Working in Pairs: The Dialogic Distribution of Clinical Responsibility

Description

Lauren Cubellis spent time with psychiatric crisis teams in Berlin who work in pairs, and asks what that pairing does to responsibility itself. The clinicians were trained in Open Dialogue, an approach that teaches sitting with not-knowing rather than rushing to plans. That stance, first meant for clients in crisis, became how the staff faced an unstable insurance landscape that kept challenging their work.

Budgets were cut and oversight grew, pressing the team toward standard risk management. Instead, they spread authority out: no single clinician carries the authoritative gaze or the burden of uncertainty alone. Decisions and doubts are held dialogically, between the pair and with the client. Cubellis argues this is not just a technique but a form of solidarity, a way of keeping ethical commitments alive inside precarious health structures.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13541784