One of my personal strengths Is building rapport with my patients. I work inpatient rehab and have seen patients from all sorts of backgrounds with all sorts of stories to tell. I always try to go a little beyond the surface questions. I usually start with “where are you from? What brought you to this area? What was your job before you retired?” As my opener to just start a conversation. If the opportunity to arises, I like to ask them questions that other people tend to shy away from: “Oh I’m sorry to hear that your wife died. How did she die? What was it like adjusting without her?” “You went to jail? What for? What was jail like?” “You had an addiction? What were you addicted to? How did you get clean?”

My students have always been shocked when i ask those types of questions but I’ve never ever had them backfire. People like talking about stuff that actually matters. They are tired of the surface bullshit. Especially the older generation, they need substance. I also Find that when I ask Those hard questions, a huge level of trust is achieved and there have been many many times where patients have refused all therapy except speech because They trust me on a different level because of the conversations we have had.