Therapeutic risk-taking: A justifiable choice

Abstract

Summary Taking risks is a fundamental part of the human experience that supports personal growth. Therapeutic risk-taking enables patients to make decisions about their level of safety and to pursue goals. Promoting therapeutic risk-taking can be complex. Professionals can experience tension striving for a balance between the interests of the individual and societal pressures to control risk. This article examines therapeutic risk-taking, recognising the challenges to supporting it in practice and debating how they may be overcome. Learning Objectives • Be able to explain what therapeutic risk-taking is and discuss its application to psychiatric practice • Understand the factors that challenge and enable therapeutic risk-taking in psychiatric practice • Describe the association between therapeutic risk-taking and recovery