How do I keep an emotional or anxious patient in a logical decision-making state?
First, recognize that you can’t logic someone out of fear by piling on more clinical facts. An anxious patient has dropped into a child state, reacting from old emotion rather than present reality. Meet that with calm, not with a louder explanation. Stay rooted in your own adult state, slow your pace, and acknowledge the feeling before you touch the numbers. Name the safety and esteem concerns underneath the worry, because those middle Maslow needs are usually what’s really driving the anxiety. Then sit beside them, not across a desk, and walk the plan as equals solving one problem together. You’re essentially offering your steadiness as a ladder they can climb up out of the child state and into adult decision-making. Lead from there and the fee conversation gets a lot easier.
If the answers you are finding here resonate with you, my team and I work with a small group of clients each year. The next step is a complimentary Discovery Consultation and Practice Review with Dr. McAnally.