Introduction

Abstract

As professional practitioners, we like to think that the success of health and social care interventions are due to our own abilities. When the client or patient makes no progress, we often think that it is because we lack the skills, knowledge or experience to help them. In the past the individual professional’s skills may have been the main determinant of good or bad care — but is this still the case? We have been trained in this ‘professional-centric’ view of the world, and our work-places and our professional associations uphold what we call the ‘myth of the omnipotence of the individual practitioner’.