Practitioners can sometimes foster more egalitarian relationships with clients through exposing their own feelings of vulnerability and frustration. But they should proceed with caution, warns Robert Mirow
VULNERABILITY is not a condition we enjoy. It seems natural for us as individuals to seek to protect ourselves from that which might hurt us. The dictionary definition of vulnerability refers to a state of ‘being capable of physical or emotional wounding, hurt or exposure’. To suggest, therefore, that our vulnerability may assist us in caring and supporting others appears to be nonsense.
Learning Disability Practice. 6, 10, 36-39. doi: 10.7748/ldp2003.12.6.10.36.c1511
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