"Don’t take it personally": Lessons for Living, by Dr Neil Thompson

In social work, and professions that work with people generally, we will often come across people who are distressed, agitated or otherwise in a bad place.

Often this will result in their being unkind or worse towards others, including ourselves – even though we may be doing our best to help and support them.

They may swear at us, insult us or even physically attack us.

Now, while such behaviour is not acceptable and should therefore not be condoned, we should also recognize that we would be wise not to take such matters personally.

It is much more likely that they are taking their frustrations out on the role we occupy or the organization we represent or, ironically, may be venting their dismay and/or wrath in our direction because they feel safe enough with us to do so (a very backhanded compliment!).

Encountering such negative feelings is difficult and challenging enough, so we have to make sure we do not make it worse by taking it personally when in most situations that is not likely to be the case.