Hard stories in the workplace

Relationships between family caregivers and professional health care providers typically begin during an intensely painful and stressful time. This article examines the literature on professional attitude and response to suffering with particular emphasis on how exposure to hard stories affects the development and quality of alliances with family caregivers. First person accounts from a qualitative, phenomenological study conducted with mothers of children with acquired physical disabilities are used to illustrate the perspectives of caregivers and the qualities they identify as contributing to competent, meaningful, and mutual relationships that allow for bearing witness to hard stories.