EmpowerHeal Physical Therapy
Pelvic Floor Therapy and EDS physical therapy serving Bethesda and Washington DC surrounding metropolitan areas
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Pelvic Floor Therapy and EDS physical therapy serving Bethesda and Washington DC surrounding metropolitan areas
Welcome to the first blog!
Red flags and Green flags are the trending words of the season. A patient just told me a guy she is dating is a massive green flag. He apparently has a “Being vulnerable is beautiful” sign in his bathroom, he asks her what she likes/enjoys while having sex, gives her space to say she is hurting without any judgements and goes to mental health therapy. Yay for the both of them!
1)A physical therapist who listens :
A good therapist and healthcare system should listen to you t without you feeling rushed. There is a study on Journal of General Internal Medicine published in link springer where it was found that patients were allowed only 11 seconds to describe what was going on before they were interrupted. Even in the ones who were allowed to list their entire ailments, they were interrupted 7 out of 10 times. Often times, big hospitals and clinics and insurances dictate how much time a healthcare provider can give their patients.Time constraints and continuous interruptions are not indicative of a person centered care.
2) A physical therapist who explains to you what’s going on without making you feel dumb and also acknowledges the uncertainty of things.
You should expect to be explained what the provider thinks is going on with you and what their plans are. It is also necessary that the healthcare provider presents humility in explaining what is going on. “What you are going through is indicative of xyz. I think ….. is what we need to do.If what I think changes as we continue to work together, I will let you know.”. Equally acceptable and beautiful answers can be , “ I don’t know what is going on. I will make sure to refer you out to somebody who might understand this better than I do.” Or “If you can, please allow me a few sessions to be able to draw a clearer picture of what is going on and how I can best help you.”
3) A physical therapist who makes goals along with you.
Expect to be asked what your goals for seeing a physical therapist are. Expect to be explained how the therapist will help you reach those goals. There are some patients who want to have babies eventually and some patients who just want to use a sex toy without hurting. Each goal is valid.
4) A therapist who doesn’t gaslight you or pretends to be your “non understanding boss”.
Expect to be treated as a collaborative partner in your healing process. Your therapist isn’t your “boss”. Expect to be given home exercises, asked how much time and resources you have to do them and maneuver your treatment program accordingly. Expect the opportunity to explain your limiting situations/resources in life without any reprimanding or judgements.
5) A physical therapist who is trained in treating a patient with a biopsychosocial framework.
Expect to be asked not just about your pain but also about your stressors, lifestyle, social situations, sleep, general health, diet etc. A well informed and evidence based clinician acknowledges all determinants of health and makes suggestions to incorporate management of all drivers of pain in your plan of care. The belief that ‘issues are just in the tissues’, ‘you hurt because of bad posture’ is a part of a oversimplified narrative to a complex phenomenon that pain is.
1) Being assigned a table and spending most time in the table during your session all by yourself:
Do not accept being asked to lie down on a table for an hour and left alone to do exercises. If you are given a pre-set exercise to do all by yourself, you probably could have done those by yourself at home. It is necessary to progress or regress you and that only happens if you get some one-on-one time with your provider.
2) Being asked to come 3 x a week without any explaining!
Do not accept being asked to come for 3/times a week without any explanation of how sessions will be tapered. In my opinion, If we are calling a patient 3 times a week (unless patient has no opportunities to do home exercises by themselves), we are not working with the patient to build self-reliance. Self management through patient education, home exercise programs are the hallmarks of pain management. In my experience, big hospitals and clinics often sell this narrative of needing to come in 3 x a week to start to see improvements. This is usually made for monetary reasons and is a narrative which is forced to be sold by money making management to its PTs.
3) All your therapy is passive!
Do not accept all passive interventions. If your treatment involves only hands-on work by your provider followed by electrical stimulation or a heat pack without interventions to make you move, exercise, your treatments are not cutting the edge. The goal of physical therapy should be to help you move and function better in areas of life you are struggling with.The first few sessions (based on severity of your condition) can be more hands on work and passive work, but you should progressively start to see less of this and more of active movements.
I hope your therapist checks all the boxes of a green flag!