.

It is important to remember that there is usually a significant emotional component in every legal issue. This may result from the facts involved in the issue, the client’s relationship with a legal profession and their (current or prior) perception of, or experience with, the legal system (Barkai and Fine, 1983, p. 506).

The next activity is designed to assist you in identifying and understanding the possible emotions that clients may be experiencing.

Activity 1  How is the client feeling?

Timing: Allow around 20 minutes

Read each scenario below. In the first text box, identify at least three emotions that the client is likely to be experiencing. In the second text box, make a note of any impacts this could have on your approach to the client. When you are ready, click on ‘Reveal comment’ for each scenario to see the authors’ ideas.

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As well as thinking about how the client is feeling, it is also important to be aware of your own emotional state. Something as simple as being hungry or tired can affect your emotions and therefore your feelings towards a client and their file. You may also find there are certain scenarios you need to be aware of in your work that may provoke an emotional response – if you experienced a difficult divorce, working with a client with similar issues could potentially affect your emotions and may influence your judgement. This was explored in the course Managing and understanding yourself.

Continue to 2.1 Identifying and understanding client emotions.

2.1  Identifying and understanding client emotions

The following video highlights the importance of emotions when interacting with clients, and the emotional impacts such interactions can have on you as a legal professional.

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Video 2  Emotions and clients
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When communicating with clients, you are likely to receive both verbal and non-verbal cues that indicate their emotions. Activity 1 demonstrated that identifying and understanding these cues means you can use this information to inform your approach to your client and their file.

Communicating with a client in person

In some situations, a client may be very vocal about their emotions. This may be because they are hard to regulate, or because they feel this will assist them in some way (e.g. expressing anger about the management of an issue to obtain faster completion of a task). However, some clients may be seeking to suppress or ignore them. This is where non-verbal cues are important. Such cues could include:

Facial expressions – A smile or frown may appear relatively easy to interpret, however, it is also important to take into account the client’s body language and movements when interpreting expressions, to assess whether the client is trying to mask other emotions. This quiz from Greater Good Magazine helps you assess your skill at reading facial expressions.

Body language – This can vary from someone sitting rigidly upright with their arms folded in a defensive manner to someone slumped over their chair in a relaxed or depressed manner.

Movements – Types of movements can range from fast blinking of the eyes to fidgeting with a pen or piece of paper or tapping a foot.

This short article gives some useful hints on reading body language and movements.

It may well be that a client’s non-verbal cues become clearer while a meeting or interview progresses as they become more at ease, and you become more familiar with their reactions and responses. Therefore, it is important to continue to monitor these throughout your time with clients. Pay particular attention to how they respond to you during the communication to determine the communication patterns and style that the client is positive about, as well as the instances where you are communicating in ways you think the client may be less used to, or may not like.

Points to think about to encourage clients to share verbal and non-verbal emotional cues include:

The impact of your physical environment

Legal professionals traditionally have often been associated with offices filled with law books and with a large wooden desk. This may project an air of knowledge and status, but it can also be very intimidating for clients, discouraging them from disclosing emotional aspects of a matter. Small adjustments to the room, or to your use of it, could make a significant difference to clients, for example, putting a picture of your family on a shelf and ensuring you get up and move around the desk to greet your client. If you have a number of positions to choose from, you could also ask the client where they want to sit, e.g. they may find sitting next to you less confrontational than sitting opposite you. Clients might also prefer to sit near the door rather than have a barrier between them and the door so they don't feel trapped.

It is also worth inviting the client to comment on the room temperature and to let you know if the room is too hot or too cold. At points you could also offer a comfort break and ensure they are aware of the position of the nearest bathroom. Being able to offer water, or tea and coffee, could also help generate a less intimidating atmosphere.

 

Focus on putting the client at ease as quickly as possible

This is about using your facial expressions, body language and movements to put the client at ease like smiling, maintaining good eye contact and nodding at appropriate points in the client’s explanation. It may be helpful to pay attention to the factors and things in the client’s life that seem to be a priority or seem important to them. For example, a client who perceives themselves as high status (e.g. a Company Executive Officer) may mention this to you early on in meetings. In doing so, they may be signposting that they don’t expect to be spoken down to. They may also be indicating their fears that they lack power in the lawyer–client relationship because they don’t hold legal knowledge. Such a client may be acknowledging discomfort at the power imbalance and you may want to be wary of this so that your early communication does not show superiority over them, or contribute to feelings of perceived disrespect. Ensuring you are not disturbed and making sure email or telephone notifications are muted can also help the client feel prioritised and more secure.

 

Be intentional with the language you use

This may involve asking open-ended questions such as ‘How do you feel about this?’ or ‘What impact has this had on you?’ and including terminology that has links with emotions to model its use (e.g. ‘I am happy to hear that’). This short article on ‘overcoming language barriers in lawyer–client communications’ demonstrates the importance of language.

It’s important to pause regularly to check the client’s understanding, and also to emphasise to clients that they are welcome to ask questions. As lawyers, it can be easy to slip into using ‘legalese’, like using contract law terms such as ‘consideration’, which clients may well struggle to decipher.

 

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Figure 1  Thoughtful and intentional communication
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Communicating with a client by other means

Traditionally, many legal professionals have communicated with clients via letters. In recent years, an increasing amount of communications with clients are also by email, telephone and/or via online platforms. This has been exacerbated by Covid-19, with working from home or blended ways of working becoming more widely accepted within the legal profession.

Communicating by letter or email

It may seem strange to think of emotions when writing a formal legal letter. However, it is a good idea to consider what emotions a client is likely to be experiencing as they read the letter and tailor your writing style to anticipate these. It can be good practice to start with a friendly greeting, or to highlight any part where you are about to begin discussing something particularly upsetting or uncomfortable, with a clear heading or initial sentence.

Communications by email can sometimes be a little less formal and relaxed. However, it is still important to think about how they will be received. Something meant as a friendly joke can come across as rude or inappropriate. A short one-line reply may seem an effective way of responding to a query but can come across as abrupt or dismissive. Taking the time to pause, review what you’ve written and think about the client’s emotional response is once again key.

One useful tip can be to read an email or letter aloud before you send it, as it helps you ‘hear’ it in a different way.

How not to communicate in writing with clients
Communicating by telephone

When communicating by telephone, you will not be able to observe any non-verbal emotional cues. This makes it even more important to focus on the verbal cues you are given. This may involve slowing down your conversation slightly and building in pauses for you and your client to reflect on what is being said. It is also important to set aside other distractions (such as scanning your email inbox) to ensure you can focus intently on what the client is trying to communicate.

Communicating online

Depending on the online platform used, you may be able to receive both verbal and non-verbal emotional cues from clients online. If you are on a platform with a camera, putting your camera on and encouraging your client to do the same can be helpful (although bear in mind that for someone with social anxiety or similar this could be challenging).

It is important to be aware that the client’s emotions will also be impacted by their familiarity (or lack thereof) with technology. Providing the client with clear instructions on how to use the platform and putting in place a back-up plan (such as a telephone call) can help with this.

In addition, using online methods makes communication less fluid – the non-verbal cues can be harder to read and people may not realise when others are talking, making interruptions more common. Acknowledging these difficulties openly can make clients feel more comfortable and at ease.

Tackling digital overload

Attending online meetings, constantly checking emails and even posting on social media can lead to hours spent online each day. Both you and your clients may find that you are beginning to experience a sense of digital overload. Way to avoid this include:

  • Make your working environment as comfortable as possible, e.g. with a supportive chair and a wrist rest, so that your physical wellbeing does not suffer.
  • Build in regular breaks away from your screen, like going for a quick walk, making a cup of tea or standing up and stretching.
  • Try to organise your diary so that you don’t have several long meetings back-to-back.
  • Schedule specific times to check your email and close down your inbox at other times so you are not distracted by notifications of incoming mail.
  • If possible, schedule ‘digital free’ days where you have no online meetings to attend.

This LawCare podcast offers helpful advice on how you can tackle this.

Remember, the clients you are speaking to may also be experiencing a digital overload and this may affect the way they retain and respond to your advice. Do not be afraid to suggest a five to ten minute break part way through an online meeting, or even suggest adjourning for a day or two, where possible.

Using empathy in communication with clients

This video explains more about what empathy is and why it is important.

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Video 3  Raj on empathy
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Empathy has been identified as a key legal competency (LETR, 2013; BSB, 2019). There are a wide range of different definitions of what empathy actually means, but a good starting point is this description:

Understanding the experience or situation of another, both affectively and cognitively.

(Henderson, 1987, p. 1579)

This definition suggests empathy combines both an emotional and a cognitive response. By understanding a client’s experience or situation ‘affectively’ you are feeling something of the emotions they have or are experiencing in relation to it. By understanding it ‘cognitively’, you are able to think through the client’s perspective, and the emotions it involves whilst also retaining a sense of detachment (sometimes referred to as ‘perspective taking’). You still realise you are viewing the situation from the outside, enabling you not to be overwhelmed by emotions in the same way as the client might be.

The elements of empathy

There is evidence that empathy is a teachable skill or competency, making it a valuable part of client care (Samra and Jones, 2019). The next activity explores its use in more detail.

Activity 2  Using empathy in client care
Timing: Allow around 15 minutes

This part is designed to be a useful starting point for reflecting on your own levels of empathy within your legal practice. Read the following statements and select either ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’ for each.

Part 1

1. I am good at putting myself in my client’s shoes.

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2. I don’t have a strong emotional tie to my client.

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3. Empathy is a useful tool in legal practice.

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By signing in and enrolling on this course you can view and complete all activities within the course, track your progress in My OpenLearn Create. and when you have completed a course, you can download and print a free Statement of Participation - which you can use to demonstrate your learning.

Legal professionals are sometimes concerned that experiencing empathy for a client will lead to them becoming less neutral or objective in their advice and representation (Jones, 2021; Westaby and Jones, 2018). This may be because they are conflating empathy with sympathy. While sympathy can lead to a strong sense of emotion at the plight of another, the cognitive element of empathy prevents the forms of over-identification that can lead to individuals potentially acting in inappropriate or unprofessional ways.

Empathy versus sympathy: some examples
EmpathySympathy
‘I realise that must have been very distressing for you’‘It is distressing to hear about your situation’
‘That must have been a happy experience for you’‘That makes me happy to hear’
‘I can imagine what that must have felt like’‘I am putting myself in your shoes’

 

This clip by Professor Brené Brown discusses the distinction between empathy and sympathy in more detail.

Video 4  Brené Brown on empathy versus sympathy
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2.2  Managing clients’ emotions

Being able to identify and understand your client’s emotions will make it easier for you to manage them appropriately. This could help if you are defusing a situation where a client is angry or hostile, or encouraging a reluctant client to accept a particular piece of advice they are uncomfortable with.

Some useful strategies include:

Demonstrating empathy

As discussed in Section 2.1 ‘Using empathy in communication with clients’, empathy is now recognised as a key legal competence. Using phrases that acknowledge the client’s emotions can help demonstrate this, for example, ‘I understand why you must have found that very upsetting’. Reflecting back what a client has said, in your own words can also demonstrate you are actively listening and trying to understand what matters to that client.

 

Reframing a situation for the client

Cognitive reframing involves looking at a situation from a different perspective – a ‘problem’ could be reframed as a ‘challenge’. Helping the client to reframe issues so they become solvable challenges that can be approached in a methodical manner can be very useful.

 

Utilising emotional contagion

Emotional contagion is the idea that if you display an emotion, like happiness or anger, then people around you may also begin to experience that emotion. They effectively ‘catch’ the emotion from you. It is important to be aware that this could lead to you catching your clients’ emotions and becoming more frustrated, upset or angry than usual. However, conversely, if you can display appropriate emotional responses you may find that your client begins to do the same.

 

Emotional labour in law

So in practice with me, let’s say, I could be doing a litigation, a conveyance, and then I’ll have someone coming in on a probate matter whose wife has passed away three or four days ago, and… I have to go from aggressive in the litigation to hand-holding in the conveyance – to being very sympathetic and comforting.

(Solicitor, Republic of Ireland)

It really doesn’t matter whether you’re a solicitor or a barrister, just that you’re human and that you probably will suffer stress or whatever.

(Solicitor, Republic of Ireland)

Legal professionals have to do a great deal of work with emotions. They will often need to manage clients’ emotions at the same time as regulating their own responses. This can involve high levels of emotional labour (Westaby, 2014; Harris, 2002). The term ‘emotional labour’ was coined by sociologist Arlie Hochschild (2012) who carried out a study of air stewardesses and noted that their work required them to project a calm and composed demeanour at all times. Hochschild suggests that projecting certain emotional states or responses can be done by either ‘surface acting’ or ‘deep acting’. If an individual is surface acting, they are simply pretending to experience emotions. If they are deep acting then they will alter their own feelings and emotions to meet the expectations of their role. Although it is not always the case, both forms of acting can have a potentially detrimental impact on an individual’s wellbeing. If someone is frequently surface acting, it can lead to them separating their real feelings from their work life and can estrange them from their authentic self. Additionally, surface acting is linked to higher levels of emotional exhaustion and burnout (severe emotional exhaustion). LawCare’s recent Life in the Law report (2021) highlighted that burnout can be a significant issue within the legal profession.

It is important for legal professionals to acknowledge the emotional labour present in their role so that they can monitor the impact it is having on them. Workplace surface acting can have a knock-on effect on workers’ marital lives through relationship conflict and marital partner discontent (Krannitz et al., 2015). Not all emotional labour has a negative impact – it can help you feel engaged and invested in your work. However, if you are finding that the emotional labour you expend is beginning to have a detrimental effect then it is important to identify this as soon as possible. You can then think of strategies to lessen the impact, like reducing your direct contact with specific clients, building in breaks and periods of mindfulness, examining the boundaries and coping strategies you have in place, discussing particularly challenging clients with your team and ensuring you having peer support in place.

This video explains more about emotional labour and how to manage it.

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Video 5  Mathijs on emotional labour
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2.3  Managing client expectations

The following video highlights the centrality of client expectations and their potential impacts on wellbeing, as well as giving useful tips on how to deal with unrealistic expectations.

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Clients often have high and/or potentially unrealistic expectations of legal professionals. These can range from expecting an instant answer to emails to wanting firm assurances on the outcome of a claim. This means that an important part of being a legal professional is developing emotional competencies, including learning how to manage the client’s expectations, so they are as reasonable and achievable as possible.

Ways to manage these expectations include:

  • Ask plenty of questions – The more information and insight you can obtain when you first speak to or meet the client, the more realistic you can be in the advice you give them and in managing their expectations.
  • Be clear and transparent from the start – It can be tempting to over-promise to encourage a client to use your services, but this is more likely to lead to the client becoming disappointed or disillusioned further down the line.
  • Over-explain rather than under-explain – It may feel as if you are repeating yourself, but regularly re-emphasising your advice and any limitations will ensure your client is consistently reminded about what expectations are realistic.
  • Be proactive in providing your client with regular updates – Diarise regular dates to send a quick email or letter on progress. This may sound like extra work, but it will reassure your client that you are working on their case and may mean they feel the need to chase you less frequently.
  • Be human – Legal professionals are not robots. If you cannot meet one day because you have childcare or family commitments, you can say that. Provided you explain clearly and offer a reasonable alternative, most clients will appreciate your honesty and relate to your situation.
  • Be honest when things go wrong – If things have slipped or you have made a mistake, speak to your supervisor, a colleague or someone else and get their advice on how to explain this to your client. Do not try to cover it up, as this can lead to potentially disastrous consequences for everyone involved.

Looking after yourself and the client

I think emotional wellbeing at work is very important. It’s important for colleagues, it’s important for the clients that you deal with and it is important for yourself as well.

(Solicitor, London)

And for me a lot of it relates to energy levels because if our, you know, emotional wellbeing will affect the energy levels that individuals will have and that will affect how much they can cope with in a day, how much emotional resilience they will build up and how they can manage their lives outside of work alongside their lives within work.

(Solicitor, Wales)

Some legal professionals focus on meeting client expectations at the expense of their own wellbeing. It is really important to put in place strategies to prevent yourself from feeling overwhelmed by these expectations and to manage the pressures involved. In the long term, doing this will benefit both you and your clients as you will be well enough to represent them as effectively as possible and, as such, looking after yourself is necessary and important to looking after your clients.

2.4  Establishing emotional boundaries with clients

One of the reasons legal professionals are sometimes reluctant to acknowledge their emotions when working with clients is because they feel it may encourage clients to be over-emotional or blur lawyer–client boundaries. The reality is that there are emotions involved in all lawyer–client interactions and that learning how to identify, understand and manage these can be highly beneficial. However, it is understandable that legal professionals are concerned about establishing and maintaining emotional boundaries, particularly where a matter is highly emotive or a client appears particularly emotionally volatile or vulnerable. Such boundaries protect both lawyers and clients, so having emotional boundaries in place is important. This article provides some interesting insights into the need for boundaries.

Figure 2  Appropriate and inappropriate emotional boundaries between client and legal professional

The next activity is designed to provide strategies to assist you in setting or asserting appropriate emotional boundaries.

Activity 3  Working out the boundaries

Timing: Allow around 20 minutes

Read the following scenarios and answer the questions in the text boxes provided.

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This video discusses setting boundaries in more depth.

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Video 7  Mathijs on emotional boundaries
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2.5  Working with difficult clients

It’s the way clients speak to you. Certainly in family law they have a lot of problems, which is why they are in the situations they’re in, but the abuse and the aggression and the difficulties you have is horrendous sometimes to cope with.

(Barrister, Northern Ireland)

I think sometimes in private practice you just feel like you’re at the complete beck and call of the client, and if your colleagues are also feeding into that it can feel really lonely, so [it’s good] to have supportive people that understand that it can be difficult.

(Solicitor, England)

Most, if not all, legal professionals will work with difficult clients at some stage in their career. This could include clients with unrealistic expectations, clients who are rude and aggressive and clients who refuse to accept appropriate legal advice.

An important starting point is to assess why a client is being difficult. A client whose demands stem from being highly upset and feeling out of control in a difficult situation may need different treatment than a client who assumes they are entitled to certain treatment because of their financial position. Therefore, it is important to read both the verbal and non-verbal cues the client is demonstrating to assess the underlying emotions and feelings driving their behaviour. This can involve demonstrating empathy (see ‘Using empathy in communication with clients’) despite feeling frustrated or even angry with the client.

The table below shows some potential underlying causes that could be prompting difficult behaviours from a client, and highlights possible approaches to take to tackle this.

CauseBehaviourPossible approaches
Lack of understanding of the role of a legal professional and their relationship with their client
  • Client contacting you multiple times/outside working hours
  • Client constantly asking for reassurance on their legal issue
  • Provide clear timeline for legal matter
  • Reiterate boundaries, e.g. appropriate contact times
  • Arrange specific times for contact to give regular updates
Stress and anxiety over legal matter
  • Client communicating in a rude or aggressive manner
  • Client regularly becoming disproportionately distressed and upset
  • Client constantly asking for reassurance on the matter in question
  • Refer client to any policies/information about appropriate communications/language
  • Communicate all advice in writing as well as verbally
  • Arrange specific times for contact to give regular updates
  • Signpost to appropriate mental health and wellbeing services
Client struggling with lack of control over legal issue
  • Client not seeming to listen to advice
  • Client arguing about small points
  • Communicate all advice in writing as well as verbally
  • Encourage the client to take time to reflect on the advice given to them
  • Repeat key words and phrases frequently and consistently to ensure the client is absorbing them
Client with unrealistically high expectations
  • Client contacting you multiple times/outside working hours
  • Client communicating with you in an entitled or rude manner
  • Consistently reinforce key boundaries verbally and in writing
  • Set an out-of-hours email auto-reply and avoid giving a mobile phone number/turn your mobile off during family and leisure periods
  • If a junior solicitor, ask for assistance from a more senior colleague to reiterate appropriate boundaries and expectations

 

If a client makes a complaint about your work, it is likely that there are procedures already in place you can follow to deal with it. These tips may assist if you are required to respond and/or continue a relationship with the client:

  • Be courteous and polite at all times – The more you feel frustrated, upset or angry, the more care you need to take not to display this.
  • Reflect on the complaint – When someone appears to be criticising your work, a common response is to be defensive and put forward your own version of events. However, legal professionals are not infallible, so you do need to consider whether you have in any way caused or inflamed the situation. If so, use the experience to help you learn and grow by reflecting on what you can do differently in future.
  • Do not try to ignore or cover-up the complaint – It is important to follow the procedures that are in place and to be open with your line manager and/or others involved. Realistically, most legal professionals will receive a number of complaints during their career, so it is not something that should be stigmatised.
  • If you are self-employed, you may feel you have no one to discuss the issue with – Remember, most regulatory bodies have some form of helpline for such ethical issues. It may be useful to look at building networks with other self-employed legal professionals so you can provide each other with mutual support when issues such as this arise.

2.6  Assisting vulnerable clients

A vulnerable client can be described as ‘someone who is at a higher risk of harm than others’ (Solicitor Regulation Authority, 2016). Many parts of the profession provide detailed advice and guidance on assisting vulnerable clients. Instead of replicating these, this section is focused on the emotional aspects of such work.

It is important to understand that people from different backgrounds may have had different and more negative experiences with the justice system and legal professionals, through stories from friends and family members and what they have seen through the media. Therefore, you may have to be sensitive when building trust, rapport and respect with people from backgrounds where there is a history of mistreatment and marginalisation. Some individuals may experience double marginalisation, such as women from ethnic minority backgrounds or sexual and gender minorities from ethic minority backgrounds. Likewise, some legal professionals are similarly subject to mistreatment or marginalisation based on their social identity categories (e.g. race, religion and sexuality), something highlighted in LawCare’s recent Life in the Law report (2021). Therefore, being aware and mindful of social identity categories and trying to be sensitive to individuals’ experiences of marginalisation is important for the wellbeing of yourself, your colleagues and your clients.

When individuals mention these negative experiences, they may be seeking validation by being listened to and to have their experience acknowledged, so it will help to listen and take the time to let the client know you are listening intently and will not in any way dismiss or denigrate their experiences. You should ensure that you are interested and engaged in what the client is saying, even if it’s a particular narrative that you have heard many times as you may cause offense to the client if you are not paying attention. Where further support could be beneficial to the client, you may want to signpost some resources like Samaritans and MIND at an appropriate time.

Continue to 3 Working effectively with colleagues.