Have you noticed that even when there’s nothing dramatically different from one visit to the next, for some reason, the result can still be really different?
You might think that how you feel has to do with what your manual therapist did with you that day.
But the results of your treatment might have nothing to do with the treatment itself.
And it’s not you. It’s also not your healthcare provider.
It’s the connection – or lack thereof.
In my recent TEDx talk – Transform your relationship to pain for a better future – I tell the story about my patient “Jane”. She was initially in too much pain for me to do my usual treatment work. But just after a few encounters (none of which involved much hands-on time) Jane returned to tell me about the significant improvement she was experiencing!
When you listen to the story, you’ll understand what I mean by “connection”. It played a big role with this patient’s treatment experience.
Jane’s case is just one example, of when the treatment seems almost secondary to the transformation that I witness.
Think back for a second to a treatment that felt like it didn’t “work” for you…
Did you:
- Feel seen and heard; was your unique pain-experience acknowledged?
- Feel validated?
- Get help figuring out how to describe the pain you were feeling?
- Learn something about your pain?
- Come away with a strategy to cope and manage the pain on your own at home?
If any of these 5 elements were missing – that might be the real reason why your treatment did not give you the same successful results from a different episode of care.
Maybe during earlier visits, the provider was really “dialed in” and present with you on all the aspects mentioned above. And maybe you communicated really well what was going on in your body that day.
The day that you did not get the expected relief – is it possible that you and your practitioner just didn’t connect in the same way?
Your provider has tunnel vision.
And that’s a good thing. We’re focused on treatment results. It’s what we learn during our professional education and it’s what makes us good specialists. But the therapeutic encounter consists of so many intangible layers of human interaction that have nothing to do with our practice specialties. And our healthcare communities and educational institutions don’t yet fully recognize this.
We healthcare providers are so busy focusing on “providing” relief and “getting results” for patients, that we aren’t often aware of anything else. Practitioners like myself come into the profession expecting to use the specific tools and techniques we were trained in, to provide “the fix”.
- If you’re a massage therapist, it’s the healing touch – various strokes or tissue pressure.
- If you’re a physical therapist, it might be the rehabilitative exercises or modalities like electric stim. or ultrasound.
- For chiropractors, it could be the spinal manipulation or lifestyle counseling.
- For medical physicians, it’s probably the prescription pad and referrals to yet more providers delivering their variety of “cure”, and so it goes on.
It’s important for doctors and practitioners to become proficient in the use of the tools unique to their respective specialties. But there is so much more to the therapeutic encounter that has very little to do with the technique. It’s what both patient and practitioner bring to the table together. And that can be different with each encounter.
When I refer patients to other providers – one of the first factors I consider is how compatible the personalities are. Practitioner and patient compatibility can dramatically impact clinical outcomes.
“Bio-psycho-social” and “patient-centered” care is just starting to scratch the surface
You may have heard about the rise in the evidence-based support for this bio-psycho-social approach to pain. This corner of pain medicine is illuminating the equal importance of biological, psychological and social aspects of the pain-experience.
This growing awareness is slowly transforming pain care for the better. But there’s work left to do to translate this concept into practical application for both practitioners and everyday people. And to do it with consistent results to benefit patients in pain, is an achievement that remains elusive.
But this is exactly my message and I’m on a mission to spread it far and wide.
Re-Parenting Our Pain-Reactions.
I propose that these intangible psychological and social aspects of treatment actually fall into 5 not-so-mysterious steps. This 5 step approach comes from a proven parenting strategy used for years to improve coping and resilience. These are steps that every single one of us can implement and share with others for profound transformation.
Do any of us truly ever stop needing parenting? And what better time for it than when we find ourselves in pain? I explain it all in my TEDx talk and you can watch/listen by clicking on the video below.
What do you think it would look like if healthcare providers focused more on pain-coping rather than just on pain-killing? What would that look like for you specifically?
I believe this shift in therapeutic intention has the potential to cause radical shift in pain-care on a global scale. Make no mistake – the 5 steps seem far too simple at first, but the transformation that comes from embracing and embodying them is beyond powerful.
If you also see the value in this message, please share the talk with anyone who you think would benefit.
Be part of this transformation…
Babies, Teens, Music, Education and More Dogs!
