Daily Maestroism

DM #63

Monday, July 25th, 2016

DM #63: Stop erroneously “dumbing things down” for your patients. Stop catastrophizing things and using threatening verbiage. Stop stripping your patients of their ability to help themselves get better on their own.
Yes, manual techniques and exercise are important, but don't forget that you're not just dealing with tissue. You're dealing with the living human being. To that end, what you say, how you explain things, and the tone you use are all just as important as the reps and sets, the tools and techniques.
Simply telling a patient that something is “out” often times leads them to believe that their pain will only go away once it is put back “in”, which can only be done by you, the practitioner. Saying a muscle is “tight” without explaining what tone is can lead folks down the road of breath-holding, pain-provoking, passive stretches that get them nowhere. While commonly used and well-intended, likening a disc in your spine to a jelly doughnut can make patients view their spines a super fragile, and thus want to avoid many movements and activities.

At the end of the day, use whatever phrases and analogies you like, just keep in mind the bigger affect that they may have.
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