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.
Using empathy in communication with clients