The work of supervision shows that more and more clinicians have troubling doubts about the relevance of their profession. A combination of experiences (eg. fatigue, doubts, perplexity), which we have dubbed clinical futility, can culminate in a professional identity crisis, prompting a request for clinical supervision. This paper proposes a reflection on the contributions of the scientific-professional model which prevails in clinical training, and its impact on therapeutic practice. In particular, the implicit notion that only empirical facts are of value as sources of information leads to a reassuring quest for certainty. This way of thinking is perpetuated in health care settings, particularly public ones, through the notion of evidence-based practices. The intolerance of uncertainty, and its counterpart, the conviction of certainty, at both organizational and individual levels, has a deleterious impact on the clinician’s psychic functioning. Unwittingly, the latter is grappling with the weight of what s/he imagines s/he should know. Paradoxically, the search for mastery through knowledge of the facts leads to an impoverishment of the capacity to think creatively, both for and with the patient.