When patients complain of ‘tightness’, ‘stiffness’ and ‘pains and aches’ without a specific mechanism of injury it can be challenging. In part because the complaints can often feel vague.
How to Leverage Systems Thinking to Treat Your Most Challenging Patients Read More »
It sucks when you get thrown for a loop with a patient. They can throw off your day and it can feel hard to bounce back from these encounters. It can be especially unsettling when flare-up symptoms are more dramatic than expected.
Navigating Patient Flare-Ups: My Step-By-Step Process Read More »
Myotome testing is often seen as a necessary, but not always insightful element, of a shoulder assessment. It’s easy to fall into the trap of seeing myotome testing as optional for the shoulder patient — especially if there doesn’t seem to be any suspected radicular or peripheral neuropathic indications from the patient history. Do you
A Fresh Look at Myotome Testing: A Key to Unlocking Better Shoulder Results Read More »
Treating painful shoulders can be tricky and there is an often overlooked cause of shoulder pain. When we’re dealing with a painful shoulder and we see a loss of overhead movement, it’s easy to focus our attention on the glenohumeral joint. We may jump to mobilizing the shoulder joint to improve joint biomechanics. The scapula
An Often Overlooked Cause of Shoulder Pain Read More »
I don’t know about you, but I find that it’s almost automatic to put patients into categories. We have our easy patients and we have our hard patients. Someone who is young, motivated, body aware and has healthy beliefs about movement and pain can easily fall into the easy category. But what constitutes a hard
Get Unstuck Treating Hard Patients: 4 Pitfalls & 3 Treatment Buckets For Results Read More »
Therapeutic exercise. It’s a staple of a physiotherapist’s toolbox. No other intervention has as much research supporting it. As movement clinicians, we know this. That’s why we’re always keen to learn a new exercise or identify a fresh twist on the tried and true exercises. Prescribing the right exercise is important, but there are two
The 2 Mistakes To Avoid With Exercise Prescription (& the Surprising Solution) Read More »
If there’s one thing that is the bedrock in our care of patients as physiotherapists it is patient education. We educate our patients about a lot of things. Here’s just a short list: patient’s condition our assessment findings treatment plan anatomy and physiology specific treatments and their rationale referral to another healthcare provider diagnostic report
Using Metaphors & Analogies to Improve Patient Education in Physiotherapy Read More »
Exercise Software Review Part 1: Physiotec Exercise software is one of the most popular pieces of software that physiotherapists use on a daily basis in practice and yet there are no reviews of exercise software for physiotherapists that I’ve come across. With such an important piece of software it’s important to make a choice that
Exercise Software Review Part 1: Physiotec Read More »
Whether stress comes from the limitations of a clients injury or other psychosocial factors, what specific tools do you provide your patients to help them better cope with stress in their lives? Have you ever wondered if there was something more that could be done with patients as they’re laying at the beginning or end
3 Easy Steps to Help Patients De-Stress During Treatment Read More »
Reconsidering Boundaries Moves Us Forward (Read Part 1 & Part 2 here) Are physiotherapists doing psychotherapy? Applying Frank and Frank’s descriptions, I say yes, physiotherapy treatment can be psychotherapeutic. In my view, psychotherapy is not solely contingent upon the treatment of psychological diagnoses; rather, it is a form of therapy that addresses the psychological factors of a person’s experience. Of
Finding Freud in Physiotherapy-Part 3 Read More »
Contextual Theory –An Unexpected Ally Although physiotherapy supports models that acknowledge psychological elements of rehabilitation, it may be surprising that support also comes from psychiatry. American psychiatrists Jerome and Julia Frank broadened the definition of psychotherapy by arguing that it is the healing relationship between a healing agent (therapist) and a sufferer (patient).1 The sufferer, wanting to alleviate disability,
Finding Freud in Physiotherapy-Part 2 Read More »
Visioning Practice Through a Psychotherapeutic Lens M.A.S.H. is a 1970’s television show about people serving in a mobile army surgical hospital during the Korean War. The quality of writing and acting impeccably combine dramatic and comedic flare to address weighty social issues and complex interpersonal relationships. Some of these storylines relate to the scope of
Finding Freud in Physiotherapy: Part 1 Read More »
When Things Get Tough Whenever I need a little perspective, I’ll often look to find a good book and a good one I did find. It’s a little gem by Seth Godin called “The Dip”. It doesn’t break a 100 pages, but it’s message (as is often the case with Godin’s books) is an insightful one. He
Getting Through The Dip Read More »
In this blog entry we’ll continue to delve into insights shared in the book The Switch by the Heath brothers. Their general insights into personal change could prove beneficial in our work as physiotherapists. I believe that refining our change behavior skills can make us more effective in helping our patients become healthier and more resilient. And
Unmotivated Patient? A New Perspective on Goal Setting Read More »
In my last blog entry I talked about the reality that self-control (the much needed resource for change behaviour) is a limited resource. And so what we as therapists can perceive in our patients as resistance, laziness or discontent can really be a lack of the much needed energy to engage in change behaviour. The
Shrink the Change! Read More »
